Tuesday, 4 July 2023

Spark Young Writers newsletter

Here is the latest newsletter with details of the 2023-24 Spark Young Writers Groups:

Bookings For The 2023-2024 Spark Young Writers Groups Are Now OPEN!

Spark Young Writers groups are writing groups for children and young people interested in any kind of creative writing.

The Spark Young Writers groups meet all over the West Midlands and have three online groups. Designed as a course of 10 sessions, we meet every month on a Saturday for 2 hours of fun, friendly, and informal creative writing workshops.

The sessions are run by professional writers and an assistant writer. Sessions start at £9 but free places are available for young writers who qualify for pupil premium or free school dinners.

We are able to offer one-off taster sessions so you can try before you commit to the whole year (£10).

Spark Groups 2023-24

We offer 15 in-person groups as well as 3 online groups

8 Junior groups (school years 3 – 6):

· Birmingham Junior

· Bournville NEW for 2023/24!

· Coventry

· Ross-On-Wye NEW for 2023/24!

· Shrewsbury Junior

· Solihull

· Walsall

· Worcester

1 cross over group in Stoke on Trent (school years 5-9)

7 Teen groups (school years 7 – 13)

· Birmingham Teen

· Burton

· Kidderminster

· Nuneaton

· Redditch

· Shrewsbury Teen NEW for 2023/24!

· Wolverhampton

3 online-only groups: for junior and younger teen (school years 7 - 9 ) and older teen (school years 10-13 ) writers

You can search for the right group for your child according to age, location or time of day here.

Find Your Nearest Group

Spark Young Writers Anthology

The Spark Young Writers Anthology is open to Spark members only. The anthology is one of our yearly highlights and showcases the range of talent across our Spark Young Writer groups. Spark members will gain the opportunity of having their work. brought together by a professional editor who will edit out obvious errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar.

We would love to receive as many submissions as possible from current Spark members. You can find out more, including how to submit, here .

Previous anthologies have featured a varied collection of poems, stories, scripts, letters and reviews, written both collectively and independently. Prospective Spark members can find previous anthologies here .

Get Writing: Ideas And Resources

Do you need ideas for some writing inspiration to keep your young writer creative over the summer?

Click here for a range of creative ideas and resources!

Writing West Midlands: Become a Member of Our Board

Writing West Midlands, the organisation that runs Spark Young Writers, is run by a Board of Trustees. Our Board does a brilliant job, but we are always on the look out for more board members; at the moment we are looking for someone with financial experience such as an accountant, finance manager, or company director.

If you fit the bill, or know someone who does and are interested in finding out more, please contact Jonathan Davidson (jonathan@writingwestmidlands.org) and he will be happy to answer your questions.