Upcoming Events
1st April – AGM 2025
It’s time for our 2025 Annual General Meeting! All members are welcome and encouraged to come along to the meeting to see how Cambridge Writers is run, and be a part of steering our direction for the future. The AGM is only open to fully paid up members of Cambridge Writers. Our
6th May – Anita Lehmann
‘Show Don’t Tell’ Workshop In May we welcome Anita Lehmann, an award-winning, internationally published author of over a dozen books for both children and adults. Anita also runs courses and workshops to help writers get on with their projects, complete them and ultimately get published. She provides assistance with everything from simply
3rd June – Flash Fiction Competition Results Night 2025
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 3rd June. The word limit is pretty tight, at 250, which does not include the title. When penning your story, make
2nd September – Steps in the Search for an Agent or Publisher
Your book is finished, you’re ready to take the plunge – or are you? Siobhan Carew takes us through the process of acquiring an agent or approaching a publisher with your finished project.
7th October – Gytha Lodge
Gytha is a playwright, novelist and writer for video games. After studying English at Cambridge she became known for dark and twisty drama. Her debut novel She Lies in Wait was an international bestseller. Her crime novels feature DCI Jonah Sheens.
4th November – James Blatch
James is a former BBC Defence Reporter, he has reported from HMS Invincible, Kuwait, and the Arctic Circle. He now writes bestseller Cold War thrillers.
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
7th November 2017 – Creative Writing Course with Cambridge Writers
Jane Phillips completed a two year MA course at City University, London – Creative Writing, Novels (Crime), in October 2016. Was it expensive – yes she says, was it worth it – yes again. What did I learn? I'll tell you in November she promises – with some handouts from the course. Les Brookes attended a couple of Arvon courses
3rd October 2017 – Emotional Resonance and the Short Story
Helen will give part talk, part workshop about the "Emotional Resonance and the Short Story". Sheis a Lecturer of Creative Writing and Publishing at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England. Her first collection of fiction Hair Side, Flesh Side won the Sydney J Bounds Award in 2013, and Gifts for the One Who Comes After, her second collection, won the
5th September 2017 – Alexander Masters
Alexander Masters is an author, screenwriter, and worker with the homeless and lives in Cambridge. He is the writer and illustrator of "Stuart: A Life Backwards", the biography of Stuart Shorter. It explores how a young boy, somewhat disabled from birth, became mentally unstable, criminal and violent, living homeless on the streets of Cambridge. The book won many prizes and
1st July 2017 – Summer Social
5.00 – 8.30 pm at 22a Riverbank, Littleport Our member Siobhan Carew and her husband have kindly made their farm available for this event. There will be a charge of £5 per head, and members are welcome to bring guests. You must also bring a dish (sweet or savoury) and some drink (whether alcoholic or not) to share. The farm
6th June 2017 – Flash Fiction Competition
This is a members-only competition. Bring along a printed story of not more that 250 words. It must have a title, although this is not part of the word count. Stories will be read aloud anonymously by a single reader to ensure a uniformity of delivery. Members will then cast votes to determine the winner. The prize is a box
2nd May 2017 – The novel ‘The Words in my Hand’
Guinevere is a former member of Cambridge Writers whom we are pleased to welcome back to talk about her successful debut novel. It tells the true story of Helena Jans, an illiterate serving girl in 17th century Holland. A lodger is the famous philosopher and mathematician René Descartes. At first he helps her learn to write, and they then commence
4th April 2017 – Julian Friedmann
Julian is a longstanding partner in the Blake-Friedmann literary agency. He will talk on the current state, and likely future direction, of both literary agencies and publishing in general. The explosion in those writing, or trying to write, together with self-publishing as e-books, have undermined old certainties. Where do we go from here? You can watch his presentation "The
7th March 2017 – Annual General Meeting
An AGM may not be anyone's idea of a great night out. Yet this is actually our general forum and opportunity to have a say in how things are run. The Committee is, after all, made up of its own members, we consider ourselves forward-thinking and open to new ideas, so please come along and let us hear from you.
7th February 2017 – Short Story Competition – Judging event
Join our judging event of our annual short story competition with Helen Marshall as the juror. Helen is a Lecturer of Creative Writing and Publishing at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England. Her first collection of fiction Hair Side, Flesh Side won the Sydney J Bounds Award in 2013, and Gifts for the One Who Comes After, her second collection,
6th December 2016 – Workshop on Dialogue in Prose
Join us for another sterling workshop by our member Tim Love who will give us a fresh view on dialogue in prose. Bring writing equipment.
1st November 2016 – Jane Hawking
Jane Beryl Hawking Jones, Ph.D. is an English author and educator. She is the ex-wife of Stephen Hawking and the author of the autobiography Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen. When Jane Hawking was first sent the script of The Theory of Everything– James Marsh’s Oscar-winning film adaptation of her book, Travelling to Infinity – she made two changes.
4th October 2016 – Deborah Meyler
Deborah Meyler has degrees from Oxford and St Andrews. She worked for six years in a bookshop in New York, and now lives in Cambridge. Her novel, ‘The Bookstore’, has received widespread praise as a work of literary fiction. She judged our Short Story Competition earlier this year.