National Association for Literature Development

Gary McKeone was Literature Director at Arts Council England from 1995-2006. Before that he worked with Field Day Theatre Company in Ireland and at the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank. He is currently Chair of the Poetry Archive and the recently created Poetry Translation Centre and is also involved with a number of other literature organisations in England. Originally from Derry, N.Ireland he has written for the Guardian and Independent newspapers and currently works in a freelance capacity.

Karen McCarthy began blogging in 2005 on a residency with Spread The Word. When the project finished, she continued to blog about her writing experiences, and later went on to facilitate creative blogging workshops for writers. Karen has recently been commissioned by Spread The Word to develop an online project called Open Notebooks, which will see Karen write hyper-poems and exploring her own process as a writer, as well as asking other poets to reveal their processes.

In this interview with NALD Ambassador Yemisi Blake, Karen talks about how she started blogging, her specific approach to the self-publishing form, blogging experiences and advice for anyone thinking about setting-up a blog.

This podcast consists of a series of short interviews on Leadership in the Arts.

The interviews centre around concepts raised in the recent report by Sir Brian McMasters who states that artists need to take risks to achieve excellence and who talks of the value of failure.

The interviewees are from both inside and outside the arts sector to gain a range of perspectives.

Interviewees:

• Bill Beswick, Renowned Sports Psychologist

• Mike Shinton, Life and Leadership Coach

• Melanie Abrahams, Curator & Producer, NALD Director

• Emma Drew, Consultant - Publishing, Literature and Creative Business

• Naomi Kent, Creative & Cultural Skills

Click on the > below to play.