Whether you are a poet or a copy writer, a novelist or a screen writer, a journalist or a blogger, Lancashire Writing Hub is the place to be.
Lancashire Writing Hub is a writing development project that was started to provide writers across the county with opportunities to network, develop, publish and perform. The Lancashire Writing Hub has online resources on their website and via social.
The hub is an umbrella group for the West Lancashire Writing Hub and the Central Lancashire Writing Hub (formerly Preston Writing Network). The Lancashire Writing Hub is the literary arm of ‘They Eat Culture’ projects. ‘They Eat Culture’ is an arts development company based in Preston.
The Lancashire Writing Hub project is a pilot funded by Lancashire Arts Unit at Lancashire County Council and Preston City Council. The hub works with the Lancashire Library and Information Service, Preston FM and Creative Lancashire to deliver writing and literature development to groups and individuals across Lancashire.
Word soup
Lancashire Writing Hub events include ‘Word Soup’ a monthly ‘open mic’ event that is a fixture at Preston venue The Continental. Word Soup has quickly established itself as one of the North West’s friendliest and most relaxed Live Literature Nights. Past events have featured top crime authors Nicholas Royle and A.J Duggan, Doctor Who scribe Rob Shearman, and Steven Hall, cult author of The Raw Shark Texts, but the events are for all writers who can book or just turn up to perform for 4 minutes of fame.
The group also run writers workshops, some of which are free. To date, these have included a free 3-week fun writing course for Mums with under 5s; One-off Taster/Refresher creative writing workshop with a professional writer; a Four-week (two hour workshops, one evening a week) creative writing course for beginners through to advanced writers and a series of Professional Development workshops.
Another big project is the free online ‘Your Writing’ area where writers can join a community who will read written work and provide feedback. This community is moderated by a panel of peer experts drawn from creative writing groups in Central and West Lancashire to ensure feedback is constructive, relevant and useful.
There is also a YouTube channel that featuring live-writing performance from the regions novelists, short-story writers, poets and musicians so you can find out all about us, the writers of the North-West.
Famous Lancashire Writers
There are many famous Lancashire writers, born in the region and the famous city of Preston. Writers of novels, poetry as well as comic book writers and artists. This writers are famous not just locally, but nationally and internationally. You may be surprised by some of the names listed, including one of the founding fathers of the United States of America.
Anthony Burgess
Born in 1948 in Lancashire, Burgess was a lecturer of Speech and Drama at the Bamber Bridge Emergency Teacher Training College, near Preston. The College was part of a post-war initiative to train ex-soldiers to be qualified teachers and Burgess trained almost 360 men in his time working there. Anthony Burgess is most famous for his 1962 novel, A Clockwork Orange, that was later adapted into a major film by director Stanley Kubrick.
Joseph Delaney
Famous for his series The Wardstone Chronicles based on Lancashire. The town Priestown is loosely based on Preston, where Delaney was born. Other cities in Lancashire make a camouflaged appearance: Lancaster is Caster; Blackpool is Black Pool; and Chipping becomes Chipenden. The first book in the series, The Spook’s Apprentice, was adapted to film under the title Seventh Son in 2015.
Robert William Service
Born in Preston, Service wrote both prose and poetry, although he is best known for his poems. He briefly studied literature at the University of Glasgow before setting sail for Canada. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling, Service dreamed of becoming a cowboy in the Yukon wilderness where his poetry earned him the name ‘Bard of the Yukon’.
Leo Baxendale
Famous for being the creator of The Beano‘s witty and popular Minnie the Minx and The Bash Street Kids, Baxendale studied at Preston Catholic College. Homage to one of Lancashire’s famous writers, a mural of characters from The Beano was painted in Preston’s Community Gardens at Ribbleton Park in 2012.
(more famous Lancashire writers)
Get Involved
The Lancashire Writing Hub always has opportunities for readers, writers, performers, bloggers, film-makers, reviewers and tutors.
Even informal input such as commenting on work submitted to the “Your Writing” page not only helps your fellow writers but gives you valuable experience in analysing creative writing and what makes it tick.
If you’d like to help expand their digital performance archive by taking and uploading film, or become a member of their copywriting team, or perform your work at a Word Soup event in your own community or represent your creative writing group as a peer moderator in the Your Writing area of the site.
If you fancy getting involved with the Lancashire Writing Hub in a volunteer capacity, such as by becoming an informal volunteer copywriter or in a more formal volunteer placement, you can add valuable kudos to your cv, and a formal volunteer placement will also result in a formal statement/reference of your role with them. The formal roles include acting as Guest Editor. (…)
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