Word Soup

The beautiful and brilliant Jenn Ashworth has informed me of a new venture she's part of - the Preston Writing Network. It's a project from They Eat Culture and it makes me think that Preston might just be the place to be.

Preston Writng Network is here to promote and develop emerging and established writing talent in Preston and the wider NW. We blog and twitter to keep you up to date with what's going on, and we hold classes, workshops, events and meet-ups to help you move in the direction you want to go.

The website has lots of details of workshops and writing opportunities, below are details of a couple of particularly exciting up and coming things:

Taster sessions, workshops and seminars with Jenn Ashworth herself. There are so many, and such a variety that you're bound to find something that interests you. They're at The Continental in Preston and the present programme runs from May through to October.

Word Soup - also at The Continental. It's a monthly live literature night, the next one, on the theme of SKIN, is May 19th from 8pm.
There’s a fantastic line-up of readers including EmmaLannie, a writer, performer, blogger and organiser of Derby’s Live LitNight Hello Hubmarine, Annie Clarkson, author of collection ofmicro-fiction Winter Hands and contributor to Flax Books latest digitalanthology Unsaid Undone, and Andrew Michael Hurley, the author of twoshort story collections, Cages and The Unusual Death of Julie Christie,and a regular performer at Lancaster's Spotlight Club.
As if all that weren’t enough, Word Soup 2 also features readings fromDavid Hartley, who is writing a short story a week for a year on hisblog, Richard Hirst, a graduate of the Manchester's MA in CreativeWriting and writer of top Preston blog I Thought I Told You to Wait inthe Car (not to mention a regular contributor to the Preston WritingNetwork blog), and Tim Woodhall of Manchester’s much-lauded Live LitNight and blog, There’s No Point in Not Being Friends, and contributorto Dogmatika, which you can sample here. Add some live music and a short film to the mix and you have all theingredients for a literary night to remember. See you there! Entry to the event is £3 on the door.