News and Opportunities for Writers

In addition to anything here, follow us on on Twitter or Instagram and run searches using the hashtags #amwriting or similar and you’ll find lots of resources. 

News from Room 204

News from Room 204:

Naneh V Hovhannisyan has written an essay titled Sketches from the Edges. The essay has been published by the online magazine, Writers Mosaic. You can read Naneh’s essay here.

‘Concrete’ by Rachel Sambrooks has been longlisted for the Writers and Artists short story competition. The competition received over 850 entries so to have reached the final 16 is an incredible (and well-deserved!) achievement. Congratulations, Rachel! 

Bethany Rivers is offering a series of 5-6 week courses starting from September. The courses include ‘How to Plan a Novel in 5-weeks’, ‘Discover Your Story in 5-weeks’, and a 6-week course on ‘Mindful Words for the Bereaved’. Bursaries are available for all of the courses. For more information click here.

 

Writing Support and Resources

Creative Future is offering two new workshops this Autumn. Poetry Belongs to Everyone is led by Natalie Linh Bolderston and begins September 19th. This workshop will explore the boundless possibilities of poetry and how it can illuminate our inner lives and the world around us. The second workshop, The Poetry of the Body starts 4th November. Led by Sallyanne Rock, this workshop explores how poets explore, celebrate and commune with the body in their writing.
 
Join Comma Press for “Fairy Tales & Folklore: A Short Story Course” with Liz Hyder. The six-session course starts 13th Nov 2023 and runs until 18th March 2024. Explore world-building, character development, and timeless storytelling at Newhampton Arts Centre. £200 plus Eventbrite booking fees or £150 if in receipt of benefits.
 

The Arvon Foundation have announced a whole new season of creative writing workshops and writing weeks for writers of every level. In addition, they are once again running in-person residentials and retreats. Find out more.

As part of their tenth anniversary celebrations, Speaking Volumes published an anthology, Not Quite Right for Us, which featured forty authors from the UK and around the world, from Poet Laureates to upcoming voices. Many of those authors have shared their advice on writing in short films, which are available as a free resource on the Speaking Volumes website

Competitions and opportunities

Unbound Firsts is an annual publishing opportunity for undiscovered debut writers of colour. They are looking for two books to publish as their Unbound Firsts 2025 titles. To apply for this opportunity, you must be: aged 18+, a writer of colour, previously unpublished, and based in the UK/ROI. Deadline to apply is 30th November 2023 (midnight, BST). Find out more here.

Floodgate Press have opened submissions for Night Time Economy, their new collection of original writing. They are looking for unpublished fiction and creative non-fiction that uses this title as a stimulus to create something new, challenging, exciting. The deadline is 31st January 2024. Click here to find out more and apply.

Language lovers and budding poets of all ages are invited to take part in the Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation, open to adults aged 19+ from all over the world, as well as to young people and school pupils in the UK and Ireland and students at British Schools Overseas. Entrants are invited to submit an English translation of a published poem from any language, ancient or modern, together with a commentary of no more than 300 words. The translation should be max. 60 lines (extracts are accepted). All forms and genres are welcome, including texts from rap, spoken word and slam poetry.