September 2024 Newsletter

Dear all,

I hope you’re well and have had a good summer. I’ve enjoyed having some time off over the last month and catching up on a bit of decorating as well as lots of small but satisfying cupboard cleaning type jobs. I’ve mainly done this while listening to In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg on BBC Sounds where I’m loving learning about things I wasn’t interested in at school like the Fish-Tetrapod Transition and Francis Bacon. But now it’s back to work and I’ve got a new notebook as well as a lot of courses and workshops planned for the next few months.

Hexham Young Writers Group

My popular after-school course for young writers aged 11-13 starts on 17 September at the Queen’s Hall Arts Centre in Hexham. It’s £36 for six sessions – for full details and to book see the Queen’s Hall Website.

Poetry Counts Workshop at Newcastle City Library

I’m looking forward to running a FREE poetry workshop at Newcastle City Library on Saturday 5 October (1.30pm-3.30pm) as part of Newcastle’s National Poetry Day celebrations. Find out more and book your ticket at the Newcastle Libraries Eventbrite page.

Time to Write at Koru

Here are the dates for my next creative writing workshops at Koru Pizza (Salters Road, Gosforth):

Sunday 29 September

Sunday 27 October

Sunday 24 November

It’s £20 per session and its fine to attend regularly or as a one off. These workshops look at a different writing theme or skill each time with exercises that will get you writing during the session. You’ll also leave with some ideas and information to keep you going afterwards. Email me to find out more and book your place.

Biscuit Factory Writing Workshops

My final writing workshop at the Biscuit Factory Gallery is on 17 November (11am-2pm) and will explore how to write original prose and poetry about Winter. As always with these masterclass style sessions, the longer running time allows for plenty of writing and discussion on the day and you’ll also receive lots of additional exercises and resources to take away. It’s £30 and you can book your place through the Biscuit Factory Workshops page.

Gather Online Writing Group

If you’re not near Newcastle, a reminder that I have a monthly online writing group which meets on the first Thursday of the month between 6.30pm-8.30pm. These are the dates for the rest of this year:

3 October

7 November

5 December

Sessions cost £10 each and it’s fine to attend regularly or as a one off. Email me to find out more and book your place.

Publication Opportunities

At the start of the month, I enjoyed running a session on getting published at the Biscuit Factory Gallery. One of the exercises was to write something suitable for a themed publication opportunity as I think having a theme and a deadline can be a great way to motivate yourself to get something finished. Participants chose an opportunity and spent ten minutes writing a list or mind map of different ways they might interpret the theme. Then they wrote a first draft or planned out one of their ideas in more detail. Here are some of the themed opportunities I shared in the session (and some new ones I’ve spotted recently) in case you’d like to try this too:

Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition This year’s competition has an Ecopoetry and place theme and they are looking for poems of no more than 30 lines that capture the spirit of a certain place. Entry fee: First entry is free then £5 for subsequent entries. Deadline: 23 October 2024.

Scottish Book Trust 50-Word Fiction Competition For stories of up to 50 words that feature a whale. No fee. Deadline: 24 September 2024.

After the End Poetry Competition Enter a portfolio of up to five poems on any issue related to themes of time, temporality and endings and in any style. Individual poems should be no longer than forty lines and can include previously published poems as long as they fit the brief. No fee. Deadline: 3 October 2024.

Crowvus Christmas Ghost Story Competition For Christmas ghost stories of up to 4000 words. Entry fee: £3 per story. Deadline: 30 September 2024.

Writing Magazine Short Story Competition Submit short stories of between 1,500-1,700 words on the theme of friendship.

Syncopation Literary Journal For poetry, short stories (under 7,500 words), flash fiction (under 1,000 words) and creative non-fiction (under 5,000 words) on the theme of must love music. No fee. Deadline: 2 November 2024.

The Letters Page are reading submissions for Vol. 7. Submit handwritten letters to the address provided in the link. No fee. Deadline: 29 September 2024.

Good luck!

Amanda