Actor Michael Sheen has called on the media industry to create options and opportunities for aspiring writers and journalists from lower income and under-represented backgrounds.
Today he
announces 11 new writers who will be supported by A Writing Chance, a positive
intervention to a persistent industry issue
that sees 75% of journalists come from the highest social groups.
A Writing Chance is co-funded by Michael Sheen and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation with support from the New Statesman and Daily Mirror. The UK-wide initiative is delivered by New Writing North with research from Northumbria University.
The project is designed to discover new talent, support new writers, and prise open an industry which remains difficult to access.
Through the project’s research strand led by Northumbria University, it also seeks to better understand the barriers to success faced by aspiring writers from a broad range of backgrounds who are under-represented in the industry and to empower publishers and editors to make space for a greater range of experiences and perspectives on their pages.
Eleven writers were selected for A Writing Chance from 750 applicants. They will each receive one-to-one mentoring with an established writer or journalist, a £1,500 bursary, insight days with media partners, and publication or broadcast of their work.
The project was instigated by Sheen, inspired by the successful Common People anthology of working-class writers in 2019, which profiled and supported new writers alongside established names and which created debate within the publishing industry about representation.
The writers selected for A Writing Chance are:
Michael Sheen said: “The talent among our 11 writers is phenomenal. Combined with the diversity of their voices and at times revelatory points of view this is a real powerhouse of a group. They go way beyond the hopes I had for this project and make me so excited for not only what they themselves will go on to achieve but also the countless other yet to be discovered voices across all our communities.”
Husna Mortuza, Deputy Director of Advocacy and Public Engagement, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said: “The published conversation frames how we think and feel about the world around us. The best writing shows us who we are by reflecting our lives. Currently, those who get to write, edit and set the agenda, too often do so through a very narrow prism of experience. We know visibility matters, and when a diverse group of writers are able to be published and progress in their careers, we all benefit from a greater understanding of our collective experience. JRF are proud to co-fund this positive initiative, and are delighted to be supporting such a talented group from underrepresented and lower income backgrounds”.
Katy Shaw, Professor of Contemporary Writings and Faculty Director of Partnerships at Northumbria University, said: “I am delighted to be working as researcher in residence for A Writing Chance. By explicitly embedding research into the design of the programme we aim to generate new evidence about what works and what is needed to address disparities of access, representation and perspective in UK media writing today. Partnership working is a stylistic trait of how we do teaching and research at Northumbria University. This ambitious new collaboration between the university, JRF, NWN, Daily Mirror and New Statesman shows what can be achieved when we work across sectors, leveraging our resources and expertise, to generate new solutions to recognised challenges.”
Full details of A Writing Chance are available at AWritingChance.co.uk
Humanities At Northumbria Is Composed Of Three Subject Teams: History, Literature & Creative Writing, And English Language & Linguistics, And Is Also Developing Strengths In The Fields Of American Studies And Heritage Studies.
Professor in the Department of Humanities and lead researcher into twenty-first century writings.
This is the place to find all the latest news releases, feature articles, expert comment, and video and audio clips from Northumbria University
Northumbria has submitted 1096 staff across thirteen Units of Assessment (UoA) to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021. This submission reflects our research across four Faculties and nineteen Departments, incorporating traditional disciplines, such as English and Engineering, modern disciplines, such as Business and Design, and professional disciplines, such as Architecture and Nursing.
English at Northumbria is focused around three main areas of activity: Literature, Linguistics, and Creative Writing. Our interests range from the regional to the transnational and from the early modern to the contemporary, and we draw on research methods that include the archival and historical, theoretical and conceptual, and the creative.
Open Days are a great way for you to get a feel of the University, the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the course(s) you are interested in.
Research is the life blood of a University and at Northumbria University we pride ourselves on research that makes a difference; research that has application and affects people's lives.
Find out what life here is all about. From studying to socialising, term time to downtime, we’ve got it covered.
Academics from Northumbria University are part of an international research team which has…
In response to increasing frequency of extreme heatwaves in Pakistan, an international research…
An evolving room of the future created by designers from Northumbria University’s Interaction…
The UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), based at Northumbria University,…
Northumbria University academics are part of a research team looking into the effects of Long…
History – the Journal of the Historical Association – has found a new home after Northumbria…
A Northumbria University academic who studies the health and social impacts of work and welfare…
The first cohort of degree apprentices from Balfour Beatty, training to become construction…
Northumbria University Business and Law School
Northumbria University
Northumbria University
-
Back to top
