Writing the Northern Powerhouse: Evaluating the Northern Writers' Awards as a Potential Model of Intervention for Addressing Regional Representation in the 'London-centric' UK Literary Industry

Despite the UK government’s Northern Powerhouse agenda, the UK literary industry remains staunchly focused on a predominantly London-base. When it comes to Northern writers, representations of the North in contemporary literature and Northern voices on the stage, small and big screens, UK government has suggested that the literary industry is guilty of persistently underrepresenting the 55.4 million members of the public who live outside the capital city. This research adopts a case study approach to this problem, examining one regional creative industry award, the Northern Writers’ Awards (NWAs) as a potential model of intervention for enhancing participation, professional development and talent pipelines of Northern writers to the national literary industry. The research analyses how and why the NWAs: develop creative knowledge exchange to create career development opportunities for creative talent through partnership-based training and knowledge exchange; retain the economic impact of regional creative talent to improve the economy of the North by retaining and developing creative talent within the region; and enhance diversity in creative talent to address issues of representation and diversity by reaching writers from all backgrounds in the North.