Upcoming Events

7th May – Mike Levy

We are delighted to welcome Mike Levy, a former teacher and journalist who helps run history-based projects with a strong arts element thrown in. He is a Holocaust educator and regular theatre and music reviewer for www.thecambridgecritique.com. Now pursuing a PhD at Anglia Ruskin on the Cambridge Refugee Committees 1938-48. He enjoys

4th June – Flash Fiction Competition 2024 Results Night

Our flash fiction competition is judged on the night, in person. Simply bring a printed copy of your story, with title but WITHOUT your name on it, to the meeting on 4th June. The word limit is pretty tight, at 250, which does not include the title. When penning your story, make

Our monthly writers’ events are held at: Hartington Grove Meeting House.

91-93 Hartington Grove
Cambridge
CB1 7UB

Non-members are welcome to attend most events, at a charge of £3. Please contact our chairman Harry Goode if you would like to come along.

If you have any suggestions for speakers you would like to hear at our writers’ events, please contact our programme secretary, Karin Milner.

Recent Events

6th September 2021 – Professor Andrew Cowan

Andrew Cowan studied at the University of East Anglia, where he is now Director of Creative Writing and teaches on the Creative Writing MA. Since his acclaimed and prize winning first novel, Pig (1994), he wrote another four novels which depict people in provincial worlds; there is an interest in the domestic, in the mechanics of relationships when the blood-rush

10th July 2021 – Summer Social

1st June 2021 – Flash Fiction Competition

Competitors bring a printed copy of their anonymous entry to the meeting, word limit 250

4th May 2021 – Workshop

How do I blindside my reader without completely cheating them? How do I lay a trail of clues without my plot becoming predictable? This workshop is designed to help you answer those questions and more. We will be covering the five different types of foreshadowing, including Chekhov’s gun, prophecy, flashback, symbolic foreshadowing, and red herring, discussing examples in literature and

25th February 2021 – Short Story Competition Judging Event

*** Note that the date for this meeting has changed *** Our competition Rosemary Hayes is an author and creative writing tutor. She came to writing from a background in advertising, marketing and publishing. Working intermittently for Cambridge University Press from 1986-2001, one of her jobs was to run a national children’s writing competition, The Cambridge Young Writers’ Award, which

1st September 2020 – Andy McDonnell

Andrew McDonnell is the course leader for the English Literature and Creative Writing degrees at University Centre Peterborough where he undertakes research in Literary Theory, English Literature and Creative Writing. His debut poetry collection, The Somnambulist Cookbook was published by Salt in June 2019. It is a series of poems that examine the quality of disappearance, how memory interferes with

30th April 2020 – Flash Fiction Competition

* Due to the coronavirus this competition is held as an online event  *   Note that this event has been brought forward. It is a members only competition.   Here are the rules: One piece of fiction per member, which must not exceed 250 words. It must have a title of not more than 10 words. This is not

3rd March 2020 – Annual General Meeting

There will be reports on the past year's activities, All existing officers are willing to stand again, but if you fancied a turn at a post, this would be welcomed. Following the practice started last year, the meeting will choose  the theme for then 2021 Short Story Competition. After the formal business Hannah Hooton, our Publicity Officer, has devised a

4th February 2020 – Short Story Competition Judging Event

The annual Short Story Competition is judged this year by Una McCormack who has given us a presentation in September, 2018. Una teaches Creative Writing at Anglia Ruskin University. She is an expert on Science Fiction and Fantasy, author of a number of tie-in novels to Star Trek and Dr Who.

3rd December 2019 – Jane Carter Woodrow

Jane Woodrow is a local writer, writing for TV, eg, In Suspicious Circumstances, The Bill, The Thieving Headmistress etc.  Also she is a criminologist and crime author appearing on news programmes, documentaries and factual dramas about serial killers. Her books "Rose West: the Making of a Monster" and "After Evil" – telling the true story of a 17-year old whose mum was murdered by the Yorkshire

5th November 2019 – The Art of Illustration

Amanda Hall is an award-winning illustrator, renowned for her wonderfully decorative and colourful children’s book illustrations. She excels at capturing the visual worlds of different cultures, their peoples, animals and landscapes as well as their spiritual traditions. Amanda will give us an introduction into the art of illustration and talk about her latest book, ‘Out of this World’, is the

1st October 2019 – Workshop: importance of style over substance

This workshop is for debating the idea of whether an exciting story is better or worse than a stylistically strong story – or whether they are equally important?