Douglas Caster Cultural Fellowship in Poetry

Are you a poet in the early stages of your career with a developing national or international profile?

The Academy of Cultural Fellows at the University of Leeds supports and develops emerging creative talent in a variety of different art forms. The Douglas Caster Fellowship is dedicated to nurturing outstanding talent in poetry.

The University has a proud tradition of investing in poets and enabling them to produce significant new work in their time at Leeds. The University of Leeds Poetry Centre advances the practice and study of poetry by celebrating poets and engaging with our internationally outstanding poetry archives in the Brotherton Library. It offers a wide-ranging programme of public events, including readings, lectures, workshops, competitions and exhibitions.

As the Douglas Caster Cultural Fellow, you will interact with the academic community, students, and partner arts organisations to create a dynamic multi-disciplinary artistic community. You will be able to focus on the development of new poetry at the same time as you will join a community of practitioners and scholars across the arts, humanities and science disciplines, informing both research and creative endeavours. You will foster innovate collaborations with partner arts organisation to develop opportunities both for new work and for outreach activities. You will also interact with students through informal talks and seminars and provide some formal teaching and assessment.

To be considered for this Fellowship you must be a practitioner with a developing national or international profile. You will be at a stage of your career when you are achieving significant public success and are able to demonstrate the potential to be outstanding in your creative field. You will have the ability to develop constructive working relationships with people at all levels and across a diverse range of disciplines.

Poets who have held the Douglas Caster Fellowship: Helen Mort, Malika Booker, Vahni Capildeo, Zaffar Kunial.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:

Professor John Whale, Director of the University of Leeds Poetry Centre; email: j.c.whale@leeds.ac.uk

Due to the current Government Coronavirus lockdown and social distancing measures, the interviews for this role are likely to be conducted remotely using Microsoft TEAMs. It is also expected that relevant work within these roles may be done remotely, within the UK, while these restrictions remain in place.