Writers & Commissioning

Following our event at the Free Word Centre, in partnership with NALD and the Arvon Foundation, we are pleased to make available these resources provided by Lucy McNab and Linda France.


Lucy Macnab’s work is about finding ways for people to tell their stories, about participation in literature, as a writer, reader or performer. Until recently she was Participation Producer at the Southbank Centre, and looked back on her experience commissioning writers there for NALD's seminar on the subject organised in conjunction with NAWE at the 2010 Free Word Festival. Lucy has recently taken up post as Co-Director of Ministry of Stories. Here are her reflections on commissioning.

View Lucy's slideshow here.



Linda France currently lives close to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland. Her poetry collections, published by Bloodaxe Books, include The Simultaneous Dress (2002) and The Toast of the Kit Cat Club (2005), a biography in verse of the 18th century traveller and writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Linda also edited the acclaimed anthology Sixty Women Poets (Bloodaxe 1993). She has worked on a number of collaborations with visual artists and musicians and over 20 Public Art projects. She teaches Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle.

Download Linda's article below.