We’re looking for a new Director to join our award-winning team in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Director of Communications and Development will support us to grow the work of New Writing North across our core creative programmes and our capital ambitions. We are looking for someone with a great track record of success in managing communications, development, and fundraising, who can thrive in a small, ambitious team. Deadline 14 April 2023.

We are also seeking a Programme Manager (Young People and Communities) to manage an exciting range of programmes to help young people and communities in the region thrive and fulfil their potential. The post-holder will be flexible and creative as they communicate with freelancers and partners, oversee planning and organising of events, and identify programme development opportunities. Deadline 17 April 2023.

Download the job packs and apply here. 

Taking place for the first time since 2019, Newcastle Writing Conference returns on Saturday 13 May at The Common Room with a day-long event for writers at all stages of their careers. Our in-person tickets are selling very fast and we recommend booking soon if you hope to join us. 

Featuring keynote speaker Natalie Haynes, one-to-one sessions with literary agents, creative writing workshops with leading authors, small group breakouts, and more, Newcastle Writing Conference is all about demystifying and providing access to the publishing industry, while creating a space for writers that is rich with ideas, creativity and connection. Plus, if you can’t make it to Newcastle, a virtual pass gives access to three live-streamed events and two exclusive Zoom workshops.

In-person tickets £69+booking fee, virtual pass £30+booking fee. Find out more and book here. 

We are pleased to announce that Newcastle University is the new sponsor of the Gordon Burn Prize in a new three-year partnership which also means that the prize fund has doubled to £10,000. We are also welcoming Terri White, journalist, screenwriter and author of the 2020 memoir Coming Undone, as the new chair of judges for the prize.

The Gordon Burn Prize seeks to celebrate the writing of those whose work follows in author Gordon Burn’s footsteps, identifying and celebrating brilliant writing that often finds its readers outside the mainstream. The Gordon Burn Prize 2023-24 will open for entry in May 2023, with the winner announced at a prize ceremony in March 2024. Read more about the prize here. 

If you've been to a New Writing North event in the last year, we'd love to hear about your experience. Your feedback is really valuable to us helps us to plan future events and activities with our audiences in mind. Please take a few minutes to complete this short, anonymous survey.

The first of our students have started courses at our online New Writing North Academy and we’re thrilled to hear how much they are getting out of the experience. You can still sign up for several courses starting this spring, including Stories from Life with Richard Benson (starting 17 April); Write and Submit a Short Story with Susmita Bhattacharya (starting 15 May); and Write Better at Work with Piers Alder (starting 5 June). 

The latest course we’ve added to our programme is Write a Young Adult Novel. Join our 18-week, flexible online course to find a fresher, more relatable teenage voice with hands-on support from world-leading YA writer Lee Weatherly. Working in a small group of fellow writers, start by honing your concept, then work on your writing craft and general confidence as a YA writer. At the end of the course, you’ll have a synopsis, first chapter and a plan to keep up momentum and progress your novel. The course begins 22 May 2023.

Due to funding from the North of Tyne Combined Authority, we’re able to offer limited bursary places on all our online courses to residents of Newcastle, Northumberland and North Tyneside. Make sure to apply for your bursary place at least a week before the course start date. View the full range of courses here.

The Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards are now open until 5 June 2023! Three winners will receive a package of support including a 9-month placement with either Bonafide Films, Lime Pictures or Rollem Productions, mentoring with an industry professional, and a £3000 bursary. No writing experience necessary – we would love to discover new writers who want to work in television. Find out more here.

It’s been great to see some budding screenwriters at our Northern Talent Network events; last Saturday we had an exciting day in South Shields learning all about writing for comedy, and our next event on writing for drama in Hartlepool is already sold out. There’s so much TV writing talent in the North! 

Join us for our next literary scratch-salon event, Read Them Your Writes, on 20 April. As well as another exciting line-up of local writers, there will be several open-mic slots available on the night so bring along some work and put your name in the hat. Also featuring a fun writing challenge with our brilliant host Adam Sharp, and a bookish prize up for grabs! 7:30-9:30pm, Tyneside Irish Centre, Newcastle. Get your tickets here.  

On the fourth Tuesday of every month, we host a free and friendly online space for anyone to come and write for an hour. Dedicating and protecting an hour of time is a simple but powerful way of conquering the empty page. You can come with an open mind and make use of optional writing prompts or bring your own work-in-progress and settle in to focus for an hour, alongside fellow writers of all kinds and experiences. Book for our upcoming Writing Hours here. 

Our Young Writers’ Groups are taking a break for the Easter holidays, but we’ll be back w/c 17 April for another term of fun and creativity. Our Saturday creative writing groups are open for any young people aged 12-19 in Berwick, South Shields, Newcastle, Gateshead, Cramlington and North Shields.

Plus, young music lovers can come along to Young Songwriters after school on Wednesdays to learn to write and record their own songs – no experience necessary! 

If you can’t make it to any of the in-person groups, we also host Digital Young Writers on Saturday mornings on Zoom, open to any 12-19-year-olds in the North of England. 

Find out more about all our groups, including dates for the new term, here. 

We’ve got lots going on for creative people in the West End of Newcastle. Women of colour aged 16+ can come along to Brown Girls Write to share and write together, and World Writes is a multilingual creative writing group for adults who speak English as a second or other language. Or you can pop into our West End Writes Drop-In to talk to our producer Tearlach Duncanson over a cup of tea about how to make your creative ideas happen. Find out more about our West End groups here. 

A big congratulations to Ruth Clarke who has just completed her year as Translator-in-Residence at Durham University and New Writing North! We popped over to the wonderful Collected Books in Durham this week to celebrate all her brilliant work. 

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is an opportunity for writers based in the North of England who are new to writing for audio. It offers a £5,000 bursary to the winner as well as the chance of a Radio 4 Drama commission. Submit an original and complete Drama or Comedy/Drama script written for radio, TV, stage or film by 11 April.

Jed Mercurio is launching a new mentorship programme to provide opportunities to those who live outside of London and are from low-income backgrounds or are underrepresented in the UK’s TV industry. The programme is expected to run over a 12-month period, beginning May 2023, and will accept 6-10 mentees total in the first year. Submit 30 pages of an original TV pilot or feature film by 21 April. Details here.

Manchester’s Fly on the Wall Press seeks short stories for their next curated anthology: Gothic Tales. The call out seeks submissions that explore the darker aspects of the human psyche with complex characters to keep readers up at night. The submission window will be open from 22 April–28 May.

The University of Sheffield is excited to launch its Experimental Writing Prize for unpublished writers. We define experimental writing as writing which takes risks, invents, surprises -- and pushes the boundaries of what writing might do. Submissions should be up to 1,500 words in length and previously unpublished. Deadline 28 April.

The 2023 Yan-Kit So Award for Food Writers on Asia is open to those who are writing their first food-focused book, and who do not have a publishing contract. Offered by the Oxford Cultural Collective, the winner receives a £2,500 research and travel grant and mentoring support. Deadline 30 April, find out more here.

Creative Bridges is a two-day online conference from 16-17 September 2023, hosted by Lapidus International, which aims to showcase international research and practice in the rapidly growing field of writing for wellbeing. Submissions of papers, workshops and panels are open until 1 May, and early bird tickets for the conference are available now. Details here.

Hachette UK’s Mo Siewcharran Prize 2023 will help discover unpublished picture book writers from Black, Asian, mixed heritage and minority ethnic backgrounds. Submit a complete picture book text by 8 May for the chance to win £2500, detailed feedback from a HCG picture book editor, meetings with agents and more. Find out more here.

Translate ANY poem from ANY language into English and win publication and cash prizes! Language lovers and budding poets of all ages are warmly invited to take part in the Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation, open to adults aged 19+ from all over the world, as well as to individual young people and school pupils in the UK and Ireland and students at British Schools Overseas. Open for entries 12 May–14 July. 

Leeds 2023 is looking for an inspirational poet who will work with young people to create spoken word pieces in response to their local environment and Climate Change issues. The selected poet will run outdoor workshops in October 2023 for young people aged 13-14 years old from five schools in Leeds. Fee £1400, deadline 9 April. More details here.

The NUSTEM research and outreach group at Northumbria University along with solar physicist Richard Morton seek to commission a poet (preferably based in North East England) to support a schools outreach project based around solar physics. The poet will deliver training sessions to allow scientists to deliver poetry workshops, and will co-produce a workshop for primary school age children. Deadline 17 April, details here. 

Be part of a powerful network of ‘sheroes’ with The Girls’ Network, who provide positive role models, one-to-one mentoring, development opportunities and access to a life-long network of support to girls from some of the least advantaged backgrounds from Portsmouth to Newcastle. Get involved by becoming a mentor, donating, partnering, fundraising or spreading the word. More info here. 

Hexham Book Festival is back from 1-30 April. Linda Grant, Kit de Waal and Tessa Hadley will all be talking about their new fiction plus you can grab some free proof copies of yet to be published fiction at the Hodder Proof Party. Rebecca Rodgers’ work of comic fiction The Purgatory Poisoning will be hosted by NWN’s Will Mackie and if you want to learn how to ‘Write funny’ join Rebecca in her Writing Comedy workshop. Non-fiction includes Dr Jules Montague, a consultant neurologist who looks at the limits of medical diagnosis, finance with Paul Lewis (R4 Money Box) and No More Page 3 campaigning with Jo Cheetham.

Trans Writing Group facilitated by Ennis Welboure is a free 8-week online group open to trans and gender non-comforting writers. Starts 2 April, taking place on Sundays, 7-8:30pm. Application details available here.

Morpeth’s brand-new gorgeous leisure centre is hosting a dramatic book launch - Bridget Gubbins’ Cold War, Warm Hearts.  On 21 April 7pm, an imaginary and shadowy Colonel from the UK Security Service will draw Bridget in for questioning.  She has been travelling alone, on foot, in the 1966 secretive world behind the Iron Curtain. Book it free on Eventbrite. The launch comes with a complimentary glass of wine for all personal RSVPs to bridgetgubbins@btinternet.com.

Former Northern Writers’ Awards winner Phoebe Walker is hosting a live launch for her upcoming debut novel Temper at The Portico Library, Manchester on 28 April. Intimate, incisive and brilliantly observed, Temper explores loneliness, self-worth and disconnection with head-nodding accuracy. Book tickets for £5 here.

Social Media for Authors: A 3 week May course from Kenyon Author Services. Back by popular demand, this practical course led by Book PR expert Isabelle Kenyon looks at developing an author brand across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, with life-time access to a support community. Sign up here.

Short Story Writing with Tania Hershman promises to be an exciting and enlightening journey into the world of short fiction. Over 6 months at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester, participants will explore the various forms and styles of short stories, generate new pieces of fiction, and receive detailed feedback. Find out more here.