Elizabeth Gaskell’s House Announces 
Inaugural Writers Residency

Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Manchester has launched a new project to celebrate 10 years since the house opened as a visitor attraction and introduce the work of Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) to a new generation of writers.

The 10 Years of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House: Inaugural Writers Residency aims to explore Elizabeth’s writing on social equality and her role as a changemaker through the perspective of young writers. Working with The Writing Squad and Manchester City of Literature, three writers aged 18 to 30 will be chosen for the first writers residency at the House during its 10th anniversary year. The residency will culminate in an exhibition opening in summer 2025.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is Manchester’s only literary house and a rare example of a Regency villa. The Grade II* listed building plays a hugely significant role in the city’s status as a UNESCO City of Literature. Thanks to a campaign by a group of volunteers and £2.5million of funding by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the House was restored in 2014 from a crumbling shell into a destination for visitors to experience how Elizabeth Gaskell would have lived with her family c. 1857.

Gaskell wrote about the conditions experienced by the working class in incredible detail, but her activism is often overlooked and she never enjoyed the profile of her friends and contemporaries such as Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens. Consequently there is a great deal for the young writers to explore about this supporter of progress and change who believed in education for all, played a part in the foundations of the trade union movement, and joined her daughters in helping at soup kitchens.

Sally Jastrzebski-Lloyd, Director of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, said: “This is a very exciting project during a momentous year for Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.  In many ways this project is a milestone, signifying our role and contribution as a literary house and we are thrilled by the possibilities of the work that our writers in residence will create.”