Ruth Harrison joined Spread the Word 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.

Ruth has previously been a trustee of Little Green Pig – a charity working to inspire children and young people to get creative with writing, sits on the steering committee for The Literary Platform’s Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and is part of the team developing EmpathyLab – a start-up using words and stories to build young people’s empathy skills.

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.

Contact Ruth at ruth@spreadtheword.org.uk

Eva Lewin is Writer Development Manager at Spread the Word where she leads on the one-to-one support for writers, through feedback surgeries and professional development coaching.

Eva commissioned the Writing the Future research (published in 2015) into Black and Asian writers and publishers in the UK marketplace. She continues to work on the strategy to take forward the diversity agenda, including Spread the Word’s consultancy on WriteNow with Penguin Random House.

Her twenty years’ experience in the literature sector includes curating creative writing programmes, co-directing the Hackney literature festival, running writers’ residencies and a shop-floor library at Ford’s car factory in Dagenham. Eva is an RD1st accredited coach (ILM Level 7 equivalent).

Contact Eva at eva@spreadtheword.org.uk

Tom is a freelance producer specialising in poetry and spoken word projects. Tom has delivered work for poetry organisations including Forward Arts Foundation, Poet in the City, Poetry Translation Centre, Apples & Snakes, Penned in the Margins and the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. He is developing and delivering work with poets: Francesca Beard, Anthony Anaxagorou, Eleanor Penny, Ella Frears, Joshua Idehan, John Hegley and Joelle Taylor. His is the producer for Out-Spoken/Out-Spoken Press, Bedtime Stories for the End of the World and Deptford Literature Festival.

Contact Tom at tom@spreadtheword.org.uk

Photo of Tom by Aidan Hornsby

Bobby Nayyar studied French and Italian at Cambridge University. In 2005, he became the first recipient of an Arts Council England bursary to train in publishing at Faber and Faber. He went on to join the marketing department at Little, Brown Book Group, rising to manage campaigns for the Virago and Abacus imprints.

In 2009, he founded his own publishing house, Limehouse Books. In 2011, he took on the role of Consultant Development Manager for the Diversity in Publishing Network, helping to establish the Publishing Equalities Charter and transition of Dipnet from Booktrust to City University London, as Equality in Publishing (Equip). More recently he has managed Wasafiri Magazine’s digital presence and taught creative writing in schools in partnership with Eastside Educational Trust and First Story.

Contact Bobby at bobby@spreadtheword.org.uk

At Spread the Word, Laura Kenwright manages the organisation’s communications and oversees a variety of projects. She supports writers, organisations and artists get their work into the world / develop meaningful and effervescent projects and writing activity.

Laura has worked with a diverse range of audiences within the arts. After studying English Literature at Cardiff University, she gained an MA in Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She has produced live art, comedy and theatre and storytelling shows in London and at the Edinburgh Festival. She has also worked for Arts Award and Artsmark, The National Literacy Trust, as a local authority arts officer, a social care worker working with young asylum seekers and as a youth worker. She is passionate about enabling access to high quality writing opportunities and nurturing writing and creative talent. Laura joined Spread the Word in 2013.

She has judged writing prizes including the UCL Publishers’ Prize and Warwick University young people’s Shakespeare writing competition, written forewords and edited poetry and short story anthologies. In her spare time she pursues her own fiction, script and poetry writing and loves comedy.

Contact Laura at laura@spreadtheword.org.uk

Steve is an experienced voluntary sector finance specialist with management accounting and book-keeping skills. He has worked as a Finance Officer for community organisations in need of part-time skilled finance support for more than fifteen years.

Aliya is the Communications and Projects Assistant at Spread the Word. She works across a number of different areas for the organisation, including working with literary agencies to run call outs for new writers, supporting writers to run development schemes, reading submissions to Spread the Word’s prizes and development schemes, projects and events, runs the organisation’s social media channels, creates content for and manages the day to day running of the Spread the Word website, and oversees the London Writers Network.

Aliya previously managed PLATFORM – a support and development opportunity for emerging writers, and co-manages Spread the Word’s partnership with The Literary Consultancy for their Free Reads scheme. She edited the London Short Story Prize anthology in 2017 and 2018 and is now managing the Prize in 2019.

This year, Aliya has been selected as a mentor for Roundhouse’s Creative Leadership 2019 scheme.

Contact Aliya at aliya@spreadtheword.org.uk