Development

Haworth Hodgkinson has been involved in developing and promoting activities in the arts for many years.

He is the founder and director of North East Writers, the agency supporting and promoting literature in North-East Scotland through activities including the annual New Words festival. Founded in 2006 as Wordfringe, New Words is a month-long festival of poetry, prose, drama, storytelling, comedy and cross-artform collaborations taking place in venues throughout Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

In 2007 he founded the theatre company Wordfringe Festival Players, which exists to mount productions of new writing at the festival and to tour new work to other events and venues.

The Blue Salt Collective was formed in 2006 by Haworth Hodgkinson with fellow poets Catriona Yule and Knotbrook Taylor to explore ways of presenting poetry in performance through collaborations with other artforms. To date, they have performed in Edinburgh, Lerwick, Pennan, Banchory, Dundee, Strontian, Fraserburgh, Banff, Aberdeen and Pittenweem.

From 1999 to 2005, Haworth Hodgkinson chaired the Lemon Tree Writers in Aberdeen, organising regular workshop meetings, rehearsed script readings and performances in Aberdeen as well as week-long retreats to Glenelg (2002, 2003, 2004), Culkein (2005), Rosbeg, County Donegal (2007), and Achnacloich, Skye (2009), exchanges with writers' groups in Dundee, Inverness, Huntly, Elgin, Arbroath, Banchory, Stonehaven, Lerwick, and Kyle of Lochalsh, and visits by guest writers including Les Murray, Bill Duncan, Suhayl Saadi, Gordon Meade, and Peter Troxler. Also with Lemon Tree Writers he edited and co-wrote Soul Traders, a play for 14 actors and 2 musicians, performed by Spotlight Theatre in Inverurie Town Hall (2001).

During September 2009 he ran creative writing and cross-disciplinary workshops for the Aberdeen 50+ Festival, and he has also run writing workshops for the Broch Community Centre in Fraserburgh, Woodend Barn in Banchory and Aberdeen Writers' Circle. In 2012–2013 he led Writing on the Green workshops at the Tolquhon Studio in Udny Green.

Haworth Hodgkinson has also written a column on literature for the Leopard Magazine (2004-2005), profiling amongst others Les Murray, Grantly Marshall, Bill Duncan, Hilda Meers and Gerard Rochford.

With Kathy McArdle, Haworth Hodgkinson organised Playmakers, a series of rehearsed script readings and discussions with theatre professionals (2003-2004).

He has worked with Inverurie Music and Music Centeral, organisations promoting concerts by professional musicians in venues in central Aberdeenshire, since their respective foundations in 1999 and 2008.

From 1995 to 1998 he ran Ormiston Junior Theatre, a youth drama group in Dundee, leading weekly workshops, directing productions including collaborations with adult community drama groups, and organising a touring show visiting five community venues in Dundee.

Haworth Hodgkinson was coordinator of Peterhead Writers' Group (1994-1995), and during this period also ran workshops and directed productions for the Fraserburgh PHAB Drama Group. He was Music Tutor on the Fordyce Junior Youth Drama Summer School (1994), and Shadow Music Tutor on the Fordyce Youth Drama Summer School (1994).