It’s once again over a year since the last post of Circle successes. In terms of members getting published, it’s been hard to get much more than a few squeaks from people this year, which may be because we’re generally a rather self-effacing bunch of people, or perhaps the fact of it simply being harder to get work published. Although, for most of us, the journey—the process of writing, improving our craft—is far more important than the destination, there is something special about seeing your words in print or online, and that should be celebrated.

But before reporting on those individual successes, we should first talk up the Circle itself, which has been the biggest success of all in the last year. There’s a whole new energy to meetings. We have lots of new members across an ever greater range of different writing styles. It might be appropriate to reproduce what our Chair, Selso, said in his report for the AGM …

I was reliably informed that the Leeds Writers Circle is the best writing group in the land. This statement was imparted over a pint, by a cherished member, who assured me that he’d tried more than a dozen different groups (in Leeds and London) before coming to this conclusion. This evidence could be dismissed as anecdotal, but anyone regularly attending our jam-packed sessions will likely agree: we have the most vibrant, inclusive, creative, welcoming, oldest (debatable), and talented (not debatable) writing group around; and I’m proud to be part of it.

Since the start of the year, we’ve had an influx of new faces, and our traditional Manuscript Meeting format has been bursting at the seams somewhat with the amount of people bringing something to read. We may have a conversation this summer about expanding our schedule if this continues. Calendar quirks have meant our alternate groups (Storybuilding and Scribble and Scones) have had to be postponed more often than I’d like, but the sessions we’ve held so far have also seen record numbers. The post-Manuscript Meeting Pub meet has seen similar attendance.

Our monthly Novelist and Short Story groups are thriving, as is the Poets Group, so members are spoilt for choice with options to explore genres and collaborate with fellow writers.

We’ve run two out of our three annual competitions, with the Short Story Competition, judged by Mike Farren in the Autumn, and the Memoir Competition, judged by Becky Cherriman, more recently. You only need to look at the happy faces on our website to see how much these prestigious competitions meant to their winners.

Our professional and member-run workshops have been big hits, with a member-run Scrivener workshop in the Autumn, and a professional-run Pitching Workshop by Beverly Ward following after. There are three more coming this year, so keep an eye on the website for announcements.

Writing can be a lonely pursuit. I hope you’ll agree that the Circle is an oasis where proponents of this purest of artforms can connect; quenching the creative thirst, I believe, as only fellow writers can.

Down then to publishing successes … 

Short Stories

Alex Wakeman had his first short story, The Big Merino, published in the inScribe journal of creative writing. Getting his email address wrong, he only found out when a hard copy arrived in the post and he found his story in print!

Peter Richardson recently had three stories accepted/published within a single month. My Ambient Dad, which was read at a Manuscript Meeting to a great reception, is being published in DreamCatcher Magazine. Burning Grandma’s Favourite Jumper has just been published in Confluence magazine. Velcro Memories has been accepted for the Power Anthology published by Indigo Dreams/Leeds Trinity University.

Bob Hamilton recently had A Darker Shade of Pale published by Fictive Dream. A considerable debt is owed to feedback from a Manuscript Meeting and having the focus of last year’s short story competition, at which it won the Annavation Prize.

Marg Greenwood has a wonderful short piece of memoir, Seeing Red in Sierra Leone, published in the ‘Memory Lane’ slot in the Spring edition of ‘The Oldie’ magazine. It’s about her time teaching in a girls’ high school in Freetown in the sixties.

Flash Fiction

Mari Phillips continues to lead the way in Flash. Doing her sums and One day have been published by CafeLitMagazine, the latter being selected for their latest anthology. Also, Where we the mirrors has been published by Flash Fiction North.

Linda Fulton got an honourable mention (joint 2nd?) in Penstricken’s Winter Flash Fiction Competition for Skins.

Poetry

Mandi Lynsdale has been able to report considerable success with her poetry, amongst which Ponderings was published in Chapel FM’s Writing on Air Threshold Anthology, A Hint of Fruit in Defra’s Everyone’s a Seed Anthology, Our Eyes in Dream Catcher Magazine, and Snippets of Springs in the Royal Voluntary Service’s Round Up Magazine. Also, This Game is due to be published in Leeds Trinity University’s Power Anthology.

Wendy Clayton has The Shape of the Outside accepted by Obsessed with Pipework, due to be published in their print magazine in August. Everything Changed Except our Way of Thinking has just been published online by Ink, Sweat & Tears.

Novel

New Member Osadolor Osayande has recently published his novel, The Only Thing More Beautiful Than Halle Berry is the Love of a Brother.

Congratulations to everyone.