New Writing North is the development agency for reading and writing in the North of England. With a team of 14 we work across the North from a base in Newcastle upon Tyne. We celebrated our 25th birthday in 2021.At New Writing North I oversee the strategic direction of the company which has a turnover or £1m+ per year, lead artistic work and commissions and oversee fundraising of around £750K per annum. We are currently developing a capital project to create a new centre for writing in Newcastle upon Tyne, building partnerships to enable inward investment and cross-sector buy-in to this landmark project, the first of its kind in the UK.Major projects include the management of literary prizes the David Cohen Prize for Literature (“the UK Nobel”), the Gordon Burn Prize and the largest regional writing investment programme, The Northern Writers’ Awards, a wide-ranging programme of award-winning work with young people, the production of Durham Book Festival, the North East’s largest book festival, which reaches 25,000 people a year and gives a ROI of 1001% to Durham County Council who commission it and a myriad of talent development programmes with partners such as Sky Studios, Channel 4, Faber and Faber and Hachette UK. We commission writers across forms and regularly produce books, podcasts, major events and filmed work. We work with around 100 freelancers every year.Current exemplar projects include the UK’s first Climate Writer in Residence, A Writing Chance, a new programme for working class journalists sponsored in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Daily Mirror and New Statesman, High Street Tales, a national project delivered in 7 towns and cities during lockdown and Balancing the Books, an inclusive schools project sponsored by Granta Trust.

I represent the arts and culture sector on the board of the foundation and am a member of the Audit and Finance Sub-Committee. I have contributed to setting a new strategy for the foundation’s work which prioritises poverty and have overseen the Covid response at board level which saw the foundation launch and distribute millions of pounds of emergency funding to communities in the North East.

I am one of four family directors of Tullivers Ltd , York's oldest herbs and wholefoods shop. I do not work in the business on a day to day basis.

For the partnership I lead the response to the Climate Emergency and am creating a new network for the region’s culture organisations to enable an approach to Net Zero by 2030. I have contributed to NECP’s North East Culture and Tourism Recovery Plan, advocating especially for the freelance workforce. With the partnership I have overseen two forum events and marshalled actions from both into action plans. New Writing North worked with NECP and the North East LEP in 2020 on the New Narratives for the North East project which sought to shape a new narrative for the region.