Holmeside Writers is a busy and supportive creative writing group based in Sunderland, founded by me in February 2014, thanks to the generosity of our much-missed but wonderful hosts at Holmeside Coffee. Please note I’ll be stepping down from the group in Feb 2024, but there are plans for other members to keep it going.
New members are always welcome. We have novelists and short story writers, poets, screenwriters and filmmakers and people who aren’t yet sure, but just enjoy writing. So whether you’re an experienced writer, or brand new and want to give it a try, you’ll find a supportive and encouraging community of writers with us.
We run on the first Wednesday of the month and do something different each month: explore themes or techniques, have great writers visit and speak to us about their craft and career, experiment with writing exercises, do read-throughs of work and more.
Our meetings are now (thanks to the generosity of our hosts there) held at the wonderful Ship Isis pub at Silksworth Row in Sunderland. If you’re thinking of coming along, please get in touch with me first.
We do lots of interesting things: we’ve run sessions in which we’ve developed radio drama and short plays; we’ve had guest workshops from novelists, playwrights, an award-winning US writer/actor/director, a performance poet, acclaimed graphic novelists; and we ran an experimental workshop at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art with an internationally recognised contemporary fine artist.
Our members do lots of interesting things outside the group too: some have achieved their first ever publications, won places on an Arts Council funded mentoring scheme, delivered major funded writing projects, made films of stories workshopped within the group, won awards, and much more.
Drop me a line and say hi or ask any questions.