New Writing North appoints Creative Associates
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We are excited to have appointed two writers to the staff team at New Writing North, at a time of growth and development for the organisation.
Adam Sharp and Sharmin Islam responded to an open call for Creative Associates. Launched in March 2022, the call aimed to find writers that we could support to create new work, as well as bringing fresh perspectives and helping to inform the way New Writing North develops as it grows.
Adam Sharp is a novelist, non-fiction writer, and former music journalist, based in Newcastle upon Tyne. He takes up the post of Creative Associate, a part-time role over two years, where he will have the time and space to create new work, a project budget, and project management, marketing and organisational support from New Writing North.
At New Writing North, he will work on a new book that combines memoir and journalism to explore the effects, both physical and mental, of being a heroin baby. Both of Adam’s parents were heroin addicts and his mother took heroin throughout her pregnancy with him. Through the Heroin Baby project, he hopes to meet other adult heroin babies and tell their stories alongside his own.
Adam’s book about language and lists, The Correct Order of Biscuits, was published by Orion in 2020. His short piece of memoir ‘Play’ was published in Kit de Waal’s Common People: An Anthology of Working-Class Writers. He has an MA in creative writing from St Mary’s University and a PhD in creative writing from Northumbria University.
Sharmin Islam joins New Writing North as a Creative Associate Intern, having recently graduated from Northumbria University in International Relations and Politics.
Sharmin previously completed an editorial internship at Picador and has written for The F Word Feminist Magazine, aurelia magazine, and gal-dem. She is interested in both publishing and editorial, particularly writing about her lived experience as a South Asian woman living in Newcastle.
The internship will offer Sharmin the opportunity to work with staff across New Writing North on a wide range of projects including A Writing Chance and the organisation’s award-winning Young Writers programme, as well as developing her own practice as a facilitator and producer, especially in the South Asian community.
Due to taking up an MA in South Asian Politics at Oxford University, Sharmin’s internship will last three months. After this, the post will be reviewed to extend the opportunity to other writers.
This programme is supported by Arts Council England National Lottery Project funding