About us
Associates
Free Word's network of associates includes individuals, groups and organisations working across the fields of literature, culture, politics and free expression, and the arts.
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26
Members of 26 work in all areas of the media and collaborate to raise the profile and value of words in business and everyday life. Projects include 26 Exchanges with International PEN, From Here to Here with London Underground, 26 Treasures with the V&A, The Bard & Co with Shakespeare’s Globe, Common Ground funded by the Arts Council, and WORDSTOCK - a word festival held at the Free Word Centre.
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Arcadia Books
Arcadia Books is an award-winning independent publishing house established in 1996. They are known for their literary and translated fiction (including The Deposition of Father McGreevy by Brian O'Doherty, shortlisted for the Booker; Lorraine Connection by Dominique Manotti, translated from the French by Amanda Hopkinson and Ros Schwartz, winner of the International Dagger; and The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn, winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize). They have three imprints: Arcadia, EuroCrime and BlackAmber (Black and Asian writing in English and in translation).
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The British Centre for Literary Translation
The British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) is Britain's leading centre for the development, promotion and support of literary translation.
Working closely with regional, national and international partners (including the Translators Association and English PEN), BCLT offers support and continuing professional development to literary translators at all stages of their career; provides information and advice; stimulates public awareness and interest in literary translation, develops new audiences through events and publications; and generates and encourages academic debate.
Founded in 1989 by the late W G 'Max' Sebald, BCLT is based at the University of East Anglia and supported by Arts Council England.
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Child Rights Information Network (CRIN)
Guided by a passion for social and legal change, CRIN is building a global network for children's rights. CRIN presses for rights, not charity, and advocates for a genuine systemic shift in how governments and societies view children. Its inspiration is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which CRIN uses to bring children's rights to the top of the international agenda.
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Culture+Conflict
Culture+Conflict is an ambitious new venture – independent, interdisciplinary, international and intercultural – to explore and amplify the distinctive role of culture in conflict and post-conflict contexts.
The aim is to support artists, writers and cultural practitioners working in these contexts by promoting and amplifying their work to international audiences, including policy-makers, politicians and diplomats. They act as a broker to connect people and build networks, and run a programme that includes events, research, workshops and projects. -
day for night*
Day for night* is an independent organisation engaged in film exhibition, distribution and screen translation. Their work is centred around the concept of film as a language and the interaction between word and image, with the promotion of cultural diversity and accessibility at the core of their philosophy. They collaborate with film festivals, venues, filmmakers and audiences, enabling broader access to visual culture. With a creative approach to audience development, marketing and PR, they take some of the freshest new independent films and documentaries to wide and diverse audiences. Tibet Film Festival is one of their core activities among other curatorial projects.
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Fiction Uncovered
Fiction Uncovered is a promotion to support the UK’s best fiction writers – those writers who deserve wider recognition. The promotion is supported by Arts Council England and funded by the National Lottery. Retailers including Waterstones, Foyles, iBookstore, Amazon and The Book Depository support the promotion. It also works in partnership with The Reading Agency to reach libraries and reading groups, and with Lovereading UK.
Fiction Uncovered also hosts a community website, which offers the eight selected writers – and an even broader group of writers through recommendation and endorsement – a chance to reach wider audiences.
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Graham Devlin
Graham Devlin is a creative artist, senior arts manager and cultural strategist. He was Deputy Secretary General and Acting Chief Executive of the Arts Council England until 1999. As a stage director and writer, he ran the successful new writing and music-theatre company Major Road for over twenty years whilst also directing and writing freelance for, amongst others, the National Theatre, Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne, Sydney Opera House and the Aldeburgh Festival. Since leaving ACE, he has been a consultant and Visiting Professor of Cultural Strategy in Edinburgh. He was awarded a CBE in the 2010 New Year’s honours list.
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if:book uk
if:book uk is a think and do tank exploring the future of the book, founded in 2007 linked to Institute for the Future of the Book in New York, if:book Australia and if:lire, Paris. Projects include curating the book How Power Corrupts by Ricardo Blaug at the Free Word; setting up The Unlibrary Cafe, a hub for community digital publishing; creating innovative resources for schools; research with publishers Winged Chariot, developing the Young Poets Network, and co-ordinating the ifsoflo network promoting digital possibilities for literature organisations.
Director Chris Meade speaks at conferences and events around the UK and the world. -
Information Design Association
Since 1991, the Information Design Association has brought together designers, writers, teachers and researchers who work to make information clearer. Information designers typically work in areas such as wayfinding, user manuals, forms, financial information, health information, interaction design, and news graphics. They run conferences and evening meetings on a wide range of topics.
www.informationdesignassociation.org.uk
@infodesignuk
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The Literary Platform
The Literary Platform is dedicated to finding out about the best projects experimenting with literature and technology. It brings together comment from industry figures and key thinkers, serving to showcase the range of creative literary initiatives both inside and outside the book publishing industry. The Literary Platform also offers consultancy, curation and communications services to publishers, literary organisations and authors. Clients include the FutureBook Innovation Workshop, O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conferences, the Frankfurt Book Fair, Pan Macmillan and Simon and Schuster. It is part of a working group at NESTA looking at the impact of digital on SME publishers.
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Literature Across Frontiers
Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) fosters cross-cultural dialogue and international literary exchange, and operates in partnership with a network of organisations with the aim to encourage greater diversity in literary publishing and programming; develop audiences for translated literature; and to act as a catalyst for international collaborations and interdisciplinary projects that create opportunities for writers, translators, publishers and literary organizations, bring literature into interaction with other art forms and explore the social and political role of writing.
LAF is based at the Mercator Institute for Media, Languages and Culture at Aberystwyth University in Wales and is supported by the Culture Programme of the EU.
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The Manifesto Club
The Manifesto Club campaigns against the hyperregulation of everyday life. They support free movement across borders, free expression and free association. They challenge booze bans, photo bans, vetting and speech codes - all new ways in which the state regulates everyday life on the streets, in workplaces and in people’s private lives. They believe that the freedom issues of the twenty-first century cut across old political boundaries, and require new schools of political thought, and new methods of campaigning and organisation. Their rapidly growing membership hails from all political traditions and none, and from all corners of the world.
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The Muswell Press
The Muswell Press seeks to publish good writers – new or established – who may be overlooked by current agent/publisher systems. They produce high quality, well designed and edited printed books and eBooks on a wide range of subjects: fiction, poetry, science and art. Their eBooks are distributed by Faber & Faber, and Bloomsbury Publishing have included them in their eBook public library initiative. If their manuscript is accepted, Muswell Press authors enter a unique collaboration between editor, publisher, printer and designer. They also run ‘Muswell Press In Performance’ events in bookshops to promote their authors.
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Pop Up
Pop Up is an exciting new social enterprise model for engaging diverse children, young people and families through literature and stories. The Pop Up model consists of a community engagement phase - with the school as the hub of each community – in which children and families read books, meet authors and create stories; followed by a free, public Festival of Stories, which is curated by authors, poets, storytellers and artists. Pop Up was winner of Runneymede European Community Project of the Year at the European Diversity Awards, September 2011, recognising "the outstanding contribution that community groups make to equality, diversity and inclusion".
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RAW
RAW in WAR aims to support women human rights defenders working in countries in war and conflict, and to help end abuse and persecution against them, as well as to strengthen their work in areas of conflict.
Founded in 2006 by Mariana Katzarova, RAW awards the annual Anna Politkovskaya Award, given to a woman human rights defender who stands up for the victims of conflict. They also grant the Natalia Estemirova Memorial Scholarship for a woman from an area torn by conflict to study human rights journalism in London.
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Readers International
Founded in 1984 and active in the UK since 1986, Readers International (RI) made its name by publishing works and authors that suffered political censorship or exile in their home country. Thus in the closing years of the Cold War, of apartheid, and of military terror in Latin America's Southern Cone, RI successfully brought international acclaim for the first time to major writers like Chilean Antonio Skármeta, Argentinian Marta Traba and the Czech writers Ivan Klima and Ludvik Vaculik. With Dorothy Connell still at the helm, Readers International has achieved twenty-five years of successful small press publishing in support of the free word.
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Sandblast Arts
Sandblast is an arts and human rights charity based in London. It works with the Saharawis of Western Sahara, a dispossessed and marginalised community that largely live as refugees in harsh desert camps in SW Algeria. Under the Moroccan occupation, in their homeland, the Saharawis suffer from all kinds of human rights abuses and have no freedom of expression.
Sandblast uses educational, cultural and artistic events to raise awareness of the situation in Western Sahara and put the Saharawis on the map culturally. Through its Saharawi Artist Fund, Sandblast finances projects in the camps to promote artistic and cultural development and stimulate creative ties between the Saharawis and artists worldwide. Its mission is to empower the Saharawis to tell their own story, promote their own culture and earn a living through the arts.
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Spread the Word
Spread the Word provides support for writers of all levels - from networking events to publisher and agent talks, advice surgeries, mentoring and an online city of shared stories. They connect writers with the wider literature scene and offer a sustained relationship to talented writers for the development of their careers.
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The National Academy of Writing
The National Academy of Writing runs a London-based specialist course for committed writers seeking to publish a book-length work in either fiction or non-fiction. The Academy is led by practising writers and has extensive contacts in the publishing industry through the NAW Board of Directors, Patrons and Partners. NAW also provides unique writing events for literary festivals and University writing programmes.
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Wanderer Apps
Wanderer Apps is a collective of arts and technology professionals working to produce arts and culture focused on augmented reality and copyright-free image-recognition based apps.
Its mandate is to present collective global culture in a user-friendly way. Its apps are intended as totally immersive experiences because culture is a living, dynamic thing and deserves to be experienced as such.
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WingedChariot
WingedChariot is an independent digital publisher, specialising in translated childrens' books. It loves languages, learning and play. It builds beautiful stories for the iPhone, iPad and the new HP TouchPad.
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Writers’ Centre Norwich
Writers’ Centre Norwich is a literature development agency based in Norwich. They are interested in both the artistic and social impact of creative writing, and work with writers, readers and diverse communities. They run a wide range of ongoing and one-off projects and events including the Worlds Literature festival, a week of events, readings and discussion featuring writers from around the world; the Escalator Literature Competition; creative writing workshops; Summer Reads; the City of Refuge programme and Refugee Week.
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The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain
The Writers' Guild of Great Britain is a trade union, affiliated to the TUC, and represents writers' interests in film, TV, radio, theatre, books and video games. Formed in 1958 as the Screenwriters' Guild, it gradually extended into all areas of freelance writing activity and copyright protection.