OUR STAFF

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Lesley Wood – Chief Executive

 

Lesley has worked in the arts for over 35 years in a variety of roles including sound engineer, theatre producer, artistic director and company CEO. She has worked with creative writers of all kinds – fiction writers, life writers, poets, song-writers and playwrights. She, herself, writes grant applications and too-long emails, and is in awe of the storytellers she meets every day at New Writing South.

lesley@newwritingsouth.com

Anna Jefferson – Artistic Director

 

Anna Jefferson is Artistic Director at New Writing South. She is also a fiction writer and playwright, having written for stage and screen since 2005. She has published three novels, Winging It (2020) and Nailing It (2021), both published with Orion and The List for Living, published with Penguin Random House, Germany (2024.) She is currently writing her forth novel. Anna was Relationship Manager, Theatre at Arts Council for nine years before joining New Writing South. She is founder and co-director of Broken Leg Theatre and has written and toured five plays nationally. She Co-directs Writing Around the Kids, delivering creative writing workshops with mothers of young children, in partnership with museums and cultural organisations. Anna lives in Brighton with her husband and two children.

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Ed Cottrell – Digital & Marketing Manager

 

Ed is a short fiction writer. He was the 2018 Winner of the Desperate Literature Prize, and his work has been chosen for Best Small Fictions (Sonder Press), listed for the London Short Story Prize and Short Fiction/University of Essex International Short Story Prize, and appears in journals including 3:AM, Structo, and Short Fiction Journal. He is also Digital Content Editor for Modern Poetry in Translation Magazine.

ed@newwritingsouth.com

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Liam Offord – Literary Producer

 

Liam is a fiction writer and playwright. His stories and scripts have appeared in the University of East Anglia’s undergraduate and postgraduate anthologies, and his plays have toured around Norwich and the South Coast. He is passionate about feminist and anti-colonial stories, and reflects this in his writing and other work.

liam@newwritingsouth.com

 

 

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Steve Poulton – Finance Manager

 

Steve Poulton joined New Writing South in 2014 as Finance manager. He is also director of Purple Squirrel and has over 20 years experience helping Small and Medium sized Enterprises.

accounts@newwritingsouth.com