NAWE Management Committee 2019 - 2022

The NAWE Management Committee were elected at the NAWE AGM on Saturday 9 November, which took place during the NAWE Conference at Park Inn by Radisson, York, YO1 6JF. The committee will serve from November 2019 to November 2022. 

Current Management Committee Biographies

Jonathan Davidson (outgoing chair)

Jonathan Davidson has worked for over twenty-five years in arts management and literature development. He is Chief Executive of Writing West Midlands which runs a major programme of writing in education work with children and students.

Professor Andrew Melrose, University of Winchester/University of Brighton (chair elect, to be confirmed at the NAWE AGM)

Professor Andrew Melrose is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Winchester and works with other universities throughout the UK, Greece, Australia and the USA. He has worked in Creative Writing for over 25 years and has over 150 publications in one form or another (books, films, articles, poems and songs) and he has maintained his ambition to publish at least one thing every year. His most recent publications are The Boat and Das Boot (in German translation) the-immigration-boat-story.com/ which is about introducing children to the idea of people who take to boats looking for a better life, and Fisherrow - a book and cd of his own songs andymelrose.bandcamp.com/. At the moment he is working on a novel, has edited Writing in Practice and Meniscus and is also an international editor for Axon: Creative Explorations.

Anne Caldwell

Anne Caldwell is a poet, freelance writer and lecturer for the Open University. She is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Bolton. In the past, she worked for NAWE in various capacities including Programme Director, with a specialism in professional development for writers. She is co-editing a new prose poetry anthology for the UK: 'The Valley Press Anthology of Prose Poetry' with Oz Hardwick, and her most recent book is 'Painting the Spiral Staircase', (Cinnamon). She has also had a career in literature development and libraries and is programming live events this year for the City of Salford.

Derek Neale

Derek Neale is a novelist – The Book of Guardians (Salt, 2012) – script and short story writer, and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at The Open University. He edited and co-wrote A Creative Writing Handbook: Developing dramatic technique, individual style and voice (A&C Black/Bloomsbury, 2009); co-authored Writing Fiction and Life Writing (both Routledge, 2009) and was a principle author in Creative Writing: a workbook with readings (Routledge, 2006). Derek is lead educator on the OU/FutureLearn Start Writing Fiction MOOC.

Lucy Sweetman 

Lucy Sweetman is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Her research is focused on memoir, the literary essay, and using creative writing to respond to and make sense of national and global political events. Lucy also researches and writes about teaching and learning in higher education. Her most recent publication is a co-edited volume on leadership in higher education. Before coming to Bath Spa University, Lucy spent more than twenty years working in the voluntary sector with vulnerable and marginalized young people.

NB: The elected committee may co-opt further members to fill any role which is vacant, provided co-options shall come to an end at the next AGM, when elections will again apply to any vacant positions.

Those elected shall serve for three years. After this period, Committee members shall stand down, but are eligible for re-election. An elected member may be asked to stand down if s/he misses 3 meetings within a year without input to the proceedings or special leave of absence.