Cambridge Writers is an organisation of both published and unpublished writers in Cambridge (U.K.) and nearby towns and villages. It has been in existence for about 60 years. Currently (March 2010) it has 87 members.

 

Its purpose is to give mutual self-help to:

• encourage members to write regularly;
• improve the quality of their writing;
• experiment by attempting new writing forms;
• learn the skills necessary for critical assessment of their writing;
• give an awareness of possible publishing outlets.

Ready to join?

Cheques made payable to "Cambridge Writers" should be sent to the Membership Secretary, Rik Gammack, 20 Birdbush Avenue, Saffron Walden, Essex, CB11 4DJ.
Telephone 0775 331 8390         
Email cambridgewriters@hotmail.com

A subscription costs £18 pound a year. If you join after 30th september it is £9. All subscriptions are renewable in April. If you join between 1st January and 31st March 2011, and choose to pay the full £18, your subscription will be renewable on 1st April 2012.

Need more information?

Contact Rik Gammack - see above.

Monthly Newsletter

Every member gets a free monthly Newsletter. This has details of local and national events of interest to writers, competitions and courses.

It also contains reports on members' writing that has been read out at the groups.

You may receive this Newsletter as either a pdf attachment to an e-mail, or by post.

The Newsletter Editor is Tim Love,  Tel 01223 512133

tl136@cam.ac.uk             

Reading Groups

We have five groups which meet monthly in members' houses. Work is read aloud and sometimes copies are distributed. Members try to give each other constructive criticism and make suggestions as to how texts could be improved.

Free Sample: before we ask you to join, you are welcome to attend two meetings of any reading group to see if what we do interests you.

The four groups are:  

Poetry

This meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7.30 pm at 29 High Street, Chesterton, Cambridge. By one of those quirky vagaries of house numbering, number 29 is next door to number 37.

As you will appreciate, poetry needs the very closest attention to the text and this is hard to do if one can only listen. Therefore, at these meetings we ask that you bring along 8 copies of the poem you wish to be considered.

Those wishing to sample the group, should contact the Coordinator, Tim Love, Tel 01223 512133 e-mail tl136@cam.ac.uk

 

Short Prose

This meets on the third Thursday of each month, 7.30 p.m. at 53 Abbey Road, Cambridge. By bicycle and on foot Abbey Road can be reached directly from the large roundabout with lights at the bottom of Elizabeth Way. By car proceed from this roundabout up the Newmarket Road in the direction of Newmarket and take the first left (Godesdone Road). Turn left at the bottom of Godesdone Road and go along Beche Road until it makes a T-junction with Abbey Road. Turn right into Abbey Road and number 53 is on your left.

Both fiction and non-fiction is read at this group. Although we would not wish this criterion to dictate the length of pieces, we usually ask that work substantially over 2000 words be read over two meetings.

You are welcome to just turn up for this group. 

Long Prose

This meets on the last Tuesday of each month at 7.30 pm.

The works considered are usually novels under construction, but non-fiction is equally welcome.

In order to prevent numbers becoming unwieldy in this group, it sometimes meets at two different venues on the same evening.

If you wish to sample the group, you must contact the Coordinator in advance, to be told the venue of the meeting that you may attend. He is Will Tate, tel 01638 507774, email: willtate24@yahoo.co.uk

Travel Writing

There are 2 or 3 members who work on travel narratives and who meet twice a month. Should you be interested, please contact the Coordinator, Jane Wilson-Howarth, 33 Hartington Grove, Cambridge, CB1 7UA. e-mail wilson.howarth@virgin.net

Writing for Children

This is a recently established group. Anyone interested should contact the Coordinator, Ruth Hatfield, 41 Hemingford Road, Cambridge, CB1 3BY. Email ruthhatfield@gmail.com

General Meetings

These are held 10 times a year on the first Tuesday of the month (except for January and August) at Hartington Grove Friends' Meeting House. These consist of talks by established writers or people involved in publishing and the book trade, workshops and competition evenings.

Past speakers in the last 12 months:

April 2009 - Rebecca Stott, Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and author of Ghostwalk. Rebecca is also a Research Associate in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. She has written on Darwin's barnacles. 

May 2009 - Carole Burns, who teaches creative writing at the University of Winchester. Her book "Off the Page" interviews 30 leading writers about their craft. 

June 2009 - Laura Dietz, who teaches creative writing at Anglia Ruskin University, author of "In The Tenth House". 

July 2009 - Professor Michael Langford spoke about his historical crime novel "The de Vere Papers".

September 2009 - Robert Topping from Topping Books, with shops in Ely and Bath, spoke about surviving and thriving as an independent bookshop.

October 2009 - Jenny Diski, novelist, author of works of non-fiction and reviewer.

November 2009 - Sally Cline, award winning biographer who teaches on Anglia Ruskin University's MA course in Creative Writing.

December 2009 - Tim Love led a workshop on "Slow Reading", where the elements that make for successful writing in short fiction were analysed.

February 2009 - Short story competition judged by John Lyons, poet and artist.

First Prize - Richard Gould "The Parking Tickets"

Second Prize - Kathy English "Roller Skating"

Third Prize - Jan Menell "Billy's Girl"

Other stories by Kathy English and Jan Menell were commended as was one by Margaret Carlton.

For our forthcoming programme, go to:

General Meetings