One year has passed since I last wrote for this blog and how time flies. We are once again enjoying the most wonderful time of the year, i.e. Eurovision, only this time I write to you not from Stockholm but London where I am based nowadays.

I am an engaged woman (and over the moon – more on that later!) and I divide my time between the Guardian and DIVA offices as well as my home in Hampstead where I continue to write for different publications. Many a weekend is spent travelling or in Sheffield where Cyd and Nova are doing their best to finish a phd and catch mice respectively. I understand they are both making good progress.

I have been working on a bunch of stuff in the past year and I’ll pop a few of those below, should you be interested.

DIVA’s Travel Section

Every month I plan, commission, write and edit the Travel Section in DIVA Magazine, Europe’s best-selling magazine for lesbian and bisexual women. The magazine is available across Europe (in the UK I get mine from WH Smith) but if you don’t tend to buy physical magazines then you can get your hands on a digital download here. Sometimes a few of the pieces end up online too and you can read some of those on OutNewsGlobal, DIVA’s sister publication. Do check out Cyd’s kick ass guide to queer Berlin, for example.

A Queer Girl’s Guide to Sweden

Discover my favourite parts of Sweden in this series that I wrote in collaboration with VisitSweden. I head to Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Skåne – and there is more to come yet as I head up the portal VisitSwedenLGBT.co.uk together with travel pro Uwern Jong. I hope you enjoy it and remember: in #SwedenYoureWelcome.

How To Be A Straight Ally

Totaljobs.com commissioned me to write this piece for LGBT History Month. I am lucky enough to have lots of great allies who have helped me along the way and these are some of the tips that I, and the people I interviewed, have found to be useful.

Transforming Cinema

Transforming Cinema is a film festival focused on transgender and non-binary film. As part of E.D.E.N Film Productions I helped launched this fantastic project in November last year and it was so much fun, whilst also serving a very important cause. With film makers, speakers and attendees coming from across Europe it was a big success, and we were beyond happy with it. To read more about the festival and the project E.D.E.N Shorts, which saw members of the LGBT+ community pitch and create their own films check out E.D.E.N’s website.

E.D.E.N was actually also awarded Best Media Moment at the South Yorkshire LGBT Awards earlier this year, so that was pretty cool!

Backstage With Bella

Those of you who have followed me for some time know that this is my YouTube channel. Some of the videos that I created in the past year include Eating Swedish Liquorice, Lesbian Holiday: Velvet Ibiza and Coming Out As Bisexual (on DIVA’s channel). Check ’em out and let me know what you think!

MusicOMH Live Reviews

I reviewed In Flames, Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold and Tove Lo for UK music site MusicOMH. It’s been really fun getting back to writing about music and I hope you enjoy reading about it. The Tove Lo gig was particularly… let’s say memorable.

Radio

In the past year I have appeared on Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio Sheffield. I do love a chat on air!

That’s all for now as I am off to enjoy some more Eurovision festivities. If you have any questions or you would like to work with me then please feel free to reach out via the contact form above or via Twitter: @bellaqvist. Hejdå!