New Writing North’s work in the field of professional development for writers is expansive and covers everything from the development of new talent to the up-skilling of professional writers.

 

As the needs of writers change from year to year, so do our programmes. Across the year we run a number of schemes, development opportunities and competitive programmes that writers can apply to be part of. These are all advertised in our fortnightly e-bulletin and promoted on this website. These range from The Story Engine to courses, workshops and the annual Northern Writers’ Awards.

 

New Writing North pioneered the development of creative mentoring for writers and has run mentoring schemes for professional writers for the past ten years. As a wider understanding of the term mentoring has developed within the creative writing world, we are regularly asked to advise on schemes or share our good practice with others. We published The Write Guide: Mentoring, a book that encompasses everything we know about mentoring, along with much other useful information, interesting case studies and points of view gathered by authors Sara Maitland and Martin Goodman. We are enthusiastic about the role of mentoring within literature and hope this book will continue to contribute to enhancing the opportunities currently available for writers at all stages in their careers. If you are a writer interested in mentoring you can find out more about our work in this area in the Services section of this website.

 

We are currently operating a number of schemes including: A six-month long playwrights’ development scheme with writers Karen Laws, Ishy Din, Richard Stockwell and Tom Chaplin, and the Fast-Track Fiction programme for novelists with Elaine Murphy, Ellen Phethean, Nell McGrath, Lora Hughes, Romi Jones and Stephen Shieber.

 

New Writing North specialises in creating high-level skills programmes for writers and we can develop programmes with others on a consultancy basis – or for free as a project partner. If you would like to work with us please get in touch. We are currently developing new projects with the BBC Writersroom, Tyneside Cinema and Northern Film & Media.

We also are developing a new series of modules on career development issues for writers which can be delivered as part of undergraduate and post-graduate creative writing courses. If you are interested in working with us in this way please get in touch.