Claire Malcolm
Chief Executive
Claire Malcolm is the founder and Chief Executive of New Writing North.
She is currently leading the capital and business development for a new multi-million pound flagship centre for writing and publishing in Newcastle upon Tyne which has so far secured £10.5M of public funding.
She is passionate about working in partnership and in finding new ways of working and investing in culture and the creative industries and she works across a number of panels and strategic advisory groups to progress opportunities in this area.
At New Writing North Claire 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, the Writing and Publishing Skills Hub, Durham Book Festival, the David Cohen Prize for Literature, impactful work in community contexts 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.
She leads the company’s external partnerships with higher education and industry partners and was part of the team that launched the MA in Publishing with Hachette UK and Northumbria University and established Sounds Good, NWN’s audio book business.
She is editorial director of NWN’s occasional publishing programmes and leads on the commissioning of original writing and podcasts. She leads the A Writing Chance programme and the work that has grown out of this including the creation of The Bee, a new magazine of working class writing edited by Richard Benson. She also co-hosts The Working Class Library podcast series with Richard.
Claire 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 North East and the Deborah Rogers Foundation and is a member of the UK 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 and in 2024 was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
