Annie Rutherford, Creative Producer

We’re thrilled to welcome Annie Rutherford to the Push the Boat Out team as our new Creative Producer. Working alongside our Director, Emma Collins, Annie will play a key role in delivering our bold and inspiring programme for Push the Boat Out 2025.

Annie said: “I couldn’t be more thrilled to be joining the Push the Boat Out team – I love the energy, the community and generosity which festivals create, and I’ve always especially enjoyed PTBO’s playfulness and sense of blurring boundaries! I have particularly warm memories of attending PTBO since its first iteration 2021, and can’t wait to help create similar memories of community and creativity for future festival-goers.”

About Annie: Annie makes things with words and champions poetry and translated literature in all its guises. A writer, translator and cultural project leader, she is a Programme Manager at the National Centre for Writing, and has previously worked as Head of Library and Communications at the Goethe-Institut Glasgow, and as Assistant Director of StAnza, Scotland’s international poetry festival. She co-founded the international literary magazine Far Off Places, as well the first ever Poetree Festival in Göttingen. In 2023-4, she was selected as one of the Next Level mentees on Literature Alliance Scotland’s professional development and leadership programme. A 2025 translator-in-residence for the British Centre for Literary Translation, her published translations include full collections by poets Nora Gomringer and Volha Hapeyeva, as well as Isabel Bogdan’s novel The Peacock.

Welcome Annie! We’re looking forward to working with you 🚤✨