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 – and you don’t need to register as a volunteer, just register as a user of the website.

If you’d like to help us expand our digital performance archive by taking and uploading film, or become a member of our 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, we have something for you.

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 us. The formal roles include acting as Guest Editor for our website for between 1 and 3 month placements.

If you’d like to know more about the kind of things a formal volunteer placement would involve, scroll down to the bottom of the page and read an article written by one of our volunteers, Sofie Fowler.

For more information on volunteering for the Lancashire Writing Hub, email writing@theyeatculture.org .

Click on the link to download a PDF copy of They Eat Culture’s current Volunteer Handbook

To download a PDF copy of They Eat Culture’s Associate Artists scheme information, including an application form, click here. 

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Sofie Fowler completed a formal volunteer placement with the Lancashire Writing Hub in Autumn 2010, and is now studying for an MA in Screenwriting at UCLan. Sofie wrote an article on her blog about her volunteer placement with the Hub, and has kindly allowed us to publish it here, to give you an insight into a formal volunteer placement with us:

“My time as an in house volunteer at the Lancashire Writing Hub (LWH) is coming to an end. It has been an enjoyable and informative experience that I’m glad I undertook. I have written a few reviews and interviews for them (links below) and also had the opportunity to organise a live literature night called Word Soup for which we had a cinema related theme of Words on Screen. Word Soup is a regular night at the Continental that offers local and national writers a chance to perform their work and watch others’. A great opportunity to get some feedback and also exposure.

When I started volunteering and Jane Brunning (LWH Writing Coordinator) first suggested I curate one of the nights I was excited but also a little nervous. I have experience organising art events, having worked with Ric Michael on the LIFE festival, but I’d never hosted anything before. Putting together the line up was fun work as it meant contacting various artists and then crossing my fingers that they would be free for the night. Unfortunately a few weren’t but we did end up with an absolutely storming line up.

On the night itself I was unusually calm setting up the room, my pre-event nerves hadn’t quite warmed up. The artists started arriving and we sat down for a bit of food and a chat, all lovely people. Then 8 o’clock start time rolled round and I felt my stomach drop and the nerves kick in. Getting up on stage to welcome everyone was scary as hell but the audience were lovely and I only forgot to mention one thing.

The night went really well, with performances from Philip Burton, Sian Cummins, Norman Hadley and Mark Mace Smith. Plus the open mic slot which threw up a few gems. Bill Orrick provided some excellent music (and gave me a free CD, top man). Overall, my first time curating a live literature night was a resounding success, if I do say so myself, and I had a cracking time. Next Word Soup is October the 19th if anyone is in the Preston area.

A little bit about the LWH;

“The Lancashire Writing Hub is an online and offline writing and literature development project. We deliver live literature events, performance opportunities, and panel discussions across Lancashire, and run a writing portal offering local and national information about writing opportunities, alongside writing and writer’s development opportunities. We offer online and offline volunteering and publishing opportunities. The Lancashire Writing Hub is a They Eat Culture project.”

Links to my writing for LWH;

Cathy Crabb is a fantastic playwright who wrote the excellent The Roots of Love. She’s absolutely lovely and you can follow her on twitter @CathyCrabb. Review here.

Grace O’Leary won a Forever Manchester award for her play What Colour Was Her Blood? I interviewed her about her writing. The play is being performed on October the 14th at the Continental.

Tom Fletcher is a novelist from Manchester who wrote a horror novel The Leaping. Review here. Follow him on twitter @fellhouse.

Sofie’s review of the Preston Tringe Special Word Soup.”

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For a full list of the Lancashire Writing Hub volunteer team, follow the link here.