Manchester City of Literature have made two new appointments to the team this month with Rachel Fallon and Hawwa Alam joining as Operations Manager and Community Engagement Manager respectively.

The two new recruits join Manchester City of Literature at an exciting time of growth for the organisation. Rachel Fallon, our new Operations Manager, has a professional background that includes roles in HR and events administration, predominantly within the arts sector. She has previously worked for art organisations such as the National Theatre, English National Ballet, and the Royal Exchange Theatre. Rachel holds a first-class honours degree in English and Creative Writing from the University of Salford and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Westminster. As a former young company member at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Rachel has first-hand experience of the positive impact supportive programs can provide to emerging writers in Manchester. In her spare time, Rachel is passionate about researching her Irish heritage and is currently writing a play based on her own family history.

Hawwa Alam, our new Community Engagement Manager, is a (self-proclaimed) professional multitasker working in the creative, cultural and heritage sector, who holds particular focus on facilitating authentic youth engagement, anti-racist advocacy and supporting institutional change within the arts. Alongside Manchester City of Literature, she leads on communications for the NGO Doctors Worldwide, is a freelance producer, photographer and artist, founder of the qamar collective for young Muslim women in the north, mentor for early-career creatives of colour, and founder of the online platform hawwa, etc, which explores themes of identity, belonging and heritage through visual storytelling.

Her work has been published in a variety of platforms and publications including Oxfam, Adobe, Instagram and TMRW Magazine, whilst her poetry has been used in history classrooms across Manchester and London. In her spare time, she is proud to be the shortest shooting guard on any basketball team she has ever joined, takes the upkeep of her colour-themed bookshelf very seriously, and is consistently creating new zines and lino-prints that will probably never get finished.

We’re looking forward to this new chapter for Manchester City of Literature and to see what this period of growth will bring for the charity.