Steve Dearden is the Director of the Writing Squad, the north of England’s development programme for writers aged 16-21 and beyond.

Previously he has been Director of Ilkley Literature Festival, Director of the National Association for Literature Development and Literature Officer for Yorkshire Arts, he has also worked for a whole host of cultural organisations as a consultant and served on the boards of Grimm & Co., Inpress, New Writing North, Well Worth Reading, Branching Out, Mind the Gap Theatre Company and the Scottish Arts Council’s Literature Panel as well as many Arts Council England working groups especially round Reader Development, Live Literature and Writers in Prisons.

As a producer he has set up his own found literature projects and also worked on large site specific pieces such as Overworlds & Underworlds in Leeds with the Brothers Quay and for move, Yorkshire contribution to the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Between time he writes, mostly short stories and has been Writer in Residence at the Bluewater Shopping Centre for ARCHItexts and at the Wakefield Literature Festival.