Communications Executive

Edinburgh City of Literature

ABOUT THE JOB

Salary: £28,000 p/a +8% pension contributions
Location: Top Floor Office, John Knox House, 45 High Street, Edinburgh
Hours: 35hrs/week, worked within 9am-6pm; a degree of hybrid working possible. Occasional
out of hours working may be required; time off in lieu (TOIL) can be agreed with the Director.
Holidays: 22 p/a + all statutory days applicable.
Probation: This role has a three-month probationary period.

EDINBURGH CITY OF LITERATURE

In 2004 Edinburgh was designated the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, a permanent title
celebrating Edinburgh’s status as a literary capital. The designation marked the beginning of the
global UNESCO Creative Cities network, which now has 42 Cities of Literature, and a wider
network of 295 cities in seven creative artforms.

The Edinburgh City of Literature Trust (ECOL) is the development agency for Edinburgh as a
UNESCO City of Literature, bringing literature to the streets of Edinburgh, connecting people
with Edinburgh’s literary story, and sharing that story with the world. The Trust’s current flagship
project is the development of a Literature House for Edinburgh, which will create a year-round
home for Edinburgh’s literary story and a platform for new work and collaborations.

THE ROLE
This is an exciting opportunity to work as part of a small team and contribute to the development
of a successful arts organisation embarking on a period of growth. It is a creative, cheerful and
flexible working environment, and the team are dedicated, energetic and passionate about their
work.

The Communications Executive will be joining Edinburgh City of Literature Trust at a critical
time, overseeing an expansion of communications work, as well as working on the Literature
House and our local and international partnership projects. The organisation is undergoing a
development of its communications work, including a branding and press kit refresh, creation of
a new website, and developing communications with key audiences. The role will therefore
require some strategic thinking, and previous experience of this kind of activity would be
beneficial. Day to day the role will include project management of international opportunities and
comms, creating and managing social media and newsletter content, and updating the website
with opportunities and resources. Although part of a small, close-knit team, the role will require a
large amount of independent work and self-management.
Working at ECOL offers an interesting and dynamic way to engage with the literary sector on a
local, national and international level, with the opportunity to work on international projects and
support Edinburgh’s vibrant literary sector.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

● Leading on the strategic development of communications work to meet
organisational aims, including implementing new branding, design of a new website
and developing communications with key audiences.
● Managing incoming opportunities from the international UNESCO Cities of Literature
network, including supporting the Director to run the Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship.
● Managing ECOL’s social media channels, including the creation of relevant content
and campaigns when needed.
● Updating ECOL’s website with opportunities and resources.
● Supporting international campaigns and communication strands with an
understanding of the UNESCO Creative Cities network.
● Assisting with reporting and evaluations, including maintaining vital project data.
● Representing ECOL at meetings of project partners, stakeholders and other groups,
and feeding back crucial information.
● Managing internal communications, including minuting meetings, compiling Board
updates etc.
● Providing communication support for ongoing and new projects.
● Working alongside freelancers, creatives and ECOL’s fundraiser and Literature
House PhD student.

Person Specification:
Essential Skills
● Demonstrable knowledge of Edinburgh’s literary heritage and contemporary scene.
● Strong written and verbal communication skills, and the ability to build productive
working relationships.
● Excellent organisational skills and an eye for detail.
● A team player who is also comfortable working independently.
● A flexible attitude and the ability to problem-solve when needed.
● Experience of managing a popular social media account, writing newsletters and
creating web content.
● Technical knowledge and competency in using digital platforms for business
purposes, including CRM and CMS.
● Experience of creating communication plans and working at a strategic level.
● A degree in a relevant subject, and at least two years of professional experience in
marketing, communications and social media.

Desirable Attributes
● Comfortable working with a range of stakeholders, from creatives and community
groups to tourism, business and cultural partners.
● Confidence in public speaking.
 ● Ability to self-support, and to work independently carrying out assigned tasks and
briefs with professionalism and creativity.
● A willingness to be flexible and adaptable.

APPLICATIONS
To apply for this role, please email edinburgh@cityofliterature.com with the following information
by noon on Monday 27th February.

● Your CV (no more than two pages of A4).

● A covering letter, outlining how your skills and experience meet the requirements of
the role.
● Details of two references (we will not contact referees unless you are offered the
role).
● Any notice period relating to your current employment.

Interviews will be held in-person on Monday 6th March in a fully accessible building, with a
written task before the interview for shortlisted candidates. Please confirm in your covering letter
whether you are available on that date.

As an organisation we want to hear from a diverse pool of applicants, and we encourage

applications from groups who are under-represented in the sector, particularly people of colour
and those from ethnically-marginalised communities, as well as those who identify as disabled,
working class, LGBTQ+ and their intersections.

Whilst the role is envisaged as full-time, we would be open to considering flexible work options.
We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this
vacancy. Our office is on the top floor of John Knox House, one of Edinburgh’s oldest buildings,
and up a tight spiral staircase; where this would cause access issues, we can discuss more
suitable options with the successful candidate.

If you require the opportunity to submit an application in an alternative format, or if you have any
queries about accessibility or disability provision, please email edinburgh@cityofliterature.com.

We are a company limited by guarantee (No. 270581) and registered as a charity (SC035697).
We gratefully acknowledge support from the City of Edinburgh Council and from a variety of
trusts, donors and foundations whose contributions make our programme of work possible.

Edinburgh City of Literature Trust

John Knox House, Top Floor Office, 45 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1SR
www.cityofliterature.com - @EdinCityofLit - edinburgh@cityofliterature.com
About Edinburgh City of Literature Trust

Our Vision
We want Edinburgh to be a community of readers, writers and storytellers where everyone can
experience the joy and the power of words. A city that values literature and is connected to the
world.

Our Mission - Connecting everyone to Edinburgh’s literary story

By helping people discover the books, stories, writers, literary heritage and the organisations
that make us a UNESCO City of Literature, our projects are increasing people’s access to
literature, supporting creatives, building international opportunities and combatting inequalities.

Artistic Policy
We embrace literature in its widest and most glorious definition and seek to widen access so
everyone can enjoy its creative expression. We break new ground by championing great
literature whatever form it takes; by making it visible; by taking literature to people not waiting for
them to come to it; by using new ways to tell old stories; by fusing art forms to spark new ideas.

Our Team
The City of Literature title was devised in Edinburgh by our Founding Trustees. They led the bid
to see Edinburgh designated in 2004 as the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature and founder
of the Creative Cities Network which now has 295 cities spanning the globe in seven artforms,
42 in literature. The UNESCO City of Literature designation is recognised as a mark of
excellence.

Our office was set up in 2005 and we have two full-time staff and a team of associate
freelancers and are supported by a Board of Trustees, alongside volunteers and partners. We
gratefully acknowledge our long-term supporters, City of Edinburgh Council.

Our Values
Literature, Community, Positivity, Inclusivity and Boldness are what matter most to us. These
values help us make decisions about the work we do and the way we do it. It informs the
behaviour we nurture within our own organisation at all levels, the creation of our programmes
and what we look to find and nurture in those we work with.

Programme Information
Through our work, and in collaboration with our partners, we give literature a profile to the city’s
500,000 residents and 3.85 million visitors (2017-ETAG Facts and Figures Report) and we
reach a global audience through our digital presence and membership of the UNESCO Creative
City Network.

Between 2011 and 2015 we worked with 161 partners delivering 230 events and projects,
reaching an audience of 300,000 and millions more through our on-street installations.
In 2014, to mark the 10th anniversary of our UNESCO City of Literature designation we
launched Great Scott! and covered the floors, walls and windows of Edinburgh’s Waverley
Station - the only railway station in the world named after a novel - with the wit and wisdom of
the author of that book, Sir Walter Scott. The project also marked the 200th anniversary of the
publication of Waverley and the opening of the Borders railway line. Great Scott! won The City
Award 2014 from Creative Edinburgh, which recognises an outstanding creative contribution to
the city. The public response to the installation was so positive that the station owners are
maintaining the installation presenting that work daily to an annual footfall of 23 million people at
the station.

For over ten years our Literary Salon has provided a vital hub and contact point, helping
stimulate new work, initiatives and collaborations and improving people’s access to the city’s
literary community: since 2015 it has inspired seven more Salons in cities across the UK and
since 2018 has been community-led.

In 2016 we celebrated 10 years of our Story Shop programme which has supported 136
emerging writers from Edinburgh, 68 (50%) of whom have gone on to win awards and publish
novels. Through our partnership with the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Story Shop
writers have been given an international platform at the world’s largest public celebration of the
written word.

We created Edinburgh’s first citywide reading campaign and published the world’s first Scots-
language and first Gaelic-language graphic novels; through four subsequent reading campaigns
we have worked with 65 partner organisations, given away 93,000 free books, welcomed
11,500 people to 92 public events and received 185,800 visitors to our campaign web pages
and micro-sites.

In 2016 we assisted with the development of The Super Power Agency, a new creative writing
and mentoring centre which improves levels of literacy, self-esteem and fosters aspiration
among under-resourced students from 8-18 years old.

Our Words on the Street campaign saw a major public-private partnership which secured
£25,000 for a community engagement project which included collaboration with international
screenwriter, filmmaker and artist Terry Gilliam. A 10-metre long illuminated light installation
featuring a quote selected by Gilliam and inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ book Don Quixote
was installed on Jeffrey Street in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town for 28 days. Terry Gilliam
declared himself an ambassador for Edinburgh as a City of Literature, helping us to reach a
more diverse audience and widen the traditional view and definition of literature.

To complement our work with Gilliam, an illuminated lightbox trail – Canongate Stars and
Stories – was created for Edinburgh’s Old Town, shining a light on over 500 years of print and
publishing history and displayed in the Winter months between 2016 and 2018. The trail
featured 24 literary quotations and phrases drawn from famous books and writers across the
ages, which were put on display in the windows of 22 retail and hospitality businesses along the
Old Town’s Canongate area on the Royal Mile. The trail was accompanied by online resources,
a printed trail, briefing packs and free walking tours, with the aim to bring literature to
Edinburgh’s streets in a friendly, accessible and inviting way. It won a VisitScotland Thistle
Award 2017 in the ‘Working Together’ category.

We lead Edinburgh’s literary tourism work, securing it recognition in the Edinburgh Tourism
Strategy 2020. We have worked to develop a business opportunities guide and resource kit and
created a £20,000 fund which led to seven new literary tourism products being launched.

In 2015, with our partners the Scottish Storytelling Centre and TRACS, we established a
Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation for the Literature House project, underpinning the
creation of a new literary centre and information point on the Royal Mile; in 2016 this work won
a Co-operative Development Scotland Collaboration Prize. In 2021 we appointed the design
team who completed the feasibility study for the Literature House project; we have now
commenced the next stage of viability work.

In 2021, as the founding city in the network, we worked with UNESCO to see three new
UNESCO Cities of Literature appointed, taking our number to 42 Cities of Literature in 32
countries on six continents.

In 2022, we launched our City of Literature Community Fund awarding small grants, and our
time and support, to new community projects across neighbourhoods in Edinburgh. Through our
Ukraine Residency, and working with the University of Edinburgh, we hosted Elena
Marinicheva, the foremost translator of Ukrainian literature into Russian. We were appointed the
host for Creative Scotland’s Gavin Wallace Fellowship and will be working with the successful
Fellow, Mary Paulson-Ellis, across 2023. Our international programme grew in scale and reach
and on average we now support 25 collaborative projects a year.

Future Plans
2023 sees us begin the delivery of our 2023-2028 business plan and will be an important period
of growth and development for the Trust. Our Literature House project is moving into its next
phase, we are widening our community engagement work through a new citywide project and
we will work with UNESCO to appoint more cities to our Cities of Literature network.