We're hiring! Our full-time Operations Assistant post might be for you if you're interested in gaining cross-organisation experience in arts administration. This postholder will be the first point of contact for visitors and callers, and support with organisational admin, office management, and data collection and analysis.

Deadline 15 May, download the full job pack and apply here. 

We are looking for facilitators to run sessions with our new North East Novelists group. The sessions could be practical creative writing sessions or focused on professional development for authors. Starting October 2023, there will be one session on the first Wednesday evening of every month, in a central Newcastle venue. We can offer a fee of £125 per session, and up to £50 to cover travel costs. If you are interested, please send a short pitch about yourself and the session to margotmiltenberger@newwritingnorth.com. 

Last week we were at London Book Fair to launch the A Writing Chance report, written by Professor Katy Shaw of Northumbria University. 

The report addresses the challenge of access and opportunity in industries that set the tone of our national conversation through books and media, and which remain stubbornly over-representative of a narrow, privileged cross-section of society. Professor Shaw was an embedded researcher on the first year of A Writing Chance, a talent development programme co-funded by the actor Michael Sheen and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and produced by New Writing North with support from the New Statesman, Daily Mirror, Northumbria University and literature organisations nationally.

Her findings analyse data of more than 700 new writers who applied to be part of A Writing Chance and the experiences of the eleven successful applicants who were selected to take part. The report identifies common barriers to success for these writers and recommends a range of measures that can be adopted across the writing industries to overcome such barriers.

Read Professor Katy Shaw’s A Writing Chance report.

The Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards are 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. 

Our next Read Them Your Writes literary scratch night has been pushed back a week to Thursday 25 May – same time and place, 7:30pm at Tyneside Irish Centre. We hope to see you there for another fun night of readings, open mic slots, and writing competition. Also, our summer dates are now open for booking, so get them saved in your diary! Find out more and book your tickets here. 

The first cohort of our online course, Write and Submit a Short Story, begins on 15 May. Join this 7-week, flexible online course to be guided from initial ideas for a short story through drafting and finessing to the submissions process for competitions and journals. Working in a small group of dedicated writers, led by tutor Susmita Bhattacharya, there will be live sessions with guest authors as we close-read and discuss one of their stories as a group, plus masses of writing prompts. Find out more and sign up here.

If writing is an important part of your job, join our 4-week Write Better at Work course beginning 5 June. This CPD accredited training, brought to you by experts in writing for business, will give you the tools to communicate clearly and persuasively, and the confidence to make people listen. You’ll study in a small group with an expert tutor who will arm you with a practical toolkit of tips and tricks to give your writing impact, energy and, above all, clarity. Find out more and sign up here.

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. View the full range of courses here. 

Are you a creative business in the North-East and are looking to grow your business through investment? Creative UK are now taking applications for their Investment Bootcamp. This is a unique 6-month development course which provides structured support through bespoke mentoring, peer-learning, workshops and investor introductions. Deadline 30 April, find out more here. 

18-25 year-old poets, apply for Roundhouse’s Poetry Slam for the chance to win a cash prize, make industry contacts, showcase your talent in front of live and online audiences, and have your performance professionally filmed and uploaded to the Roundhouse YouTube channel. Deadline 2 May. 

The Warner Bros Discover Writers Exchange Programme is a unique opportunity for five talented writers from underrepresented background based in the North of England who are new to television but already writing for theatre. They will embark on a six-month scheme to develop their writnig for screen and stage. Deadline 8 May, details here.

Untamed Stories in partnership with The Writers Lab have launched the Writers Lab UK, Ireland & Europe for 2023, a pioneering 6-month virtual script development programme for 40+ women and non-binary screenwriters. Deadline 10 May, find out more here.

Applications are now open for the David Attwooll Award for poets under 30. The award covers the full cost of a poetry course of your choice at any Arvon Writing House between July-September 2023. The award recipient will be selected based on their circumstances and commitment to their writing. Deadline 11 May, find out more here.

LOOP is a 5-month paid initiative where a talented panel of industry professionals will work with ten selected writers who live, work or are from the North of England to develop and hone their scripted audio idea into a creatively and commercially exciting project, develop a full treatment and first episode, and take it out to the UK’s biggest audio streamers or distributors. Application deadline 19 May.

Unpublished novelists over the age of 50 are invited to submit the first 5000 words of their novels to Jenny Brown Associates Literary Agency’s inaugural Debut Writers Over 50 Award. The winner will receive a £1000 cash prize and a week’s residential course at Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s Creative Writing Centre. Runners up will be offered tailored mentoring. Deadline 31 May, find out more here.

Faber’s 2023 FAB Prize is now open for people from underrepresented backgrounds writing or illustrating for children, who are previously unpublished. Enter for the chance to win up to £1500, a free place on an online Faber Academy writing course or a one-year membership with the Assocation of Illustrators, and the opportunity to shadow established authors/illustrators on school visits. Deadline 30 June. 

The Paul Cave Prize for Literature welcomes submissions for all forms of poetry, flash fiction, short stories and novellas up to 10,000 words. All approved submissions will feature in The Paul Cave Prize for Literature 2023 book, and winners receive cash prizes and publication on Tim Saunders Publications website. Deadline 30 September.

Sunspot Lit welcomes art and fiction, non-fiction, poetry, scripts and graphic novels up to 49,000 words. Editor’s prizes are paid out for each edition, and feedback for poems and genre fiction is available. Submission costs range from $5-$25. Find out more here. 

Art Camp UK is looking for experienced creative practitioners to teach fun engaging workshops to children aged 4-12 over the summer holidays at their Otley and Boroughbridge sites. Deadline 22 May, find out more here. 

Manchester Literature Festival is seeking a Treasurer to join the Board of Directors/Trustees and to help lead one of the North’s most innovative literary festivals in its exciting next phase of development. Deadline 9 June, find out more here. 

Laurence King Publishing, part of the Orion Publishing Group, are looking to expand their pool of writers and freelance editors. They are particularly looking for children’s writers to work on some animal, science and nature-based games who specialist in fun facts and engaging informational writing for 6–12-year-olds. Get in touch Editor Florence Filose at florence.filose@orionbooks.co.uk to express your interest.

Peshkar is seeking a new cohort of emerging artists across disciplines to spend time with them developing participatory practice, working with young people and shaping their profile and portfolio. Artists will identify key target groups in the communities of Oldham, Bolton and Blackburn to explore themes and issues that are important to society in 2023/24. Cohorts available in June 2023, September 2023 and January 2024, find out more here. 

Catch the last weekend of events at Hexham Book Festival! On Sat 29 April Guardian food writer Felicity Cloake takes a British Breakfast Odyssey, and get the next best thing in fiction before it’s published at the Hodder Proof Party. NWN’s own Anna Disley will be meeting Alice Loxton for ‘a romp around Georgian England’ and Claire Malcolm will talk to Tessa Hadley and Don Paterson about their new books. Plus, Hexham Book Festival is looking forward to welcoming all readers, dreamers and believer to Storyland at their packed Family Day on Sun 30 April.

Liverpool’s WOWFest 2023 is kicking off soon with a fantastic timetable of events all about pushing for a fair, more inclusive publishing industry and celebrating writing in the Liverpool City Region and beyond. Highlights include the launch of the Pulp Idol Firsts 2023 Anthology on 3 May, the launch of Ash Nugent’s debut novel Locks on 4 May, and a new presentation of poetry and music from Seán Street and Neil Campbell that takes us on a powerful, evocative and moving sound journey. 

Join the Poetry Book Society and Newcastle University on 11 May for the Northern Poetry Symposium at Northern Stage to launch Newcastle Poetry Festival. We’re reuniting the poetry world to celebrate community, from vital discussions around inclusion to a British Council Indian poetry showcase and an electrifying dance-poetry performance. Join us for an inspiring day of readings and reflections from 20 leading poets. Find out more here. 

North-East based poet Kris Johnson will be reading from her new collection Ghost River at this year's Newcastle Poetry Festival on Saturday 13 May. Born and raised in America’s Washington state, Kris Johnson moved to the UK in 2007. Ghost River is her first book-length collection, which invites readers to stare down blue-mouthed crevasses, venture into old growth forests, and peer beneath the floorboards of ancestral homesteads. Book tickets and see the full festival lineup here. 

Sheaf Poetry Festival will return from 21-28 May to celebrate the best in UK poetry, spoken word and lyrics. The festival will take place in venues across Sheffield and the Peak District, with live-streaming for online audiences and live-captioned events. Festival events include poetry walks, workshops, talks, readings and music. Browse the full festival programme here. 

The Literary Constultancy’s annual Being a Writer Festival returns this summer from 27 June – 27 July. The festival focuses on how to write well and feel well, and programme highlights include a keynote by Sunday Times bestselling author Will Storr, a new interactive Writers’ Cafe, sessions on success, failure, and wellbeing, sessions with a range of publishers and agents, and a range of creative writing Masterclasses. THis year’s tickets include a Pay What You Can option for a Festival Pass.

The brand new Inkandescent writing school will commence in September for any beginner creative writers who want the focus and support of a short course. For £200, participants will take part in weekly Zoom meetings on Thursday nights and be given weekly reading and writing homework tasks. Find out more here.