Our mission is to help London’s underrepresented writers get their work into the world, and to connect communities to words and stories. If you have two or more years experience in charity finances and are motivated by the work we do, we’d love to hear from you!
We particularly welcome applications from people who are currently underrepresented in the literature and publishing industries. If you rarely see people like yourself in the arts, for any reason, we encourage you to apply.
About the Role
- Job title: Finance Officer
- Contract: Part-time, 1 day a week (7 hours), freelance contract
- Day rate: £160 (£22.86 per hour)
- Ideal start date: end of August
We’re looking for someone who is empathetic, a good listener and communicator, and able to balance and prioritise a busy workload. You will be able to demonstrate good practice in financial management and commitment to accessibility, equality, and inclusion, as well as a passion for engaging people with words and stories.
The Finance Officer will work closely with the Director and our accountants. The Finance Officer is responsible for supporting the delivery of our financial objectives and ensuring good financial management and processes are in place.
This is a freelance role based at our offices in the Albany in Deptford. We offer hybrid working. You will be expected to work from the office at least one day a month.
Job Description
Please download and read the full job description before applying.
How to apply
- Job advertised from: Monday 11 July
- Shortlist confirmed: by Wednesday 20 August
- Interviews: Friday 22 August
- Decision made by Monday 25 August with the candidate in role as soon as possible afterwards.
Please apply by completing the questions in the online application form and attaching the following files:
- A cover letter outlining how you meet the job description and person specification and why you would like the role (no longer than 2 sides A4 or a video file of no longer than 3 minutes);
- Your CV (no longer than 2 sides A4);
- Completed Equal Opportunities form. The form will be separated from your application on receipt. You can download it here.
The deadline to apply is 12pm on Monday 18 August. Late applications will not be considered. We are a writing and reading charity; applications that are written by AI will not be accepted.
If you would like to request any reasonable adjustments to the application process please contact us via [email protected].
Interview process
The shortlist will be confirmed on Wednesday 20 August and interviews will be arranged for Friday 22 August.
The decision will be made by Monday 25 August, with the candidate in role as soon as possible afterwards.
class="post-75601 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-opportunities"Free workshop on Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants Funding
This autumn we’ll be running a free online workshop on applying for Arts Council England’s Projects Grant Fund for London-based writers on Monday 29 September, 7pm-8.30pm with Tom MacAndrew.
This workshop will:
- Give you an insight into the purpose of the grants
- Help you think through your project
- Take you through key stages of the application process and application form
- Look at what makes a strong application
- Provide opportunities for you to ask questions about your own proposal
What you will need for the workshop:
- A clear idea of what your proposed project is, what you want to achieve and how you are going to go about it
- To be able to show how your project is going to engage people or communities with artistic work or cultural education
- To have read through the Arts Council’s NLPG guidance
Please read through all the Arts Council’s NLPG guidance beforehand, so that you are reasonably sure that what you have in mind is suitable for project grant funding. If what you want to do does not involve engaging audiences or participants, but is looking purely to develop new work, or to focus on your professional development then you should likely apply for the Arts Council’s Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) fund instead. We are running a DYCP workshop on Monday 6 October.
Arts Council England’s National Lottery project Grants are open for individual artists or cultural organisations to apply at any time. They range from £1,000 to £100,000, and you can choose whether you would like to apply for up to £30,000 or over £30,000. Projects can vary, but in general should be seeking to reach people and communities with artistic work or cultural education.
It is open to writers of any literary form inc. playwriting and graphic novels. Please note, this session is specifically tailored to writers in London, and it is not open to artists working in other media (e.g fine arts etc.) or writers living outside London. Sessions will run again in 2026.
Access
This session will take place on Zoom with auto-captioning and BSL interpretation- upon request. You are welcome to attend with your camera off, and the workshop will be a relaxed space. Please note that the workshop will not be recorded. Workshop notes will be circulated to attendees.
If you require BSL interpretation, and/or have other access needs please email [email protected] so we can accommodate you.
Booking Your Place
This online workshop is FREE. Book now here.
Due to the limited number of places available, please only sign up if the session is applicable to you. We anticipate that demand will be high for this workshop, so please book with a commitment to attend.
About Tom
Tom MacAndrew is a freelance consultant specialising in poetry, spoken word and live literature. He has delivered projects for clients including Apples & Snakes, the British Museum, CLPE, Forward Arts Foundation, Poet in the City, Roundhouse, Spread the Word and World Book Day.
As a creative producer he has delivered work for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Arts; he edited the anthology Bedtime Stories for the End of the World; and runs Propel Magazine which promotes work by emerging poets. He has developed and toured shows nationally and internationally with poets including Joelle Taylor, Adam Kammerling, Joshua Idehen, Francesca Beard and John Hegley. Tom is the producer for Out-Spoken, London’s largest regular poetry night, resident at Southbank Centre, and for their publishing house Out-Spoken Press. In partnership with Spread the Word he runs the annual Deptford Literature Festival. He is a trustee at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.
Published 14 July 2025
class="post-75640 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-opportunities"Free workshops on Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice Fund
This autumn we’ll be running a free online workshop on applying for Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice Fund for London-based writers on Monday 6 October, 7pm-8.30pm with Ruth Harrison.
This workshop will:
- Give you an insight into the purpose of the fund
- Help you think through your project
- Take you through key stages of the application process and application form
- Look at what makes a strong application
- Provide opportunities for you to ask questions about your own proposal
What you will need for the workshop:
- A clear idea of what your proposed project is, what you want to achieve and how you are going to go about it
- To be able to show how your project is a real development opportunity for your creative practice and/or professional profile, networks and partnerships
- To have read through the Arts Council’s DYCP guidance
- To have read the successful applicant case studies on the Arts Council’s website
Please read through all the Arts Council’s DYCP guidance beforehand, so that you are reasonably sure that what you have in mind is suitable for DYCP funding. If what you want to do involves engaging audiences or participants, then you should likely apply for a National Lottery Project Grant (NLPG) instead. We are running a NLPG funding workshop on 29 September 2025.
Arts Council England’s DYCP Fund is for individual artists to apply for lottery funding to develop a new piece of creative work and/or a new way of working. You can apply for up to £12,000 towards, for example: mentoring, time to create new work, research, training or professional development costs. Whatever it is you want to do, the project you have in mind must be a clear development opportunity.
To be considered for DYCP you will also need to show at least one year’s track record as a writer outside of a formal educational setting. This could include being published or produced (e.g.: by small independent publisher or producer or mainstream publisher/producer), published in magazines, shortlisted for writing competitions or expression of interest from an agent, editor or producer, or working professionally on the poetry circuit).
Please note the next round of DYCP funding opens for applications on 23 October 2025 and closes for applications on 20 November 2025, with decisions announced on 19 February 2026.
It is open to writers of any literary form inc. playwriting and graphic novels. Please note, this session is specifically tailored to writers in London, and it is not open to artists working in other media (e.g fine arts etc) or writers living outside London. Sessions will run again in 2026.
Access
This session will take place on Zoom with auto-captioning and BSL interpretation- upon request. You are welcome to attend with your camera off, and the workshop will be a relaxed space. Please note that the workshop will not be recorded. Workshop notes will be circulated to attendees.
If you require BSL interpretation, and/or have other access needs please email [email protected] so we can accommodate you.
Booking Your Place
This workshop is FREE. Book now here.
Due to the limited number of places available, please only sign up if the session is applicable to you. We anticipate that demand will be high for this workshop, so please book with a commitment to attend.
About Ruth
Ruth Harrison joined Spread the Word as director in 2015. Her working life has been in the field of the arts and particularly in literature. She has been Director of Apples and Snakes, a literature development officer and programme manager at The Reading Agency. She is passionate about not only widening people’s engagement with writers and writing but also in developing writing talent. Widening participation and engagement alongside developing and building awareness of new voices has been core to her work.
At Spread the Word, Ruth is responsible for leading the company artistically and strategically and working with our highly skilled and dedicated team to make a difference to and for writers and their audiences in London.
Published 14 July 2025
class="post-75548 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news category-opportunities"Call out for memories: celebrating 30 years of Spread the Word
This year, our little organisation turns the big 3 0! We’re taking the opportunity to reflect on the brilliant writers, team members, partners, participants, projects and programmes that have formed part of our story so far, and we’d love to hear from you.
Do you have memories of taking part in Spread the Word activities from years, even decades ago? Are there people or projects that have stayed in your mind? Has Spread the Word had an impact on where you are today?
We’ve created a short form as a resting place for your memories. With your permission, we’d love to share these to celebrate the 30 years we’ve worked so far and look ahead to what comes next. We want to celebrate the incredible people who founded Spread the Word and who have formed a part of it’s mission: to create an equitable publishing industry and opportunities for all talented writers.
30 years of impactful work suporting writers and telling the stories that need to be heard gives us a strong foundation on which to build our ambitions for the future. Sharing your memories will help us to tell our story and articulate our imapct. Which in turn will help us to reach funders and secure the organisation’s future.
Thank you for being a part of our journey. We hope you’ll come along for the next chapter.
Share your memories here: Spread the Word at 30
This opportunity will close on Monday 8 September 2025. If you have any questions about the campaign, please get in touch with Alice Sewell, our interim Head of Communications, via [email protected].
Image: former colleague Annette Brook
class="post-75563 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news"Inaugural Disabled Poets Prize winner Jamie Field joins New Northern Poets 2025 Cohort
Six emerging poets based in the North of England have been announced as the 2025 cohort of New Northern Poets. One of them is Jamie Field, winner of the inaugural Disabled Poets Prize in 2023.
The New Northern Poets programme includes a paid mentoring and development programme run by Word Up North and the University of Leeds Centre for Poetry.
We spoke to Jamie about his writing in an interview published on our website back in 2023. We’re really pleased to see his continued success as a writer.
Of the opportunity, Jamie said: “As a proud Northerner and lover of poetry it is a huge honour to be a member of this year’s cohort. I’m looking forward to an exciting few months.”
Find out more about the New Northern Poets programme on the Word Up North website. Congratulations Jamie!
class="post-75544 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news"Three Spread the Word alumna achieve places on London Libraries Emerging Writers Programme
Three alumna from across Spread the Word development programmes have been awarded places on London Libraries Emerging Writers Programme.
The London Library Emerging Writers Programme supports early-career writers who have not yet published a full-length work of fiction, non-fiction, collection of poems, or had a full-length work professionally produced for stage/screen. The programme lasts one year, running from July 2025 to June 2026.
There was huge competition to take part. From nearly 2,000 entries judges selected just 40 writers for the programme. We are thrilled that Early Career Bursary alumna Sarah Cotton, and London Writers Awardees Anne Elicaño-Shields and Aparna Surendra have all been awarded places.
Sarah Cotton writes fiction which blurs the lines between the psychological and the unreal. In 2024 she received a Spread the Word Early Career Bursary and was longlisted and shortlisted for the Commonwealth and Bridport short story prizes. Her novel follows sisters navigating shifting power balances under patriarchal social systems.
Anne Elicaño-Shields is a Filipino writer and international development professional. She is the inaugural winner of the Political Short Story Award (Word Factory), a Future Worlds Prize finalist, and has performed at the London Literature Festival (Southbank Centre). She is writing her second novel, a decolonized retelling of a 19th century Filipino epic poem.
Aparna Surendra is a Sri Lankan writer based in London. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the White Review Short Story prize and Wasafiri New Writing Prize. She is a 2025 Tin House resident and previous recipient of the London Writers Award. Aparna writes fiction alongside a career in digital rights.
Read all about the programme on the London Library website.