About Me
Originally from Oxford, I am a poet, writer and coach now living in Amsterdam. I’m also a mum to two daughters, who are keeping me young and ageing me rapidly.
You can read my professional and socially-acceptable pitch below. But if you want the ‘real’ story, the best place to start is by reading my poems…
Following a degree in English Literature, I trained in News Journalism (London School of Journalism). Since then, writing has been at the centre of both my professional and creative life. My poetry and prose have appeared in The Times, Popshot Magazine, Acumen, The Rappahannock Review, The Fish Anthology, Eunoia Review, Prairie Fire, Beyond Words Literary Journal, Literary Mama and elsewhere. My work has won the Creative Ink Poetry Prize and the 2026 Beyond Words Poetry Chapbook Award, and I'm currently an Assistant Poetry Editor at Narrative Magazine. My debut chapbook, Sunlight Later, was published by Cathexis Northwest Press in 2025. My second, Stolen Child, winner of the Beyond Words award, will be published in early 2027.
My interest in the ways writing can help us explore experience and make meaning led me to train in Writing Therapy and Journal Therapy, and later to the MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes at Metanoia Institute, which I'm currently completing. I'm also an ICF-accredited Professional Coach in Transformational Coaching and a trained Corporate & Executive Coach. Alongside this, I've spent more than twenty years working in copywriting and brand storytelling, with clients including Nike, Uber, UNIQLO, Converse, Oxfam, UEFA, IKEA and Booking.com. You can find out more about that work at jo-matthews.com.
About ‘sunlight later’
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember — journals, poems, scribbles, musings, stories — mostly as a way to make sense of the world and my place in it.
Sunlight Later began as a place to share some of that writing (and to keep at bay my stubborn resistance to sharing it). Over time, it’s grown into something broader: a home for my poetry and other writing, but also for the coaching, workshops and creative practice that have grown out of my interest in words, stories and the ways we make sense of our lives.
Reading & resources
There are a few books I find myself regularly returning to — in my writing, in my studies, and in my work with people (and with myself!)
I’ve written brief reflections on each, to give a sense of what they offer.