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Claire Malcolm

Chief Executive

Claire Malcolm is the founder and Chief Executive of New Writing North. She is currently developing the plans for a new flagship Centre for Writing in Newcastle upon Tyne and is part of the team that launched an MA in Publishing with Hachette UK and Northumbria University. She is passionate about working in partnership across sectors and new ways of working and investing in culture and the creative industries.

She leads a highly skilled team that delivers a wide-ranging programme of talent development, reading and engagement projects such as the Gordon Burn Prize, the Northern Writers’ Awards, Durham Book Festival, the David Cohen Prize for Literature, and the organisation’s award-winning work with young people that was shortlisted for the National Charity Awards in 2021. New Writing North won Creative Business of the Year in the North East Business Awards in 2019.

Claire leads the company’s external partnerships with higher education and with industry partners such as Faber and Faber, Hachette, Sky Studios and Channel 4. She is editorial director of NWN’s occasional publishing programmes and leads on the commissioning of original writing and podcasts and the generation and design of new talent programmes and partnerships. She is passionate about culture’s role in the climate crisis and how arts organisations can play their part in supporting transition and in supporting writers to enter the industry from all backgrounds and lived experience.

She writes regularly for the industry press and often speaks at cultural conferences and events. She has presented proposals to Parliamentary Evidence Gathering sessions on inclusivity in the creative industries and on regional culture. She is a regular literary event host and event chair and has interviewed a diverse range of writers and celebrities for festivals, events and broadcast.

Claire is an experienced non-exec and charity trustee and currently serves as a trustee at the Community Foundation for Tyne and Wear. She is a board member of the North East Cultural Partnership where she leads work on culture and the climate crisis, and sits on the National Council for Creative UK. She is one of the Bookseller’s 150, a list of the most influential people in publishing.

In 2021 Claire was awarded an MBE for services to Literature and Young People in the North East of England, recognising her achievements with New Writing North.