Writers' Meet - Poetry Special

Gary Carr • 6 July 2025

NAWG in association with Runaway Writers

Here are the basic details of a meet-up, which will be in Lichfield on 18th October 2025. It is limited to 16 people due to size and layout of rooms in the Guildhall;  the cost is £35 per person for NAWG members/concessions, £40 for non-members.  The Guildhall, while an historic building, has been modernised with a lift which runs close to the room we will inhabit for most of the day. The building has been home to Lichfield Fire service, the prison (cells are open to more fleeting visits from tourists now), and Lichfield council (not often, as far as we know, in the cells).


The price will include some poetry “taskmaster” challenges, a workshop from Leicester poet Roy Marshall and a tour of the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, plus some free time for writing, completing your challenge, or paying a visit to other city centre tourist destinations. Lichfield is a small city and most of the centre is within less than 10 minutes’ walk of the Guildhall.


Lunch and accommodation are not included. As we are right in the city centre there are plenty of places to eat or to buy food to bring into the meeting room, which we feel is a more flexible and cost-effective solution than a one-snack-fits-all approach. Similarly if you require accommodation there are several hotels very close to the venue, such as a Premier Inn about 3 minutes’ walk down the road. The bus station is under five minutes’ walk from our venue, the station a further few minutes. We are in the process of creating a pack for delegates, with some aid from Lichfield council, which will have maps and other useful information.



Contact info@nawg.co.uk for more details and to book your place.

Autumn 250 competition

by Susan Cartwright Smith • 16 November 2025
Here is the winner of our spooky ghost / horror story NAWG 2025 Autumn 250-word Flash Fiction competition . It ran from Friday 3rd to Friday 31st October, First, second, and third place entries will also be published in Link magazine. See the website HERE The prize of £25 for the winning entry goes to SUSAN KING for her story: RUSSIAN ROULETTE. I dread this day. Pumpkins with grinning faces and kids running about dressed as ghosts. Ghosts don’t wear costumes, they’d know that if they’d seen one. I can cope with all that – it’s the knocking on doors blackmailing adults into giving them treats that frightens me. Don’t they know how dangerous this is? Agnes has a bucket of Cadbury Heroes by the door. Her children have grown up and left home which is a relief to me, I can tell you I want to yell at the little ones who stand with expectant faces when she opens the door. Bugger off, I want to shout. But of course, I can’t. You can’t imagine the horror of watching her fill her syringe and pierce the wrapper of a chocolate bar, plunging the needle into the gooey inside and withdrawing it empty. You don’t know what it’s like to watch helpless as she smiles and hands out the sweets. She’s not daft enough to poison each one. For her it’s a game of Russian roulette. She waits for the post on the village Facebook page. She reads the hundreds of messages of sympathy with glee, scrolls slowly through emojis of crying faces, pink hearts and praying hands. She notes the date of the funeral and gets out her dark clothes. It’s the same black dress and coat she wore my cremation. A human black widow spider, she dispensed with me after our children were born. It’s just other people’s children she dislikes.

Xmas with NAWG

by Henry Curry • 5 November 2025
(Friday 19th December 8PM online) 

Post-Xmas General Knowledge QUIZ

by Henry Curry • 5 November 2025
Tuesday 30th December 7PM online 

Young Persons Writing Competition

by Henry Curry • 14 October 2025
(copyright BBC) The BBC 500 Words Competition is open for entries. Make sure you submit your stories before 9pm, Friday 7 November. There are two age categories: 5-7 and 8-11 year-olds and spelling, punctuation and grammar are not marked - as has always been the case for 500 Words, it's all about our writers' brilliant creativity! There are prizes to be won - each winner will take home a bundle of books and the gold winners will also win 500 books for their school library. All the details on the BBC Bitesize website here https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/topics/ce5jljmy5ljt

Dame Jilly Cooper

by Henry Curry • 8 October 2025
We're sad to hear that one of our patrons dies, aged 88

Long Link Specials

by Steve Bowkett • 17 September 2025
Members can go to the Members Only page (you'll need the password) and read stories that were a little too long to fit in the normal Link magazine - see the section marked 'Fiction Special' --> HERE

Members' Competitions Results 2025

by Kevin Machin • 6 September 2025

AGM and Competitions Awards Ceremony

by Kevin Machin • 3 September 2025
The 30th AGM is on Saturday 6th September at 2:00 pm.

Meet the Committee

by Kevin Machin • 3 September 2025
Regular Zoom Sessions for NAWG Members

Membership Subscriptions

by Penny Ellis • 14 August 2025
The deadline date for paying 2025-26 subscriptions to NAWG is 31st August 2025. Any groups or individuals who have not paid by this date will be removed from the active database and will not be sent publications in future, able to vote in the AGM, allowed to enter the 2026 members' competitions, or be listed on the website. The groups and individual members who have not yet paid are being advised of the deadline. Groups and Individuals who fail to pay up may of course re-join. New groups and individuals joining the association will pay the full subscription (group £50, individual £25, student £15) and with their joining pack will be sent access to all the Link magazines published since 1st July 2025. They will be encouraged to enter the Members' competitions 2026 (closing date 31st March 2026.) After 31st March, new joiners subscriptions will cover them until 30th June 2027 i.e. they get their first period of up to three months free.