New Writing North

Iconic. Sharma Angel-Walfall is one of the new writers on Doctor Who. Sharma was one of the winners of the first ever Channel 4 Writing for Television awards (part of our annual #NorthernWritersAwards) exactly a decade ago. This award meant Sharma received long-term placement with Lime Pictures to work on Hollyoaks and was commissioned to write an episode. She went on to be in a number of writers’ rooms, including Sally Wainwright's The Ballad of Renegade Nell (Disney+) and Noughts & Crosses (BBC), and wrote an episode of Sharon Hogan’s Dreamland for Sky. "I am a massive Russell T Davies fan, so it is a dream come true to be able to work alongside him, especially on a show that I love." The Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards can provide critical support for writers hoping to break into the industry, and will open again for entries later this year. Sign up to our newsletter to be notified first! #NewWritingNorthSkills #NorthernWritersAwards #4Skills Channel 4 Northumbria University

Our cultural commissars have abandoned local Britain – but there is hope. Ben Lawrence at the Telegraph on our plans for a centre for writing in Newcastle: "This may not seem like a major story, but I think it isn’t just heartening – it’s deeply important. Regionalism matters, you see, despite the best efforts of our cultural commissars to destroy it. Such destruction is far too common a story in Britain today, and globalism is largely to blame: its pernicious effects have pervaded many corners of the arts. £5 million of public funds is a snip, and the NWN centre will be a well-deserved fillip for an area that often feels shut out from the wider nation’s creative endeavours." Read more - https://lnkd.in/eqpgfrcu #NewWritingNorth

We’ve got a lot going on this spring to help you emerge from your winter hibernation. Join us for an author event, attend a book prize ceremony, or hear from the next generation of writing talent. Sign up for workshops to boost your career or try out a new type of writing for the first time. Submit your work for an award, get creative in your local community, save the date for our writing conference – and more! Discover our spring programme of opportunities for writers and readers in the North: https://lnkd.in/ekeqS9xq 

Introducing the #GordonBurnPrize 2025 shortlist! 🎉 Discover brilliantly boundary-pushing fiction, non-fiction and memoir in this year's female dominated list: 📚 Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel 📚 Ootlin by Jenni Fagan 📚 Mrs Jekyll by Emma Glass 📚 Poor Artists by Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad 📚 Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands 📚 The Lasting Harm by Lucia Osborne-Crowley "These six books... they're the stories that followed us home, demanding to be heard." – Terri White, Chair of Judges The winner will be announced on 6 March at Northern Stage in Newcastle, and will receive £10,000 and the chance to undertake a writing retreat at Gordon Burn's cottage. https://lnkd.in/dtuaJr3c

On this day 100 years ago, North East children’s author and playwright Eva Ibbotson was born. Born Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner in Vienna on 21 January 1925, her family left Austria when Hitler came to power. She was just nine years old. Her childhood was spent in London, at boarding school in Devon and between divorced parents. When Eva first arrived, she didn’t speak a word of English, “When I came to England I read myself into the English language. I went to Hampstead public library and took down whatever I saw.” After meeting her husband Alan Ibbotson, an ecologist, they moved to Newcastle where they raised their four children with the settled childhood Eva never had. She wrote short stories between domestic duties and wrote her first book aged nearly 50. She went on to write more than twenty books and in 2001 won the Smarties Prize and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for her novel Journey to the River Sea, in tribute to her beloved late husband. Themes of home, refugees and immigration run through her magical, imaginative and humorous books. Because of her own unhappy childhood, she wanted to give other children happiness. “When I came to write, consciously or unconsciously I always wanted to make things right for the hero or the heroine." Eva died at her home in Newcastle in 2010, aged eighty-five. In memory of Eva, her family are generously supporting a new writing award for young writers, as part of the #NorthernWritersAwards. The Eva Ibbotson Award is for writers aged 11-15 living in the North of England who are writing in English as an additional language. Their writing can be in any form - prose, poetry, scriptwriting, blogging, songwriting or rap. “We are so pleased to support this award which recognises the creative voice of young people who have recently experienced a new country, language and culture. Our mother Eva Ibbotson would have been delighted that this award has been set up in her name.” - Lalage Bosanquet and Justin Ibbotson. If you know of a talented young person, writing in English as an additional language, please encourage them to apply - or nominate them - for this prize before 6 February: https://lnkd.in/e5BXf2jp

We are delighted to announce that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has awarded £5 million of its Cultural Development Fund to support New Writing North’s dream of creating a centre for writing in Newcastle 🎉 The centre will be a public building for writers based in the north. It will host programmes, courses, and events for professional and aspiring writers, for those who write purely for the love of it and for those who want to try creative writing for the first time. It will be a place for communities across the region to engage with creative writing, literature and reading. The centre will mean growing New Writing North and furthering our ambition to nurture writers from across the region. We know that whilst talent is everywhere the opportunities are not. The centre will strengthen Newcastle’s ambitions to become a national hub for writing and publishing and contribute to its growing status as a creative industries leader. Claire Malcolm MBE, CEO of New Writing North, who spearheaded the campaign said: “We are thrilled and excited that central government has chosen to support our vision for a centre for writing by investing in our region’s cultural economy and infrastructure. Creative writing is the backbone of the UK’s world-leading creative industries which employ 2.4 million. It also plays a vital role in wellbeing and public health. The centre for writing will provide an opportunity to expand our work with under-served communities in the region and to work with even more brilliant Northern talent. It will also bring writers and readers together in a space which celebrates the power of storytelling.” We will be collaborating with our brilliant partners Newcastle City Council, Northumbria University, Kim McGuinness, The North East Combined Authority and many others over the next few years to shape in greater detail the centre and its programme. But for now, this is a huge step in creating a vibrant new cultural space in Newcastle which will nurture future generations of northern writers! Find out more at https://lnkd.in/ejGRgyMh #NewWritingNorth

It has been a real pleasure to work with New Writing North on some of these programmes for screenwriters. They are deeply committed to supporting and championing northern writers.

"To care is to make space within ourselves for another, without dictating what that space looks like." Multilingual creativity brings freedom of expression and identity to those who are often denied it. Mymona Bibi leads World Writes, our group for people who speak English as another language. They share stories, write creatively across languages, and build community – which is particularly important to a demographic which has been, and often continues to be, displaced. Read Mymona's North East Now essay about the importance of multilingual creativity: https://lnkd.in/e_PGFheh

If one of your resolutions for 2025 is to get back into reading, you are not alone dear reader. Reading improves your sleep, concentration, empathy and creativity and can ward off cognitive decline, but only half of UK adults read regularly according to a 2024 report from The Reading Agency. About a third of the population consider themselves lapsed readers due to life events, health issues, and time spent on social media. Even amongst the keen readers, a third of them found it hard to finish what they're reading and to read for more than a few minutes at a time. If you are keen to get back into reading – or get into reading for the first time – we've compiled some handy tips: 📚 Don't feel guilty or judge your own reading habits. 📚 Approach reading as you might your health. Try not to see it as a chore but something that will nourish your mind and spirit. 📚 Any reading is good reading – and yes, audiobooks count. 📚 Try putting aside a set amount of time each day to devote to reading, and think about where it could fit in your daily routine. 📚 Try an e-reader app so next time you reach for your phone you can dip into a book rather than head to a social media app. 📚 Try the Januread challenge from the Scottish Book Trust with coaching to help get you reading more: https://lnkd.in/e5FqgZaM All of the above were taken from these recent articles which include advice from Dr Susan McLaine, creative director of Bibliotherapy Australia and Maryanne Wolf, a neuroscientist and author of Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World: – https://lnkd.in/g6eQCcpd  – https://lnkd.in/e5thZT22 – https://lnkd.in/e9PkmWFf Do you have any tips on overcoming distractions or finding your love of reading again? Please share with us! 😊 #RebootReading

Durham Writes Writer in Residence Fee for Writer in Residence: £4500 (12 workshops; 2 full planning days; 8 mentoring sessions; taking part in selecting writers for the targeted workshop series), plus expenses. This fee is inclusive of all preparation and follow-up work. New Writing North is looking to recruit a freelance Producer and a Writer in Residence for Durham Writes – a new talent development programme beginning in February 2025, in partnership with Durham Libraries. Durham Writes will develop creative skills and cultural opportunities for new writers of fiction in County Durham. The programme seeks to address commonly identified barriers for writers, including a lack of role-model writers who reflect under-represented characteristics, the scarcity of entry-level access opportunities and encouragement to develop early-stage writing.  We are seeking a published Writer of fiction to work with a Producer to identify locations for workshops, and to lead on designing and delivering bespoke programme content for six open-access taster sessions, and six targeted masterclasses running from March until July 2025. The Writer will be supported by the Producer to identify progression routes for participants of the taster sessions and will be expected to offer 1-1 mentoring sessions for selected participants. For the full job spec and how to apply, please go to our vacancies page: https://lnkd.in/eEN4bRD