Flash fiction challenge submission deadline midnight 31 March
This is your last chance to enter our February/March Flash Fiction Challenge and stand a chance to win a literary assessment on 5000 words of writing worth R 2900 / £ 170 or a voucher to [...]
The hidden secrets of writing with Tessa Niles
Tessa Niles is the kind of person whom countless people must have urged to ‘write that memoir‘. As one of Britain’s most respected session singers, she spent 30 years working [...]
Monday Motivation: Prejudice and the power of story
As a child my parents possessed a large radiogram. In the middle sat a turntable, below a radio, and on either side two narrow cupboards for long playing records. I don’t believe they cared at [...]
Lessons from the Books on The Bay Literary Festival
An impressive congregation of writers gathered for Books on the Bay’s inaugural literary festival in the naval village of Simons Town, South Africa – a feast for readers and a trove of [...]
Monday Motivation: Where boundaries dissolve
I’m not sure where this is going to lead me today, but I’m going to take a chance and risk writing something that might end up going nowhere useful at all. Bear with me. Let’s start with the idea [...]
Winners of the December/January Flash Fiction Challenge
The brief for the December/January writing challenge was a simple one: Write a scene in which a mother and her teenage daughter go clothes shopping. Give us clues about their relationship through [...]
Monday Motivation: The why’s that fiction pose
A friend recently sent me a link to the acceptance speech given by the winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature, Olga Tokarczuk. It takes the form of a meditation on fiction, on truth and, [...]
You’re invited: Free memoir writing webinar
Ever wanted to write a memoir? Thought of telling your life story? Wondered how memoir writers find the courage, or how they craft a compelling story from their life experiences? Join Joanne [...]
You’re invited to join an inspiring and supportive writing community
Wouldn't you love to have companionship and support on your writing journey? Do you wish you could raise your burning writing issues and have them answered by experts?
Monday Motivation: Repossessing the past
I’ve always regretted having a memory that dredges up numbers, but not conversations or passages of writing that I’ve read and loved. Memory – not only of conversation and texts, but also of [...]
The hidden secrets of writing with Joanne Hichens
‘Sometimes, in writing memoir, we are faced with extreme pain, says writer Joanne Hichens. ‘It’s important to recognise that these “scenes” might be included in the story.’ Joanne is [...]