Findings

Many of those interviewed talked about the fact that although Leeds has strong literary assets, these aren’t presented well externally, and the national profile of the work here isn’t as high as you might expect of England’s fourth largest city.  

People in Leeds involved with literature-related activity feel positive about the profile of the city as a centre of literary activity. However, there is a shared perception that Leeds ‘under-celebrates’ its literary culture, whether historical or contemporary. Generally the city does not teach its young people about Tony Harrison, Keith Waterhouse, Alan Bennett, Kay Mellor or Caryl Phillips, nor does it invite communities to celebrate their contribution to world literature as other cities might. This was a point made by Chicago- born Tony Macaluso of Chapel FM, who struggled to find much about the literary history of Leeds when considering moving here and was surprised upon arrival by its richness.  

“Leeds is very lucky, but I don’t think the city recognises it.” Writer  “The local authority have not managed to lock in to what makes Leeds culturally strong.” Writer 

There is a tension between celebrating the past and focused promotion of the  

contemporary scene. Each are priorities for different organisations.  

“(Leeds) struggles with balancing literary history and heritage with having a contemporary scene in the ‘here and now’.” Stakeholder  

More than one respondent was able to articulate what they felt that the ‘voice’ of Leeds is: left leaning, challenging, not afraid to have an opinion, democratic. Several told us that this voice hasn’t been given a chance to be heard in the city – that it isn’t profiled or celebrated enough – and that more opportunities were needed to showcase what is a rich and varied diversity of talent.  

A prevailing feeling from respondents across the research was that although Leeds has many of the constituent parts and grassroots activity that should support a thriving ecology, it is still a city that writers have often left to seek success:  

“With six universities, five of which offer creative writing courses, and the National Poetry Centre coming to Leeds, the city could within a generation gain the reputation of being the city to move to if you want to be a writer. Look at the previous generation of famous Leeds authors: Alan Bennett moved to London. Barbara Taylor Bradford moved to the US. Tony Harrison moved to Newcastle. Keith Waterhouse moved to London (even if Billy didn't). We want the next generation to stay in Leeds as a no- brainer, and we want to attract writers from all over the world.”

Organisation  

The younger generation of writers are perhaps much less likely to gravitate to London due to prevailing economic conditions and, like Poppy Jennings of Leeds Poetry Festival, they are more likely to be returning to the city to seek creative possibilities and to begin new ventures.  

Others are also seeing the potential of Leeds as a convenient place from which to run national activity. BookTrust’s CEO, Diana Gerald, has brought the organisation’s headquarters to Leeds from London and is building a team at scale here (with plans to employ 30-40 people in the city, up from their current team of 15). Their staff have been recruited from across Yorkshire and the North to work in Leeds, and Gerald is excited by the diversity and wider talent pool that they can reach here.  

There are many cultural entrepreneurs and champions of grassroots activity, often running projects on a shoestring with hardworking volunteers. However, a general trend we noted was a lack of connectedness and leadership in the writing sector in general.  

“Grassroots organisations (such as Hyde Park Book Club and Truman Books) are really supportive and do so much for Leeds and West Yorkshire, but I've found a lot of official organisations (Leeds City Council etc) very inaccessible and distant. I only know of Leeds Inspired and their grants who can support writers with projects – a lot of the arts infrastructure seemed focused on theatre and spoken word.”

Organisation  

This is backed up by the results of our writers’ survey. Those who undertake paid employment for their writing were asked to list which organisations were their most regular employers as a writer. The resulting list of organisations were incredibly varied, with no single organisation appearing more than once, and some respondents noting that they do not have any regular employers. This suggests that employment in the writing sector in Leeds is generally quite sporadic, with no key employers that regularly offer paid writing opportunities.  

“I think there’s a massive amount of work that’s really hidden.” Local Authority Librarian  

The following organisations and individuals form part of the literature and writing scene in the city:  

Artlink West Yorkshire: A writer spoke about the positive work she delivered for Artlink, which involved workshops around health and wellbeing and education, and socially engaged arts work, often with disadvantaged groups. However Artlink have lost their Arts Council England NPO status, and have taken the decision to cease to operate in 2024.  

SJ Bradley (Northern Short Story Festival, Fictions of Every Kind): SJ Bradley is writer and a literature entrepreneur who has run volunteer-led writers’ groups, socials and fiction development programmes including Fictions of Every Kind. She also runs the Northern Short Story Festival and associated writer development programmes, was editor of Remembering Oluwale and is fiction editor at Strix Magazine. Many of these high-quality programmes have utilised Leeds Lit Fest as a showcase. She has received funding from Leeds Inspired and Arts@Leeds but has struggled with Arts Council funding. She has found the Arts Council England funding processes “time-consuming, challenging and dispiriting when you are turned down with little reason why”. She has now stepped back from producing, leaving a gap in local provision.  

Bluemoose Books is a successful independent publisher based in Hebden Bridge, committed to writer development and supporting writers throughout their careers, with a focus on Northern talent. Their list includes writers such as Stu Hennigan and Benjamin Myers. They have worked with Leeds Library Service on innovative events supporting independent publishers. Their work includes editorial development and mentoring young editors (including with Fox and Windmill in Bradford, the UK’s first independent publishing company for British South Asian writers).  

BookTrust selected Leeds as its new headquarters (moving from London) due to its excellent reputation for children’s services and the fact that it is a designated Child Friendly City. Now that they are in Leeds, they represent a major employer within the literature sector and an appealing potential partner for libraries, education and wider social services, as well as the arts sector. They are interested in opportunities to partner locally and  pilot areas of their work in Leeds and Yorkshire. They are already involved with several collaborative projects reaching up to 7,000 early years children and young people and are working in partnership with LEEDS 2023 and the British Library North to create an anthology of new writing to be given to each child born in the city in 2023. BookTrust supports Leeds’s strong commitment to improve outcomes for early years children. They run multiple programmes established to support reading, lots of outreach activity, and aim to foster a love of books and reading and develop literacy (such as by providing book packs to disadvantaged children and families, supporting practitioners, additional needs packs, dual language books, Bookstart Baby Packs).  

Chapel FM is a community radio station with a café, performance and events space in Seacroft. It’s one of a handful of NPO organisations in Leeds that supports writers. It is home to a range of activities, and very active in the literature and writing space, hosting the unique Writing on Air audio literature festival which takes place over two weeks in November, and which welcomes 250 writers from across Yorkshire every year to make audio programmes and plays. They have teams of radio-makers who cover culture and literature across the city. They also run community and school programmes. They are very committed to developing an archive of the stories of Leeds. They run regular writing workshops in schools, local arts centres and community centres (the results are often showcased on the radio). They run audio skills workshops and are a resource for writers wanting to pursue radio drama, or more experimental approaches to audio. They are also a hub for the trans writing Queer Party network.  

First Story is a writer development charity for young people and has partnerships with key schools. Writers are in residence in partner schools for 16 weeks, collaborating with pupils on creative writing programmes. The results are published in an anthology. The charity works from a West Yorkshire hub in Bradford. Since the pandemic it has been working in one Leeds school, with another in the pipeline and more partnerships to be developed.  

Hyde Park Book Club was set up eight years ago by Jack Simpson, who is also one of the programmers of Leeds Lit Fest. It is a commercial, mixed-arts venue, close to the universities and used predominantly by younger and student audiences and customers. Its DIY ethos means the events it puts on need to at least break even and result in a healthy bar take. Writers also use it as a creative space to work during the day. Jack is connected to new and emerging talent in the city. The venue is embraced by writers, who work there, run events there, and engage with activities such as book clubs.  

Leeds Writers Circle is a long-established writers’ circle with a membership of 70 and with circa 16 people attending each of their events. They have a range of sub-groups focusing on different areas of writing (novels, short stories, women’s fiction) and support writers at different stages of their careers. They organise workshops with visiting and local writers. They would love to see a designated space or a hub for writers, a more open version of the Circle, and space for a regular meet-up.  

Leeds Young Authors was established by writer Khadijah Ibrahiim in 2003 to develop and provide opportunities for young writers in the city. She worked with young people in schools, creating a new generation of writers and delivering regular workshops. For ten years, young people involved with the project travelled to events in the US. The project also facilitated adult writers to become mentors. LYA continues, but in a different format now that Khadijah is focused on developing her own writing. They still collaborate with libraries and go into schools.  

Stand Magazine is a seminal poetry publication run from Leeds University’s English Department by Managing Editor Professor John Whale, with editorial input from Dr Caitlin Stobie, who runs the undergraduate Creative Writing course.  

A good sign of a literary city is a thriving bookshop culture and Leeds has a range of independent book shops alongside the ubiquitous Waterstones chain which is centrally located in the city. Outlets include The Bookish Type, a “queer indy” bookshop on Great George Street; The Little Bookshop in Chapel Allerton, which also stages events; and Truman Books in Farsley. In Cross Gates you can buy books for Greek and English speakers from Diavazo and when the weather is fine you can read on the sun deck of Marjorie R, an award-winning barge and home of the new Hold Fast bookshop situated at Leeds Dock.

Leeds is home to Screen Yorkshire, a development agency working across the region to develop talent, encourage regional production and attract inward investment. Most screen production in Leeds is for factual, rather than film and TV drama. Talent development for drama and other agile forms of writing that might be exploited across forms and media has understandably been a lower priority. An exception to this is New Writing North’s work with Channel 4, which includes well-established awards and mentoring projects supported this year by Rollem Productions in Leeds, Bonafide Films and Lime Pictures (producers of Hollyoaks) in Liverpool, alongside roadshows and events across the North and the newly formed Northern Talent Network for new and diverse writers.  

Screen agencies across the North are working to address below-the-line (non-creative and technical crew) skills deficits, exemplified by the Beyond Brontës: The Mayor’s Screen Diversity Programme delivered by Screen Yorkshire. Younger and emerging talented filmmakers are supported by initiatives such as Leeds Film Festival who host the British Film Institute Film Academy for 16–19-year-olds and run other development programmes for directors and makers.  

Peepal Tree Press is an internationally regarded Leeds-based independent publisher of Caribbean and Black British writing. Established as a one-person operation in 1985 by founder Jeremy Poynting, Peepal Tree has grown to become a prominent name in Caribbean publishing, with over 300 titles published to date. They have been funded by Arts Council England as an NPO since 2011.  

Now publishing around 20 books a year, Peepal Tree Press has a vibrant portfolio of Caribbean and Black British writing, with readership reaching across the world. Notable publications include: Jacob Ross’ The Bone Readers (2016), which won the Jhalak Prize; Roger Robinson’s A Portable Paradise (2019), which won both the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Ondaatje Prize; Kwame Dawes’ Progeny of Air (1994), which won the Forward Poetry Prize; and Monique Roffey’s The Mermaid of Black Conch (2020), which was Costa Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Rathbones Folio Prize, and the Goldsmiths Prize.  

Writer development and support is at the heart of Peepal Tree’s work. They offer a range of adaptive development services to authors. As part of this work, they established Inscribe, a successful writer development project aimed at assisting emerging writers of African and Asian descent based in England with their creative and professional development. Run by Dr Kadija George and Dorothea Smartt, the programme provides coaching, mentoring, workshops, residentials, training, newsletters and publications, as well as general advice and support. Inscribe also acts as an imprint and recently published Glimpse – the first-ever anthology of Black British speculative fiction.  

Inscribe founded the Peepal Tree/Inscribe Readers and Writers group, an accessible community group open to readers and writers based in Leeds. The group meets monthly and provides a space where people can discuss Caribbean and Black British writing and nurture their own creative practice. Led by Khadijah Ibrahiim and Jacob Ross, the group creates opportunities for people from any background to come together and learn from established authors such as Malika Booker, Roger Robinson and Dr Rommi Smith, and features reading and writing workshops covering a wide variety of topics. The group recently produced an anthology called Weighted Words (2021), which consists of writing entirely from participants of the Leeds-based group, and plans are in the works for another.  

Peepal Tree Press partnered with Soroptimist International of Leeds and Ilkley Literature Festival to support the SI Leeds Literary Prize, a biennial award for unpublished Black and Asian women writers which is celebrating its tenth year in 2023. They work with the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University to organise writing and publishing events and have also hosted student placements. They work in partnership with Jamaica Society Leeds, a community organisation in Leeds which champions Jamaican heritage and culture, and recently collaborated on Calabash Presents, a literature strand of Jamaica Society Leeds’ Out of Many Festival (2022).