When he was a child, David Almond dreamed of becoming a writer, but worried he lacked creativity and imagination. Read on to discover how he became one of the UK’s most beloved authors.

Paper Nations is a creative writing incubator. We commission writers throughout the South West of England to create new work, we nurture local communities of support for writers, and we create multi-channel partnerships to showcase new writing internationally.

At the heart of Paper Nations is a desire to help everyone to enjoy and appreciate the art of writing. Growing out of extensive research and consultation with practitioners, we ensure that our initiatives are relevant through an ongoing project to map the writing landscape,  identify gaps in provision and enhance the existing writing ecology in a sustainable way.

Every three years we identify a new priority area of focus. Over the last few years, we have focused our work on children and young people. Building on our success and the partnerships we have forged, we have now turned our attention to theme of ‘diversity and innovation’ and we are launching a new Writing for All Programme for people of all ages and backgrounds.

Paper Nations is evolving and going through a transition period as we rebrand our website and prepare for the launch of this new programme of work. Please get in touch with us at if you have questions.

Mapping the Creative Writing Landscape - Thank You

Thank you to everyone who responded, shared, liked, and supported our mapping campaign in March this year. Thanks to your efforts, we have received over 400 new entries to our database and reached over 30,000 people. Our new interactive maps and events calendars will be revealed to the public this summer.