About us

Who we are

Birmingham Writers’ Group welcomes members from all walks of life from across the West Midlands – we’re a mixed bunch, and we enjoy new perspectives. All we require is that our members enjoy writing and that they treat each other with respect.

What we do

Different people join the Writers’ Group for different reasons. We’re here to support each other’s writing, sympathise with writerly woes, and we’re also here to provide constructive critical advice on each other’s work, and help each other to work out how to best achieve our writing goals, whatever those goals may be.

Our meetings take a variety of different formats. Often, members will read out their work for others to comment on – but we also host instant writing exercises, competitions, and a range of discussion evenings on particular themes.

What we write

We’re open to all kinds of writing. Our current membership features a lot of prose-fiction writers with a smattering of poets for good measure, but we’re also open to non-fiction writers too. Many of us write short stories and novels, but we’ve also covered radio plays and screenplays.

We ask contributors to provide appropriate context if their writing might be unsuitable for some readers, but we’re open to a range of works (although we reserve the right to refuse a platform to any writing promulgating discriminatory attitudes). Furthermore, whilst our range of ability varies, we are not a language class – we welcome second-language writers, but we’re not equipped to teach writing if you’re only just starting out.

When we meet

We generally meet twice monthly on Wednesdays, in central Birmingham: see our programme for details.

After the official meetings, some of our members retire to a nearby pub for a less formal chat, but this certainly isn’t compulsory! We also arrange additional social evenings elsewhere in other venues.

If you’re interested in attending our next meeting, please read our ‘how to join’ page first – new members are welcome at all meetings, but some of them will be better introductions to the group than others.

How we are funded

Birmingham Writers’ Group is funded through member donations. It is free to attend, and there is no membership fee or attendance fee.

We welcome the contributions made by people who attend our meeting, submit works, and take part in discussions. We recognise that some of us have more disposable income than others. We do need to pay for the room hire fees, so if you are able to contribute towards this cost, we would welcome a monetary donation, but this is not at all compulsory.