News from New Writing North: 16 December 2022
New year, new offices
After many productive years in Ellison Terrace, New Writing North has outgrown its current space and we are moving across Northumbria University’s campus to a new suite of offices. While we complete our move, our phone lines will be down between end of day Friday 16 December until Monday 9 January. You can still contact us by email or direct mobile phones, but we’ll all be logging off for a Christmas break between Friday 23 December and Tuesday 3 January. See you in the new year!
Northern Writers' Awards open for entry
We are thrilled to announce that the Northern Writers’ Awards 2023 are now open for entries!
If you’re a writer based in the North of England you could be in with a chance of winning a range of prizes including mentoring, cash awards and access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Network! Our awards are for people at all stages of their writing careers – whether you are completely new or have had work published or broadcast before we are really excited to hear from you. There are categories to suit every writer and the awards are free to enter, so get drafting and submit your work by 22 February 2023! Find out which Northern Writers' Awards categories are open.
While some awards are now open for entry, other awards will open at staggered dates throughout 2023, providing a year-round platform to support northern writing talent and allowing writers to enter multiple strands.
Young Creative Associates: opportunity for creative practitioners aged 18-30 in North of Tyne
Do you have a new creative project you want to launch? Maybe you have ideas for expanding your own writing practice but are unsure of where to start? Perhaps you want to start thinking long-term about your freelance career? If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you.
Young Creative Associates is a new 9-month development programme open to 18-30-year-olds living in the North of Tyne area. Participants will be supported to explore sustainable routes of self-employment and will develop knowledge of business basics, financial management, fundraising, networking and project development skills. Alongside five developmental group workshops, participants will receive five hours of dedicated one-to-one mentor support and a bursary grant of up to £1000 to put towards business costs.
Find out more about the Young Creative Associates programme and apply by 12pm on Monday 30 January 2023. Visit our Young Creative Associates page.
Freelance vacancy: Newbiggin Hall Creates
We are seeking a new freelance Community Creative Producer to build on work that has started in Newbiggin Hall, Newcastle. With funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, we will run an ambitious three-year programme of community driven, co-creative activity. Applications close on 10 January.
If you’d like to find out more about the role, join our optional Zoom call with members of the New Writing North team on 5 January from 12pm-1pm. Find out more about the role and sign up to our Meet the Team zoom call on our Vacancies page.
Read Them Your Writes: booking now open!
There’s still time to submit your work to our new literary/culture night in Newcastle, Read Them Your Writes. This will be an informal, fun and supportive space for North-East writers at all stages to meet each other and share new work. We are looking for writers to take part in events between January and March 2023 and are open to writers of any discipline (short stories, novels, poetry, essays, plays etc.) Find out more about Read Them Your Writes and register your interest by 23 December.
Tickets for Read Them Your Writes are now on sale! It will be held at the Tyneside Irish Centre in Newcastle on the 3rd Thursday of the month from 19 January. Bring a friend, a piece of writing, or just come along and enjoy listening to brand new work from the North-East. Space is limited so we recommend booking in advance! Book your tickets for Read Them Your Writes here.
NWA Roadshows – Bradford and North Shields
We’re delighted to bring our Northern Writers’ Awards Roadshows to Bradford and North Shields, full of Q&As, advice and networking open to writers at all career stages!
The Bradford Roadshow will include a Q&A session with Northern Writers’ Award winners, advice from a publisher and other professionals and the chance to network with fellow writers. Confirmed speakers include the novelist Karen Powell, author of the acclaimed The River Within, and Habiba Desai and Sara Razzaq from Fox and Windmill Books. We will be meeting at Kala Sangam Arts Centre on 17 January.
Our North Shields Roadshow will include a Q&A session with Northern Writers’ Award winners, a panel discussion about life writing, a Q&A session with an agent and time for networking. Confirmed speakers include the novelist Laura Fish and Northern Writers’ Award winners Kemi-Bo Jacobs, John Challis and Heather Askwith. This event will take place at The Exchange Theatre on 21 January.
Tickets for each event cost £5, book tickets to our Northern Writers’ Awards Roadshows.
Northern Talent Network masterclass
Our next online Northern Talent Network masterclass takes place on 23 January. If you’re an emerging screenwriter looking to enhance your professional awareness and expand your network, join us at Take Note. In this masterclass, we will be discussing the art of note giving and receiving for scripted television. We’ll learn more about how to give constructive and useful notes, how to receive notes graciously and how to know which to act on. Confirmed speakers include producers Laura Hastings-Smith and Steve Thompson, and Hannah Rose of Tiger Aspect. Tickets cost £5 (plus booking fee), book your place to Take Note.
Join us for our next Book Club event
Join us for our final online Book Club event where we’ll be hosting writer Annie Garthwaite to talk about her remarkable debut novel Cecily. We’ll be asking Annie all about the process of researching and writing this impressive book, and diving deep into the formidable character of Cecily, ‘Mother of Kings’.
Annie will be in conversation with New Writing North’s Programme Producer Kathryn Tann on Wednesday 18 January. Tickets are £5 (plus booking fee). Book tickets for Annie Garthwaite in Conversation.
The Writing Hour
Inspired by the popular sessions run by Linda France as part of her Climate Writing Residency, we’re continuing to open 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. No one will be asked to share their work – just a sense of solidarity with other writers as we work quietly in each other’s company. Join us on the fourth Tuesday of each month starting from 24 January. Sign up for The Writing Hour.
Young Writers' Groups
Last Saturday we had our Young Writers’ Christmas Social and final session of 2022! We hope all the young writers who came had a great time and we’d like to send a huge thank you to everyone who has attended a Young Writers’ Group over the past year, you’ve all earned a well-deserved break.
Our Young Writers’ Groups will be back from Saturday 14 January. All sessions are free to attend and open to any young person aged 12-19. We have spaces for new members at all our Saturday groups, including our brand-new groups in Berwick and North Shields, as well as our Tuesday evening Young Songwriters group in Newcastle. Find the full list of 2023 group dates and sign up.
The 3.5 percent blog post
The end of 2022 marks the culmination of Linda France’s pioneering climate writing residency with New Writing North and Newcastle University. We’ve taken a moment to reflect on how these past three years have engaged a community of climate writers, thinkers and activists, and to share our hope that other organisations will consider how they can use their own platforms to spark change.
Read our blog post ‘The 3.5 percent’ to find out more.
Songs from Excelsior Academy
The young writers from Excelsior Academy have been working with rapper and visual artist Robin Reza to create their own tracks and write lyrics, before heading to Downcast Studios in Newcastle to record them. Now, we are excited to share their finished ten-track rap album! Listen to the raps from Excelsior Academy.
People, publishers and podcasts
According to Creative UK, 33% of people working in the creative industries are freelance. Creative Access are looking to better understand the challenges that freelancers face so they can better support freelancers with wellbeing, career progression, training opportunities and more. Take Creative Access’ survey by 23 December and you could win one of five book tokens.
New Writing North BBC Words First alumni Carl Alexandersson and Catherine Wilson Garry are having their poetry pamphlets published with Stewed Rhubarb Press in 2023. Find out more about Stewed Rhubarb Press.
Poet Kim Moore’s collection All the Men I Never Married has won Best Collection for the Forward Prize for Poetry. All the Men I Never Married deals with experiences of everyday sexism and a gallery of exes and significant others. Find out more about the Forward Poetry Prize 2022.
This year’s winner of the Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year prize is Linda France, with her portfolio Letters to Katłį. As part of the prize, her pamphlet will launch at the British Library during the annual Michael Marks Awards Event. Read what the judges had to say about Letters to Katłįà.
Northern writer and poet Katie Hale has won this year’s Aesthetica Magazine’s Creative Writing Award for Short Fiction. Winning and shortlisted entries will feature in the 2023 Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology which is available to preorder.
Author Jeevani Charika’s newest romcom Picture Perfect is due to be released in paperback. It follows Niro, a photographer who has lost the joy of taking photos. Burned by a bad break-up, she’s in desperate need of inspiration when she falls into faking a picture-perfect relationship while on holiday in the Swiss alps. Order a copy of Picture Perfect.
Award-winning author Liz Flanagan’s newest novel Wildsmith: Into the Dark Forest will be published with UCLan Publishing on 2 February. This is the start of a new fantasy series for younger middle-grade readers about friendship, magic and fostering animals. Find out more about Wildsmith.
Competitions, awards, and submission opportunities
The Moth Poetry Prize is one of the biggest prizes for a single unpublished poem. The prize is open to anyone and each year it attracts poets from around the world. There is no line limit and poems can be on any subject. The winner will €6000 and the entry fee is €15. Enter by 31 December, find out more about the Moth Poetry Prize.
Calling all unpublished and self-published Black-British children’s writers. The Jericho Prize is open for submissions and are looking for picture book manuscripts. Winners could receive a publishing contract with Scholastic UK, SCBWI membership, exclusive access to publishing professionals, and more. Send your manuscript by 9 January and find out more about The Jericho Prize.
Butcher’s Dog have opened their submissions window. They’re looking for poets who share a connection to Northern England or whose poems explore ‘the North’ thematically. Submissions are free and the call closes on 15 January. Find out more and submit your poetry to Butcher’s Dog.
The TLC Free Reads Scheme offers low-income writers the opportunity to get free professional feedback on their writing from The Literary Consultancy. This year they have partnered with Arvon to open applications to all low-income writers for the opportunity to win a Free Read on longform prose, short stories, poetry, scripts or children’s picture books. Apply by 16 January, find out more about the TLC Free Read.
Writers & Artists have teamed up with award-winning platform Questo to offer writers the chance to flex their game-writing skills. Enter this collaborative competition to create a city exploration game. The first place winner will receive £1000, access to Writers & Artists masterclasses and a bundle of creative writing guides. Apply by 19 January and find out more about the Writers & Artists x Questo Challenge.
Award-nominated dance magazine Dance Art Journal has announced an open call for its Guest Writers programme. This 8-week programme will provide emerging writers aged 18-30 experience in arts journalism. The programme culminates in a paid writing commission and a networking event. Apply by 22 January and find out more about Dance Art Journal’s call out.
The 2023 Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition is now open to unpublished, unagented writers based anywhere in the world. They accept entries aimed at readers from age 7 to 18 and winners could receive a publishing contract, a cash prize and representation from an agent. The competition costs £20 to enter. Apply by 1 June and find out more about the Times/Chicken House competition.
Freelance opportunities and jobs
Tees Valley New Creatives (TVNC) Network members are an explosive powerhouse of bold new talent in diverse creative fields. TVNC are looking for an Assistant who will provide administration and programme support, deliver activities that promote TVNC and build partnerships with creative industry professionals. Find out more about the TVNC Assistant role and apply by 19 December.
Creative UK are looking for a Freelance Programme Coordinator who will operate at the heart of their North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme. This is an opportunity for someone who is seeking an opportunity to broaden their experience across project management within the creative sector. Apply to Creative UK’s freelance opportunity by 30 December.
TLC-St Luke’s are looking to build their board of Trustees. They are a charity that has been delivering Arts and Mental Health Drop-In Projects for almost 30 years in the central Manchester area. If you want to put your skills to good use whilst doing worthwhile voluntary work for a charity, then apply to be a Trustee with TLC-St Luke’s. Applications close 31 December.
Factory International are looking for a Producer who will line-produce commissions and events for the MIF/The Factory from their initial development through to their realisation and presentation to the public. The Producer is responsible for ensuring this happens on time and to budget. Apply by 4 January and find out more about the Producer role with Factory International.
Open Eye Gallery and Culture Liverpool are looking to commission a socially engaged writer to work in the Garston Village area of the Liverpool City Region. The selected writer will work with community members with the overall aim of understanding their unique stories. Apply by 9 January and find out more about the Freelance Writer in Residence Opportunity with Open Eye Gallery.
November Club is an award-winning, cross-artform performing arts company based in Northumberland. They are looking for a new Chair to lead their Board of Trustees. Applicants should be able to think creatively to help November Club achieve its vision, mission and objectives. Apply by 10 January and read November Club’s application pack.
Create is seeking dynamic, energetic, people-centred individuals with significant levels of experience of managing creative arts projects in education and community settings to join its pool of freelance project managers in the North West. Find out more about Create’s Freelance Project Manager role.
Workshops and events
Join Northern Writers Studio for their final event of the year, Hearth. This online festive social will feature readings from Northern writers, celebrate the writing year and include a festive quiz led by Sarah Davy! Readers include Carmen Marcus, Adam Farrer, Katie Hale, Ralph Dartford and Caroline Hardaker. Tickets cost £5 and the event takes place on 21 December. Buy your ticket to Hearth.
Out of Your Head! invite you to their spoken word night based in Newcastle. Their next event has a theme of ‘Past, Present and Future’ and takes place on 22 December at the Cumberland Arms. Tickets cost £6. The night will include performances from featured artists, call-out winners and performers from the open-theme mic. Find out more about Out of Your Head’s December event.
Arachne Press is celebrating its 10th Anniversary with a month-long online festival of workshops and discussions for writers, chosen and run by their poets and authors. The festival will take place from 5 until 29 January. Ticket prices vary, find Arachne Press’ full festival line-up and book.
Join the bound bookshop on 12 January for an evening with author Sarah Thomas, as they discuss her extraordinary ecological memoir, The Reven’s Nest, set in Iceland’s Westfjords region. Tickets are £17.99 and include a copy of The Raven’s Nest. Book tickets for the bound presents Sarah Thomas.
The Verandah are hosting a series of poetry and mindfulness sessions for writers to explore techniques to recharge their wellbeing and creativity. These sessions are open to writers and poets no matter their experience and open to beginners. Sessions cost £12 or £40 for all four starting from 17 January. Sign up to the Poetry and Mindfulness Uplift.
After two successful series, Cath Drake’s Climate of Change Poetry workshops are continuing. Write together to find new and transforming angles into this complex crisis. Join live international Zoom workshops where participants will be sent poems, research to consider and writing exercises. The first workshop takes place on 19 January, find out more about the Climate of Change Poetry workshops.
Poetry fans, join Liam Bates and Nóra Blascsók for an evening to celebrate the launch of Liam’s debut collection Human Townsperson. The launch will also include open mic slots. The event takes place at the Gragson Arts & Community Centre in Lancaster on 21 January. Tickets are free, reserve a place to the Human Townsperson launch.
Leeds Libraries are hosting The Art of the Short Story on 2 February. This event is for aspiring short story writers, as well as those interested in reading short stories. Join award-winning writers Naomi Booth, Leone Ross and James Clarke as they share top tips and discuss some of their favourite authors. Tickets are pay as you feel, book your place to The Art of the Short Story workshop.
Join Leeds Lit Fest for another instalment of their citywide festival of words and thought in some of the city’s favourite venues. They’ve announced their first wave of events which include author readings, workshops, spoken word sets and events suitable for the family. Find Leeds Lit Fest’s full programme.
If you have news that you would like to be considered for inclusion in the newsletter please contact lauralewis@newwritingnorth.com. The deadline for receipt of information for the next newsletter is 20 January 2023.
While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this newsletter is correct at the time of going to press, things do change, frequently at the last minute and very often without our knowledge.
