Looking for a Writers’ Group? We are always pleased to welcome new members - meetings are held weekly on Tuesday evenings from 7.30pm to 9.30pm, with breaks at holiday times. The venue alternates between St Joseph's Church Hall, situated on the corner of Park Lane and Berkshire Drive, Tilehurst, Reading RG31 5JJ, and online via Zoom - see Meetings page for details. Email us to arrange a trial visit - no charge to attend a trial meeting.

Our Membership

At present we have around 30 members, of whom around a dozen attend each week, either zoom or hall and some at both. While most live in the Reading area, we have a few members abroad (France, Hungary, Turkey and Australia). Members’ work includes novels, short stories, memoirs, children’s books, poetry, journalism and autobiographies. Some members have been published, others have never put creative pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and came to us initially for some encouragement.

Fees

Subscriptions are on a pay-as-you-attend basis, currently £5.00 per session – no annual membership fee! The fees, which pay expenses such as the hire of the meeting room, guest speakers, and publishing anthologies, also includes tea, coffee and biscuits at half-time. To join our Zoom meetings, the fees are £8,00 per term, payable at the beginning of each term (no separate session fees).

Come to a Meeting

To find out more about us, email us (see below). We will be glad to answer your questions and arrange for you to attend one of our meetings – no charge! We will provide you with a link that will enable you to join our Zoom meetings.

What We Do

The aim of the Circle is to stimulate, encourage and enable all those who wish to write for their own enjoyment and/or to publish their work. To do this, we encourage members to read their work for constructive comment by other members. We also invite guest speakers to give us the benefit of their knowledge and experience. Past speakers have included Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse), Robert Harris (Enigma, Fatherland, Pompei and Imperium) and John Jenkins, (editor and publisher of Writers' Forum). Crime writers were keenly interested in what Hayley Scott had to say. She was a guest speaker at one of our meetings and gave us the benefit of her knowledge and experience as a crime scene forensics expert, in a light hearted talk on what could have been a grisly and depressing subject. Throughout the year we run competitions which are free for members to enter. Some are judged by external judges and others by members’ votes. We endeavour to publish occasional collections or anthologies of our work. All members are invited to contribute to these publications – see the Publications page for details of past productions.

Next Meeting

17 Sep at 7:30 pm, at St Joseph’s Hall.