The partners

The partners

The Northern Writers’ Centre is a collaboration between New Writing North and Newcastle University. The two organisations have been working together since 2002 to develop a programme of activity and the plans for the capital build.


  • New Writing North

    Founded in 1996, New Writing North is the regional development agency for writing in the north east of England. It has established an unrivalled reputation for the quality and originality of its work across all forms of literature, from poetry, fiction and playwriting to podcasting and publishing.

    The agency works with writers at all stages of their careers to develop new projects and new ways of working. It runs programmes of work in the education system, with young writers outside school, within the justice system, in the community, with refugees and with older people.

    New Writing North has a long record for delivering complex and high-profile partnerships with commercial, charitable and public organisations.

    Each year the organisation invests in talented writers via two awards programmes: the Northern Writers’ Awards, which support both emerging and established writers, and the Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award, which at £75,000 is the most generous award for writers in the UK.

    For more information, see www.newwritingnorth.com


  • The School of English, Newcastle University

    Creative Writing within the School of English, soon to become an international Centre for Creative Writing, is at the forefront of innovative developments in teaching and theorising about Creative Writing.

    It has gathered together some of the finest Creative Writing staff in the country including Andrew Crumey, WN Herbert, Jackie Kay, Jack Mapanje, Sean O’Brien and Colin Teevan. It has a long record of distinguished visiting staff and fellows, including, in recent years, Gillian Allnutt, Colette Bryce, Fred D’Aguiar, Julia Darling and Jo Shapcott.

    Courses have grown from a few undergraduate modules through a Postgraduate Certificate and MA, which range widely across the genres and forms, to PhD level, where Creative Writing forms the substantial part of the degree.

    The School hosts an extensive programme of classes and events, which are open to all, and through which it fosters dialogues between student and teacher, writer and academic, the University and the City and, at international level, between writers from different cultures.

    For more information, see www.ncl.ac.uk/elll