Chris Gribble is the Chief Executive of Writers’ Centre Norwich (formerly New Writing Partnership). After completing a PhD in German Poetry and Philosophy at the University of Manchester, Chris worked in publishing for Carcanet Press and PN Review, then spent several years working as a consultant for the cultural sector (specializing in cultural strategy, performance management and cultural policy) and was the Director of Manchester Poetry Festival and then Manchester Literature Festival. He sits of the Advisory Group for Manchester University’s Centre for New Writing, is on the Board of Directors of ICORN (the International Cities of Refuge Network), is Co-Chair of the National Association for Literature Development and a Board Member of Norwich small press Eggbox Publishing. He is also an Artistic Assessor for Arts Council England.
Mitchell Albert is the Programme Director of Writers’ Centre Norwich. From 2007–11 he edited the literary magazine of PEN International, the worldwide writers' association, and later also helped coordinate the organisation’s communications and literary events departments. As the former commissioning editor of the independent publishing house Saqi/Telegram, and subsequently as a freelance editor, he has developed and edited a wide range of nonfiction books for publishing houses in the UK and US, plus novels, short story and poetry collections, magazines and journals. He continues to consult on book projects and writes poetry and long emails from Norwich – the sixth major world metropolis he has called home after Montreal, Tokyo, New York, Toronto and London. Although he has never understood how anyone can feel ‘proud’ of having been born somewhere (that choice is given to none of us), he confesses to a perverse twinge of pride-like stuff whenever someone outs him as a Canadian.
Katy Carr has been Marketing Manager for Writers’ Centre Norwich since 2007. As well as being in charge of the full range of marketing and communications functions of the organisation, over the past eighteen months she has managed the organisation’s rebrand via the AmbITion project, a change programme for the arts and cultural sector funded by Arts Council England. Katy has wide experience in community arts and communications and is also a writer, having studied at the University of East Anglia.
Martin Figura is Finance Manager for Writers’ Centre Norwich and is a photographer and poet. His book of photographs This Man’s Army (Dewi Lewis) was published in 1998 and Work – Space – Work (Happen) in 2008. His work has been widely published and exhibited – including at the National Portrait Gallery. He is a member of the Joy of Six spoken word group and has performed with them across the UK and in the USA. He has also performed widely in his own right at events and festivals in the UK and Canada, including Latitude. He runs Café Writers a monthly live literature event in Norwich. He is an associate artist with Apples & Snakes and will be touring a spoken word version of his forthcoming collection Whistle (Arrowhead) with them from 2010.
Shenaz Kedar joined Writers Centre Norwich in June 2006 to launch and manage the Norwich City of Refuge programme. She now manages all Community and Participation projects delivered by Writers’ Centre Norwich including City of Refuge and the Shahrazad - stories for life project which is a European Union Culture 2007 multi-annual co-operation project between Norwich, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Stavanger and Stockholm. She has over 11 years experience working on community and participation based projects, working with asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers in a variety of contexts focusing on community cohesion in Portugal, Japan, Greece and Israel. Shenaz is also the Regional Refugee Week coordinator for the eastern region and a freelance consultant.
Sam Ruddock joined Writers’ Centre Norwich in February 2009 having previously been a Senior Bookseller with Waterstone’s. He organises the monthly Salon and provides general administration and assistance to the other members of the creative team. Sam’s big love is fiction. He believes passionately in the power of stories to transform our understanding of the world. Outside work he tries valiantly to maintain a book review blog, Books, Time, and Silence, and contributes regularly to others, including the popular book collective, Vulpes Libris. He lives in Norwich with his wife and two mischievous cats.
Laura Stimson formerly co-managed the Writers’ Centre Norwich Live Literature programme before becoming a Creative Writing Coordinator. Laura delivers the artist and artform strand of the organisation and supervised the management for the Worlds Literary Festival 2009. Outside of Writers’ Centre Norwich she produces music and literature events and also performs in lounge-core band The Ferries. She is a fiction writer and has studied at Norwich School of Art & Design and University of East Anglia. A proud Norwichian, Laura also lives in the Fine City.
Leila Telford has been with Writers’ Centre Norwich since the very beginning in 2004. For four years she was the Office Manager, leading on administration, finance, development, running several of the original programmes. She is now the Resources Manager and part of the Senior Management Team, leading on HR. She worked in the health sector for many years as a GP Surgery Manager and is a graduate of the Norwich School of Art and Design (now Norwich University College of the Arts) renowned Cultural Studies BA. For three years she was involved in a voluntary capacity in the organisation of the Norwich Fringe Festival, where she also exhibited, and for two years was Project Narrator for the i10 East of England university consortium.
Richard White is Marketing Officer at Writers’ Centre Norwich, and previously worked in Communications with Arts Council England, East. Richard confounds the male stereotype of not being able to do two things at once by helping to support the Marketing and Resources Managers on a variety of tasks. His main interests lie in the ever-growing digital technologies on the web and painting and creating works of art. Unlike the rest of his colleagues, Richard lives outside of Norwich, in the city of Ely. Rest assured the commuting allows plenty of time for reading.