About K.M. Herbert
Author & Creative Practitioner
Kayla ‘K.M.’ Herbert was born in Northern Ontario, Canada and lives in Bradford. Her debut novel, The Book of Moons, was published in 2020 by Fisher King Publishing. She self-published her poetry collection, Between the Spaces, in 2022 and her poems have been been featured in anthologies by Leeds Trinity University and Twisted Ink. She has performed her work at the Ilkley Literature Festival, Leeds Art Gallery and Craven Arts. She has a BA in English Literature from McGill University and an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2023, her work-in-progress, Behind the Green Sky, won a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Margaret Carey scholarship and was longlisted for WriteMentor’s Novel-in-Development Award.
Her most recent work-in-progress, A Dance of Sun and Stars, was longlisted for Mslexia’s 2024 Children’s and YA Novel Competition and made the Top 100 in The Bath Novel Award 2025. Off the page, Kayla is a professional marketer in the arts industry and a qualified Dru yoga teacher, specialising in breathwork and therapeutic movement. When she isn't working or writing, she can usually be found practising yoga in the woods or birdwatching with her very patient spaniel, Brontë.
Publishing credits:
​
-
Between the Spaces - poetry collection (Self-published 2019 and 2022)
-
'My mother's handbag', 'Aran knitting' & 'Our souls' (First Awakening: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry, Ings Press 2019)
-
The Book of Moons - Young Adult urban fantasy novel (Fisher King Publishing 2020)
-
'Broken cars' (The end is where we start: A New Beginnings Anthology, Leeds Trinity University 2023)
-
Co-writer for 'Adrift Island' expansion of Deathmatch Island - RPG tabletop game (Old Dog Games 2024)
-
'The hair under my chin' (Hauntology, Twisted Ink 2024)
-
'She belongs' (Cities Anthology, Leeds Trinity University 2024)
-
'Route 108' (Land and Landscapes, Twisted Ink 2025)
-
'Bear Faces' (Monstrous, Leeds Trinity University 2025)