Lead Writer & Spoken Word Artist

We are seeking an imaginative and socially engaged Lead Writer & Spoken Word Artist to create the narrative framework for the opening and closing events of the Y Bont International Festival.

The successful candidate will focus exclusively on shaping the spoken word and narrative content for these two landmark moments, working as part of the core creative team to define how the festival begins and concludes. These events will serve as the emotional and dramaturgical bookends of the weekend, setting the tone of the festival and bringing its themes to a powerful close.

Working closely with the Creative Director, Creative Producer, and particularly the Sound Designer, the Lead Writer & Spoken Word Artist will develop text and spoken word material that is intrinsically embedded within the festival’s sonic world. Their narration will not sit apart from the sound design, but will be composed as part of it—interwoven with field recordings, multilingual voices, environmental sound, and composed audio elements to create a unified immersive experience.

The role will involve developing original written and spoken word content drawn from the wider Y Bont project, including verbatim material, community stories, oral histories, and reflections gathered across Newport, Rochefort, and Bilbao. This material will be shaped into a coherent narrative structure that anchors both the opening and closing events.

The Lead Writer & Spoken Word Artist will work in close collaboration with the Sound Designer throughout the creative process, ensuring that rhythm, tone, pacing, and language are fully integrated into the sonic composition. Together they will create a layered audio experience that exists across multiple scales and formats, from intimate spoken passages to large-scale outdoor sound systems within the public realm.

The postholder will also collaborate with the Movement Director, City Designer, and commissioned artists to ensure that narrative and spoken word are fully aligned with the visual, spatial, and performative elements of the opening and closing events. Their work will contribute directly to the dramaturgy of these moments, shaping audience experience as they enter and leave the festival.

We are particularly interested in artists who understand the relationship between language and sound, and who can create work that is both poetically precise and experientially embedded within complex audio environments. The successful candidate will be comfortable writing for scale, atmosphere, and collective listening, as well as for intimate moments of reflection within large public gatherings.

We recognise that the skills required for this role may sit across more than one practitioner. As such, we welcome applications from established collaborations or partnerships where writing and performance responsibilities are shared between a writer and a spoken word performer or live literature practitioner.

Key Responsibilities

• Create all spoken word and narrative content for the opening and closing events of the Y Bont International Festival.

• Develop original text based on verbatim material, oral histories, and community narratives gathered through the wider project.

• Work closely with the Sound Designer to integrate narration within a cohesive sonic composition.

• Ensure spoken word content is rhythmically and structurally aligned with sound design, field recordings, and multilingual audio material.

• Shape the dramaturgy of the opening and closing events as key emotional and narrative anchors of the festival.

• Collaborate with the Creative Director and wider artistic team to ensure narrative coherence and thematic clarity.

• Work with commissioned artists to ensure alignment between spoken word, movement, spatial design, and visual storytelling.

• Participate in creative development sessions, rehearsals, and technical runs for the opening and closing events.

• Contribute to the refinement of pacing, tone, and audience experience within large-scale outdoor and immersive environments.

Essential Criteria

• Significant professional experience as a writer, spoken word artist, poet, playwright, or performance maker.

• Experience creating work for live performance, outdoor arts, festivals, or site-specific contexts.

• Strong understanding of the relationship between language, sound, rhythm, and audience experience.

• Experience working with verbatim material, oral history, or community-derived content.

• Proven ability to collaborate closely with sound designers or composers in integrated performance contexts.

• Strong spoken word or live performance practice.

• Experience working within multidisciplinary creative teams.

• Strong dramaturgical understanding of large-scale or event-based performance structures.

• Experience working in Wales and an understanding of Welsh cultural contexts.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience creating work for large-scale civic events, festivals, or public realm performances.

• Experience working with multilingual or translated text.

• Knowledge of Welsh, French, or Basque language and culture.

• Experience working with sound art, immersive audio, or spatialised sound environments.

• Experience collaborating with movement directors, designers, or installation artists.

• Background in poetry, theatre, live literature, radio, documentary storytelling, or related disciplines.

• Experience working within heritage-led or placemaking projects.