The Reader – Director of Literature

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Contract: Permanent.
Term: Full-Time (flexible working will be considered).
Salary: £47,000 – £60,000.
Hours per week: 35 hours.
Days per week: Monday – Friday.
Reporting to: Founder.
Location: Calderstones Park, Liverpool, L18 3JB.

The Reader is a national charity bringing about a Reading Revolution so that everyone can experience and enjoy great literature, which they believe is a tool for helping humans survive and live well. By reading with school groups, families, adults, looked after children, older people in care homes, adults with physical and/or mental health conditions, people coping with or recovering from addiction and individuals in the criminal justice system, their work is helping to improve wellbeing, reduce isolation and build stronger communities.

Shared Reading is a powerful group experience that brings literature to life. A group of two or more people – one of them a trained Reader Leader – meet, usually weekly, and read great novels, poetry, plays or other literary matter, aloud. It’s not a course, it’s not a book club. Reading the literature aloud, sharing it in real-time, means that everyone is involved in a live experience.

The Director of Literature ensures that great literature and Shared Reading remain at the heart of The Reader, utterly central to its mission. In this role, you will lead the development of the entire literature programme – setting the tone and tenor of how they read and what they read, and ensuring that the reading of literature feeds the organisational ethos. You will manage 3 Heads of Department within the Directorate across three teams;

• Publications – providing staff and volunteers with curated literature for use in Shared Reading as well as championing the work of The Reader to the general public primarily via The Reader magazine and The Reader podcast.
• Programmes – devising and delivering The Reader’s public events programme at Calderstones and elsewhere including online, weekly community activities and one-off events.
• Teaching and Learning – designing and delivering The Reader’s teaching and learning programmes, developing and nourishing Shared Reading practice across their international network of practitioners. Working directly with the Volunteer Support Team to ensure effective quality assurance for volunteer-led Shared Reading and providing their volunteers with inspirational resources and learning opportunities.

To read the full job description and to apply, please visit the Reader’s website.

For more information, please email laurakershaw@thereader.org.uk.

Deadline: Friday 28 January 2022 at 5 pm.

Interviews: w/c 14 February 2022.