London Writers Centre (as Spread the Word) was founded in 1995 by Booker Prize winning author Bernardine Evaristo and arts administrator and literature producer, Ruth Borthwick.
Now led by Ruth Harrison, we offer career changing opportunities for underrepresented, intersectional writers, and connect communities to words and stories, through our festivals, partnerships, research, awards and programmes in London, nationally, and internationally.
Thirty years ago, in 1995, Bernardine Evaristo and Ruth Borthwick identified that there wasn’t a space in which underrepresented writers were able to develop their work, get agents and get published in the literature landscape. They persuaded writers to take part as tutors and take a chance on their vision. They established Spread the Word, a literature development agency that was, “committed to providing a wide range of top-quality creative writing workshops, courses and talk shops, especially aimed at groups under-represented in literature.”
That starting mission is exactly what London Writers Centre is still working towards today.
Spread the Word has played a critical role in supporting writers in London and especially in giving opportunities to writers from marginalised communities, working class writers and those who might otherwise struggle to make connections in the publishing industry or have their voices heard by a wider audience.
1990s
In the mid 90s, we commissioned the ‘Free Verse Report’, which showed that under 1% of books by poets in the UK at that time were by poets of colour. The Complete Works project responded to the findings, and thirty poets, including Inua Ellams, Roger Robinson and Malika Booker, were mentored to develop their work for publication. Bernardine Evaristo said: “those thirty poets are now significant figures in the poetry world. I think the Complete Works poetry scheme is where [Spread the Word] really did shift the landscape.”
2016-2021
Between 2016 and 2021, we ran the Young People’s Laureate for London. Caleb Femi was the first Young People’s Laureate 2016-18, Momtaza Mehri in 2018-19, Theresa Lola in 2019-2020 and Cecilia Knapp in 2020-2021. Previous to this, we ran the Young Poet Laureate scheme, a role held by Selina Nwulu, Aisling Fahey and Warsan Shire. Many of our young laureates are now successful, award-winning and established poets.
2018
n 2018 we launched the London Writers Awards as a direct response to our ‘Writing the Future’ report, which showed that the publishing industry’s poor commitment to diversity was putting it at risk of becoming culturally irrelevant. 51 of our awardees are now agented, with 63 books published or scheduled. The London Writers Awards us currently the most successful development programme in the UK for writers from communities underrepresented in publishing. Alumni include Oisín McKenna (Evenings and Weekends), Natasha Brown (Assembly), Cecile Pin (Wandering Souls), Tom Newlands (Only Here, Only Now) and Lui Sit (Land of the Last Wildcat).
2025
In 2025, with a desire to raise the profile of the organisation and reach more storytellers, we changed our name to London Writers Centre. We have a new name but are working towards the same vision. We’ve spent three decades nurturing writers, championing unheard voices and making literature accessible to all, and that’s not about to change.