John Maguire (He/him) is a writer, playwright, historic walking-tours operator, community activist and Creative Director of ArtsGroupie CIC.
ArtsGroupie aims to make the arts accessible to all. Developing theatre productions, heritage walk tours and creative workshops taking them out to communities in the Northwest. artsgroupie.org
John has had nine of his plays staged professionally, including KITTY: Queen of the Washhouse, a play that revisited the life of public washhouse pioneer Katherine Wilkinson. Two of his plays opened the Sir Ken Dodd Performance Gardens at Shakespeare North Playhouse in July 2022. The Kitty Wilkinson play about community cohesion and activism sold out St Georges Hall for the sixth time in October 2022 and went on a mini tour in March 2023 to celebrate International Women’s Day, playing Manchester, Liverpool and for three nights at the Kings Head theatre, Islington, London. It has recently played to sell out audiences at the Cockpit Theatre in Shakespeare North and has been performed a total of 48 times. It is set to return in 2025 with plans to take it to Ireland.
He has written over 135 articles for online international magazine Ten Million Hardbacks and two children’s books, Sophie and the Spider and The Liver Bird. (adapted into an interactive outdoor theatre experience for parks)
He project managed the Liverpool’s 2021 Year of Writing with Writing on the Wall 2021-2022, running diverse writing events, workshops , activities across Liverpool and co-ordinating a writing bus tour to low- socio economic areas. There were also commissions and various competitions, for all ages and abilities. A full report can be found here:
https://writingonthewall.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Year-of-Writing-Report.pdf
The creative content throughout the year was also digitally compiled and displayed on arts partners websites and social media platforms using the tag #LiverpoolWrites

John is currently the History Group research lead, working with the Liverpool Irish Festival two days a week on a five year programme to develop assets around the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail. The first year culminated in October 2022 with the publication of a book, REVIVE and a presentation ‘A Research Relay’ by the volunteer team about their work at National Museums, Liverpool.
https://www.liverpoolirishfestival.com/engage/liverpool-irish-famine-trail/

John is a facilitator with a strong track record of creative engagement and experience in socially engaged practices. He has fifteen years’ experience of facilitating writing workshops in schools and in communities.

As a white Irish, LGBT+, working class, neuro-divergent writer, from a low-socio economic background John has worked hard to establish himself in the arts overcoming many barriers.