Meet CORE2 & COREx!

With new funding from Arts Council England the Writing Squad has expanded its core team of specialists with alumni of its own programme.

Six Squad writers will be employed part time to complement the current Core Team of playwright Emma Adams, novelist Katie Hale, poet Malika Booker and poet/maker Stevie Ronnie.

Three writers, Georgia Affonso, Helen Bowell and Kym Deyn will contribute to the Squad’s mentoring and workshop programmes. Administrator Jessica Wood will work with the Squad’s Director and Co-ordinator on the running and delivery of the organisation.

Director Steve Dearden says, “CORE2 is a brilliant opportunity to increase our capacity and give longer term experience in writer development to emerging writers. It makes real our post-covid ethos of being an organisation which is as much about sharing the knowledge held by our community of writers as it is about top down training.” 

In addition to this CORE2 team, artists and writers Jamal Gerald and Lydia Hounat will form COREx, a co-curated strand to encourage experimental work and support Squad writers in their cross genre and inter disciplinary practice.

Writing Squad Chair says, “We have wanted to establish CORE2 for some time so it is brilliant that our uplift from Arts Council England made this possible. And it is typical of the Squad that pursuing one idea, CORE2, led to another exciting new initiative in COREx!”

Find out more about CORE2 and COREx writers here.