Menu

Young Writers’ Talent Fund: The Table

The Table is a new peer-to-peer writing community for women and non-binary folk in the North East. We have received funding from the Young Writers’ Talent Fund and have been supported in our development by New Writing North.

Writing is hard. It is wonderful and cathartic and thoroughly worthwhile, but writing is hard. I always imagined that my favourite authors, poets and playwrights were just superhuman beings, immune to the problems of writer¹s block, domestic responsibility and simple
laziness.

I doubt I am alone in this assumption. I think many people imagine writers to be lone creatures, and for some, isolation may be exactly what is needed. However, I have found that having other people as part of a writing process can be invigorating, motivating
and highly productive.

It was a over a drink with two of these said people that the idea for The Table was born. We all love writing, but found ourselves lamenting that we just don’t seem to actually do it. If we do, it sits in our notebooks and on our laptops and maybe occasionally
gets read to our pot plant. It may also be hard to pinpoint what it is that stops someone from putting their writing out into the world, but a lack of confidence is a pretty safe bet. We wondered if changing our writing process could change this. What if we
treated writing as a social act? What if we created a community to write together? The North East is full of talented, creative, inspiring people. We hope The Table can act as an enabler for these creative folk. A regular event in which to write, to meet,
to network. An opportunity to try new styles, challenge one another and have fun with writing.

Writing allows our voices to be heard. We felt it was important to create a space where female writers could nurture their work, could feel supported by others doing the same and could be empowered to share their voices more. We decided peer-to-peer sharing was the
best way to create a sustainable and vibrant group.

After securing the grant from NWN, we started planning ways in which to start and sustain a group of this nature. We wanted it to be as accessible as possible and for it to be a safe space in which to share. We picked The Settle Down Cafe as a venue and planned
the first opening taster sessions. After these we hope that other members will be confident to lead sessions as well. We figure the greater the diversity of voices we learn from and share with, the greater the diversity of the output from the group.

Visit The Table’s website to keep up with this project.

Find out more about the Young Writers’ Talent Fund.