Writers’ Gathering D&G, our annual conference for writers, went online this year on 14-16 May with a lively mix of Zoom workshops, a live-streamed panel discussion, a writers' clinic, an open mic night, and more.
We kicked off on the evening of Friday 14 May with a panel discussion on “Writing in the time of Covid”. Jan Carson, Jarred McGinnis and Saeida Rouass discussed how they've coped as writers during the current pandemic and how lockdown has impacted on their creativity. Watch the event here.
The weekend of 15-16 May included a range of workshops on short fiction, nature writing, crime writing (including how to poison your characters), creating authentic worlds, poetry, memoir and life writing. Our workshop leaders included Jan Carson, Jasmine Cooray, Jarred McGinnis, Saeida Rouass, Jessica J. Lee, and E.S. Thomson, and our clinic for writers was run by Karen Campbell.
Our open mic night took place on the evening of Saturday 15 May, intended to provide a safe space for participants to share their work and practise their spoken word skills. We also facilitated networking with some digital lunchtime hangouts and what would normally have been our book stall for participants to share and sell their work was replaced by an online showcase.
Much of the weekend was free, including the Friday evening panel discussion and the open mic night, however the workshops and the writers' clinic sessions were ticketed, providing on-the-day access only. A range of affordable booking options were available, including bursaries.
Our annual Writers’ Gathering was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, so it was great to see it returning for 2021 in a new virtual format, and it was exciting to find out what development opportunities a digital format might offer for our workshops and our participants.
As one former attendee said to us recently, “It’s a place to connect, talk, learn, geek out and write – what more could you want?” We couldn’t agree more!
Information about our next Writers' Gathering will follow early in 2022. In the meantime, you can also follow our Facebook page for regular updates.