About the Writer in Residence position
The person chosen will spend June through September 2026 drawing inspiration from MAPP archival materials to develop new creative work for an exhibit. From September to December 2026, they will build on this research to support community and youth engagement in Reading, leading monthly workshops with the Museum of English Rural Life’s Youth Panel.
The Writer in Residence will work with young people aged 14-18 to explore and connect with the publishing stories and materials in MAPP in imaginative and accessible ways, encouraging fresh perspectives and new interpretations.
These interpretations may engage with themes including, but not limited to:
- Class
- Colonialism
- Gender, feminism and women’s authorship
- LGBTQIA+ identities and experiences
- Mental health and creativity
- Modernism, publishing, and literary experimentation
- Networks of writers and artistic collaboration
- Print culture, letterpress, materiality, and book-making
- Rural and country lives
- Relationships between art, literature and landscape
- Social inclusion and justice
Position sponsorship
This Writer in Residence has been made possible by the University of Reading’s Impact Accelerator Account, funded by the AHRC. The fee is £3,000, and the closing date for applications is 18 May 2026.
How to apply
Get full details and how to apply.
Roundtable participants from the MAPP project at the 2017 Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf sit below a screen showing a digitized ledger sheet from the Hogarth Press. Note the purple ink.
Stacks showing a portion of the Hogarth Press archives at University of Reading Special Collections.
Cecil Woolf, the nephew of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, cuts the cake designed by Cressida Bell for the 100th birthday party of the Hogarth Press in June 2017 in Reading, England. Cecil passed away June 10, 2019, at the age of 92. Read more.
