National Association for Literature Development

The DCMS has asked Arts Council England to model cuts of 25-30% over the next four years. At the same time local authorities are being asked to make significant cuts, which have already begun to affect those of you in libraries and cultural services, and are likely to impact on those of you in receipt of local authority investment.

Arts Council England has asked the cultural sector to speak with one voice, using the same key messages and themes to make sure our voice is heard and they have produced an advocacy tool kit , which NALD encourages everyone to use.

However, it is important that we also make the case for literature both now as public spending decisions are made, and in the next months as funded bodies decide how to pass on the cuts they have been asked to make by government, in England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland.

NALD is creating a bank of advocacy arguments. For us, and for you.

If everyone of the 538 people on NALD's database, together with all our Facebook friends and Twitter followers responds to only to one of the requests below, we can create a wealth of material we can all access to make our case collectively and individually.

We are looking for stories. We are looking for:

• success stories where you have significantly developed writers, the artform, readership/audiences

• examples of where your intervention has transformed the lives of individuals or communities

• examples of where your work has underpinned the success of other art forms

• instances where your intervention has led to commercial cultural and/or non cultural sector.

• Investment that you have made levering in external funding.

Simple stories, a few sentences, facts and figures too if appropriate. Please send us material we can attribute – though of course in some cases we realise you might want to protect individual's identities.

Please contribute, even if it is only one example, and we will keep you informed as this resource builds. If there are other ways in which NALD can help or back you up in your own advocacy, please let us know.  Please send your contributions to our advocacy bank to director@nald.org

NALD has always seen its role as bringing together literature people who want to meet and share their skills and experience. 

We are finalising plans with Cyprus Well for a freelancers network meeting in Swindon on October 26th. Watch this space!

This September we will be hosting the second meeting of directors from the regional literature and writer development agencies; New Writing North, Writing East Midlands, Writing West Midlands, Writers' Centre Norwich, New Writing South, Spread the Word and Cyprus Well.

On July 27th NALD hosted a meeting of Writer Development Agencies at Free Word Centre in London.  We made plans to get the case across about our work, especially its long term and sometimes intense commitment to individuals, our relation to production and to audiences/readers in local and national ecologies, and our vital role in providing new blood and innovation to the commercial sector. This meeting included most of the agencies linked above, plus Free Word Centre, the National Association of Writers in Education, Apples and Snakes, The Poetry Trust, and The Poetry School. We plan to involve a wider constituency in gathering information to make the case, and in future meetings.

On 26th February, together with the Scottish Arts Council, we hosted writers and readers in residence in Scotland, at the Edinburgh College of Art.  The event relaxed and informal, was an opportunity to meet other writers in residence, past and present, working across Scotland. The day was made up of workshops, sharing practice and exploring new media, and informal group discussions. Sessions were led by Tim Turnbull, formerly Writer in at HMP Edinburgh, HMYOI Werrington and Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, founder editor of confiction.org and social media expert Colin Fraser, and John Rice Writer in Residence Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.

NALD is pleased to begin a new relationship with English PEN the campaigning organisation promoting literature and human rights. Our front page now carries a regular feature drawing your attention to the writer for whom they are particularly concerned each month.

In the autumn we will begin to work with Jonathan Heawood, English PEN's Director, to develop PEN hubs in the English regions.

To find out more about this month's writer and how to support them go here.