creative writers

Expressions of Interest: Unwriting Experiments

Salary

Each of the selected creative writers will receive a £400 fee to be paid in a lump sum at the project's conclusion.

Location

Cardiff

Hours

Other

Closing date

23.09.2026

Posted by:

writetoempower

Date:

14 September 2026

Paid opportunity for experimental writers in Cardiff and South Wales

Are you an experimental writer with an unfinished project stored on your computer or hidden in a desk drawer? Does returning to it bring up excitement, frustration, uncertainty or even shame?

Unwriting Experiments will offer a safe, constructive, and research-informed space for you to return to and reimagine your unfinished, experimental work. You'll be supported to reflect on the circumstances and conditions that shaped your experience of incompletion, as well as to cultivate a pragmatic and even positive attitude to unfinishedness as a regular part of creative practice.

You'll also create new creative works out of your 'unwriting', realising your ambitions as you respond to the open-ended potential of the unfinished.

Project Details

The project team—Dr Alix Beeston, Dr Ailbhe Darcy, and Dr Christina Thatcher—have secured funding from Cardiff University's AHRC H-IAA Fund to bring together a small group of experimental writers through a series of semi-structured workshops and a public event this Winter.

Five paid creative writers will participate in three in-person, catered workshops at Cardiff University from October - December 2026. They will also help to devise and deliver a showcase event at a public venue in Cardiff in January 2027, presented in collaboration with Literature Wales.

Participants will be asked to undertake a small amount of preparatory work for the workshops and to make themselves available to complete (brief!) surveys or virtual interviews at the beginning, middle, and end of the project.

What We Can Offer

Each of the selected creative writers will receive a £400 fee to be paid in a lump sum at the project's conclusion.

This flat rate covers the costs of the writers' creative labour and materials, as well as their participation in the workshops and surveys/interviews. Participants will retain intellectual property for their created works.

The project will also offset the cost of participants' travel to and from the workshops and public event, in addition to providing funding for catering and all other costs associated with these activities.

Expressions of Interest

All we need from you is a super-short Expression of Interest by 12pm on Wednesday 23rd September. Using this Microsoft form, please submit a statement of no more than 150 words indicating the nature of your unfinished experimental work and why you're interested in participating in this project. Please also include a short bio to give us a sense of your relevant experience.

EoIs will be assessed by the project team with input from Literature Wales if appropriate. All applicants will be advised of the outcome by the end of September.

We take an open and expansive view of 'experimental writing', welcoming work that examines, challenges, disrupts, subverts or playfully reimagines established forms, techniques, genres and/or creative processes. As long as you have some experimental writing experience, and you're based in Cardiff or South Wales, you're welcome to apply. We can't wait to hear from you!

Contact

Dr Christina Thatcher (thatcherc@cardiff.ac.uk)

#s1-Gen

Each of the selected creative writers will receive a £400 fee to be paid in a lump sum at the project's conclusion., You'll also create new creative works out of your 'unwriting', realising your ambitions as you respond to the open-ended potential of the unfinished.

Project Details

The project team-Dr Alix Beeston, Dr Ailbhe Darcy, and Dr Christina Thatcher-have secured funding from Cardiff University's Cardiff University's AHRC H-IAA Fund to bring together a small group of experimental writers through a series of semi-structured workshops and a public event this Winter.

Five paid creative writers will participate in three in-person, catered workshops at Cardiff University from October - December 2026. They will also help to devise and deliver a showcase event at a public venue in Cardiff in January 2027, presented in collaboration with Literature Wales.

Participants will be asked to undertake a small amount of preparatory work for the workshops and to make themselves available to complete (brief!) surveys or virtual interviews at the beginning, middle, and end of the project.

What We Can Offer

Each of the selected creative writers will receive a £400 fee to be paid in a lump sum at the project's conclusion.

This flat rate covers the costs of the writers' creative labour and materials, as well as their participation in the workshops and surveys/interviews. Participants will retain intellectual property for their created works.

The project will also offset the cost of participants' travel to and from the workshops and public event, in addition to providing funding for catering and all other costs associated with these activities.

Expressions of Interest

All we need from you is a super-short Expression of Interest by 12pm on Wednesday 23rd September. Using this Microsoft form, please submit a statement of no more than 150 words indicating the nature of your unfinished experimental work and why you're interested in participating in this project. Please also include a short bio to give us a sense of your relevant experience.

EoIs will be assessed by the project team with input from Literature Wales if appropriate. All applicants will be advised of the outcome by the end of September.