A welcoming online home for all creative writers
Drop-in groups hosted live online
So much of the inspiration for what we offer comes from our students’ requests and suggestions, and as writers ourselves we know all about the challenges and obstacles that regularly get in the way.
One of the things we’re all agreed on is that it’s just too easy to let our writing slip down the weekly list of priorities. So we’ve created a way of wrapping the week with our words, setting our writerly intentions on Monday morning, attending courses during the week, gathering for the Thursday Writing Hour and sharing work for feedback on Fridays.
Once a half term we send a Pay What You Can request so that those who can contribute to the running costs of these drop-in groups can chip in to help support what we offer. Writing Room is a community arts organisation committed to helping as many people as possible access our activities, so the drop-in groups are free to those who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford to come along.
Who are the drop-in groups for?
This varies from group to group, because each has developed its own unique style and focus. See below to find out who can come along to the different groups on offer.
MONDAY START YOUR WEEK
“It's amazing. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to complete a writing project and they’re feeling lost. My personal belief that I have a right to write, that I’m not being irresponsible or vain by choosing writing over housework, comes
largely from attending this session.”
Catherine
Writing Room Student
THURSDAY WRITING HOUR
“I’ve found it incredibly valuable to have a weekly appointment to focus on my novel. It’s not just the surprising amount of work I can get done in sixty minutes - the Thursday Writing Hour carves out a space to keep the momentum of my project going. And if I have the luxury of some time then it helps provide shape and impetus to my writing day.”
Ben
Writing Room Student
FEEDBACK FRIDAY
“Feedback Friday is a place where I can always bring ‘experiment’, ‘inexperience’ and 'questioning' to the table knowing I won't be knocked down, knowing that the response will always help not hinder. A rare beast in my opinion.”
Sue
Writing Room Student
Kate Pemberton
Kate is your host for the Monday Start Your Week and Thursday Writing Hour, and she is Programme Director of Writing Room. Kate founded Writing Room (at that time known as Haringey Literature Live) with the help of Collage Arts in 2013, and was later awarded Arts Council England funding to develop it further. Kate has worked with writers for 30 years, as an editor and a mentor. From 2013 to 2022 she was Lead Fiction Editor of the international quarterly literary journal Ambit. She has put on more than 200 literary events in London and further afield. Kate wrote short fiction in her 20s, with stories and translations appearing in The Time Out Book of London Short Stories Volume 2, Ambit and Litro. She has recently returned to writing with a novel. She loves hosting our Monday Start Your Week group as it's a chance to keep in touch with where our writers are with their individual projects, and support them to achieve their goals.
Alison Chandler
Alison is your host for Feedback Fridays. She has been working with creative writers since 2010. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck and a Level 3 Award in Education and Training from WM College in Camden, and believes passionately that everyone should have access to lifelong learning. Alison arrived at Writing Room working on her own creative development as a poetry student in 2014 and immediately felt she’d come home. She designed and developed our Prioritise Your Writing and Introduction to Creative Writing courses to support writers at all stages of their own creative journey. Alison has published poems, short stories and creative non-fiction, and that novel project will eventually see the light of day too! She lives in Kentish Town with her two nearly grown up boys and a grumpy cat. In her spare time you’ll find her back home in South Wales, walking the Gower and Pembrokeshire coast paths and trying to write how that feels.
Writing Room is a registered Community Interest Company: a non-profit arts organisation committed to serving the interests of our diverse community of creative writers.
© Writing Room CIC
Photography © Ruth Guthrie unless stated