Welcome to the This Is The North Podcast, your source of transformative conversations. An intentional challenge to the systems holding back the North of England. Hosted by Alison Dunn.

In this episode, Alison is joined by Claire Malcolm MBE, founding Chief Executive of New Writing North, the organisation she built from a small startup in 1996 into a nationally recognised force shaping opportunities for writers across the north of England.

Claire grew up working class in York, a passionate reader placed in low sets for English because she was a bad speller. Nobody in her family had been to university. She ended up doing a fine art degree because the system had already decided English wasn't for her. In 1996, when everyone she knew in Leeds was heading to London, she went to Newcastle instead, and decided to put it on the map.

For the first twenty years, New Writing North was about building bridges to London, helping northern writers access the agents, publishers, and deals concentrated in the capital. It worked. But Claire reached a point where she started asking a different question: we are supplying London with brilliant writers, so where is the investment coming back?

The conversation turns to the reading crisis. Only one in five schools in the North East has a school library. Book ownership among children is lower than the national average. Claire makes the case that books were, for her, "the steps out of the place I was from," and that when you strip away the library, the books in the home, and the teacher who takes you seriously, you close the door to everything that comes after.

Claire has now raised £10.5 million to build a Centre for Writing in Newcastle, backed by the public sector, Northumbria University, and the combined authority. Hachette UK, the second biggest publisher in the country, has opened a Newcastle office with 20 staff and together they have launched an MA in publishing. The Centre is due to open in early 2028.

The episode also covers the working-class voices magazine The Bee, youth and community programmes in Newcastle's West End, regional screenwriting, AI and copyright, and what Claire is reading.

Timestamps:

00:00 The reading crisis

01:20 Growing up working class in York

04:31 Reading, wellbeing, and empathy

05:29 Why children lack access to books

07:54 Libraries, loneliness, and connection

09:31 Building bridges to London

11:03 The Centre for Writing in Newcastle

12:14 Regional voices on the global stage

16:52 Working-class voices and The Bee

18:29 The Northern Writers Awards

20:22 Skills programmes in libraries

21:31 Youth partnerships and Excelsior Academy

25:54 Screenwriting in the North East

28:39 The Booker Prize and what Claire is reading

37:49 Legacy and the Centre for Writing

This conversation is a reminder that who gets taken seriously as a writer, a reader, or a person with something to say is still shaped by class, geography, and access. Claire Malcolm has spent nearly thirty years proving that the talent was always here. Now she is building the infrastructure to match it.

Host: Alison Dunn

Guest: Claire Malcolm MBE

This podcast is produced by Purpose Made.

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