Last weekend, we ran our ever-popular Meet the Agents Day, followed this time round by a brand new writer Q&A. 💭 The event brought agents Davinia Andrew-Lynch, Juliet Mushens and Maria Whelan, and writers Stephen Aryan, Jamie Mollart and Ella King to Nottingham. ✍️ See you all next time! 👋

💫 ONE WEEK TO GO 💫 Our online masterclass with award-winning author Irenosen Okojie is next week on Wednesday 18th February! 🖥️ Tickets are only £15 with concessions and bursaries available. | bit.ly/3OA4AXz |

St. Ghosty Creatives and WORD! Poetry have launched Transmissions, an immersive sound-based arts project for unpublished writers, in partnership with Leicester Creative Hubs Depot, Leicestershire Partnerships Trust, ACE and the RSL. ✍️🎶 Read about its launch here ➡️ bit.ly/WEMBLOG

Chris Packham is the Keynote Speaker at Beyond the Spectrum's week-long online creative writing festival, Words Unwound 2026! ✍️🧵 Tune in to his speech on Wednesday 25th March for just £5. Or gain access to the whole festival lineup for just £30! 🎟️ Find out more ➡️ bit.ly/BTSFEST26

A.K. Blakemore, Anthony Anaxagorou, Marie O'Regan, Jamie Mollart, Kerry Hadley-Pryce, Guy Mankowski and Niki Valentine are our 2026 mentors! 👋🎉 They'll each be supporting our eight mentees to achieve their goals throughout the course of the programme. Stay tuned for updates from our mentees!

Open call for creatives, click here: ➡️ bit.ly/DESIGNPULSE2 Drawings, digital art, graphic design and photography wanted for Pulse's front cover. The theme: Masks. 🎭️ The successful entry will receive a £75 commission. Send yours in by 25th Feb! ⌛️

Looking for an afterschool activity for young writers aged 11-16 in Derby? 🙋 Great news! We're working with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust to deliver nature-themed writing workshops for young people. 🌼✍️ Sign up and find out more here ➡️ bit.ly/DWTYWG

Book your tickets now 👉️ bit.ly/BTSFEST26 Beyond The Spectrum's online creative writing festival is open to all. Featuring Keynote Speaker Chris Packham and talks such as Radical Rest, Speculative Fiction, Scriptwriting and more! ✍️💫 Save your place today! 🎟️✅️

Remember: Tickets only £15! 💸 Only 2 weeks left to get yours, here ➡️ bit.ly/AURORAIRENOSEN Topics covered: professional and personal barriers, using rejection as fuel, maintaining curiosity and the role of agents. Book your tickets and get expert advice on making it as a writer. ✍️

Tickets close tomorrow! Get yours 👉️ bit.ly/AGENTSDAY Literary agents and authors are coming to the East Mids this Saturday for a panel discussion and Q&A. Featuring exclusive publishing industry insights and advice for writers. ✍️

Check out our Community Spotlight this week! 📚 Subscribe to our newsletter to have all new opportunities delivered directly to your inbox📥 buff.ly/dNMOLhq

Tune in to Erewash Sound tomorrow morning for a surprise guest! At 8.10 am, Molly and Rebecca will be chatting with Kirsty about how we support writers across the East Mids. Including opportunities for aspiring writers, work for established writers and our community writing projects. 🌈

Meet the writers joining us for our post-panel Q&A next week. Featuring... 🍊 Ella King, author of Bad Fruit and Dear Darling. 🪶 Stephen Aryan, author of The Nightingale and the Falcon Series. 🔓️ Jamie Mollart, author of The Zoo and Kings of A Dead World. Find out more ➡️ bit.ly/AGENTSDAY

Only £15 for advice from a multi-award-winning author! Irenosen Okojie was the 2025 judge of the Aurora Prize, director of Black to the Future, and author of Curandera and Butterfly Fish. Want her insights into the publishing industry and life as an author? Find out here ➡️ bit.ly/AURORAIRENOSEN

Updates to our Meet the Agents Day! 👀 On top of the panel of literary agents joining us next week, we've invited these stellar authors to share their experiences, tips and advice on the author-agent relationship. 🤝 Find out more about them all here ➡️ bit.ly/AGENTSDAY

Design our front cover! 📢 Open call seeking designs for the cover of our magazine, Pulse, with a commission fee for the successful submission. 🖌️ Drawings, digital art, photos & graphic design accepted 🎭 The theme: Masks 💰 Commission fee: £50 🗓️ 25th February 2026 🔗 bit.ly/DESIGNPULSE2

Derby young writers! 📢 We're teaming up with the Wildlife Trust to deliver FREE nature-themed creative writing workshops for budding young writers and aspiring environmentalists. 🌳✏️ In-person and online sessions available. Next session is 🌻4th Feb🌻 Sign up here for access ➡️ bit.ly/DWTYWG

Last week was WEM's 2026 Away Day! Together, we headed over to Attenborough Nature Reserve to reflect on our past programmes and make decisions about our activity plan for the coming years. 💭✏️ Big thanks to the staff at Attenborough Nature Reserve for having us. 🫶 Keep an eye out for more WEM news!

Hey, that's me! I'm very grateful to @writingeastmidlands.com for inviting me to be part of their mentoring scheme for 2026. Looking forward to meeting the other mentees and learning more about what they're working on!

Festival announcement! 🎺🎶 Beyond The Spectrum have announced their weeklong online creative writing festival. Featuring talks, panels and workshops celebrating writing as rest, as well as a keynote speech from the one and only Chris Packham! 🤩 Aimed at Neurodivergent writers but open to all. 🫶

Author Emma Pass is leading our 6-week online course, Finish Your Novel. These are the books she's had published. 👀📚 Emma's bibliography includes young adult, historical and children's fiction, published by Penguin and Head of Zeus/Bloomsbury. Find out more about Emma's course ➡️ bit.ly/FINISHNOVEL

Leicester-based writer Sabrina Mei-Li Smith is our sixth mentee! Say hi! 👋 In addition to writing about teaching creative writing for Bloomsbury, Sabrina has also been published by WithIntentions, Writers in Education, TigerShark, Ink Pantry Press and Feminist Trash. 📚

One month 'til award-winning author Irenosen Okojie joins us! 🤩 This masterclass is only £15 (!!) and covers invaluable topics for writers: Common barriers, the role of agents, rejection as fuel and more! Book your tickets here ➡️ bit.ly/AURORAIRENOSEN

Meet Susie! 👋 Our fifth mentee and a writer with a diverse range of projects under her belt. Susie has published two Kindle books, has a play currently in production with Buxton Opera House and is a regular Substack writer. You can read more of her work here ➡️ susiehalksworth.substack.com

Creative commission: Work for artists, designers & photographers! 🖌️🎨 We want you to design our magazine's next front cover. 📚 Send in your ideas by 25th February, and the successful applicant will receive a £75 commission fee and publication in Pulse Issue No. 5! More info ➡️ bit.ly/DESIGNPULSE2

Check out our Community Spotlight for this week! 📚

FREE & ONLINE afterschool club for Neurodivergent teens! 🌈⬇️ Our fortnightly creative writing workshops build confidence, encourage imagination and offer an emotional outlet for 14-17s. ✍️ Supporting their self-expression and mental health. 🫶 Register your young writer here 👇 bit.ly/BTSPOETRY14-17

Say hello to our new resident fantasy writer! 🧙‍♀️✨ Ellen Taylor is our 4th mentee, teaching Psychology at UoN by day and writing by night. ✍️🌕 She has been published in anthologies and literary magazines. Her short story 'Stella Polaris' was awarded runner-up for the Oxford-BNU Creative Writing Award.

💫 NEW DATE 💫 Our online masterclass with award-winning author Irenosen Okojie is coming to your screens this February! 🖥️ Tickets are only £15 with concessions and bursaries available. Book yours now before we run out ➡️ bit.ly/AURORAIRENOSEN

Meet our third mentee: Phil W. Bayles! 👏 With a background in writing both advertising copy and reviews, Phil applied to our Mentoring Scheme to work on his first novel. His short fiction has been published by Twisted Ink, 50-Word Stories and Silly Goose Press. 📚

Find out how to secure a literary agent from the agents themselves. 📝 The third agent joining us our panel discussion in February is none other than Davinia Andrew-Lynch, founder of ANDLYN and co-founder of the FAB Prize. See who else is joining us ➡️ bit.ly/MEETAGENTS

Author Emma Pass is the tutor leading our brand new 6-week online course, Finish Your Novel. 📚🎉 If you don't know Emma, she's the author of four novels for both teenagers and adults published by Penguin Random House and Head of Zeus/Bloomsbury. 🐧 Book your tickets ➡️ bit.ly/FINISHNOVEL

Check out our community spotlight this week! 📚

Introducing our next 2026 mentee: Rose Shenton! 👋🎉 Rose is a 29-year-old transwoman and King's College graduate with a BA in English Literature. Her spy thriller, 'The Performance', was shortlisted for the best unpublished thriller at the 2024 Nashville Claymore Awards.

Our Mentoring Scheme mentees have been confirmed. Here's who we're going to be working with in 2026. 👀⬇️ First up: it's Aoife O'Connor! ✨ Aoife is a poet, producer, the founder of She Speaks, co-director of Derby Poetry Festival and vice-chair of Forward Arts Foundation board of trustees.

New course update! 🚨📢 We've had to make some changes to our How to Write in Any Genre course... But don't worry! It's still 100% online with direct weekly feedback from established author Emma Pass. ✅📝 Find out more here ➡️ bit.ly/FINISHNOVEL

Our final post introducing you to our Youth Advisory Board: Meet Nidaa Raoof! 👋 So, what's next for the Board? Keep an eye out for updates on the exciting changes they'll be bringing to our programme in 2026 by clicking here ➡️ bit.ly/WEM_YAB

Very excited to be appearing in Issue 3 of THE SPACE BEYOND, the fantastic magazine organised by Beyond the Spectrum in conjunction with @writingeastmidlands.com. Lots and lots of gorgeous writing and artwork throughout: heyzine.com/flip-book/20...

Hello again! 👋 After a much-needed break, the WEM team is back at our desks and ready to start work on our 2026 projects. 💪 Don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about our upcoming projects. Otherwise, keep an eye out for updates on what's to come! 👀

Agent reveal! 🤩✨ Confirmed so far: Juliet Mushens and Maria Whelan of Mushens Entertainment. What they're looking for: SFF, speculative, horror, literary, historical, crime and reading group fiction! Writing in any of the above genres? Book your place at our Meet the Agents Day ➡️ bit.ly/AGENTSDAY

And our last Aurora Prize winner is John Gallas! 👏🎉 John's poem 'warm weasels @ Amar elHusn' was awarded the regional prize for its depth, warmth and originality. We've thoroughly enjoyed hosting this year's competition and celebrating our winners. We can't wait for Aurora 2026! 🌌

New year, new magazine and a brand new cover... Designed by YOU! 🫵 Don't forget: We're running an open call for cover designs for the next issue of Pulse. The theme? MASKS. 🎭 Commission fee of £75. Full brief ➡️ bit.ly/DESIGNPULSE2

📢 HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎆🎉 Here's to making 2026 another year dedicated to writers, writing and all things literature in the East Midlands! 🥳 We can't wait to show you what we have in store and to support your writing journey over the year ahead. 🥰 Until then, we hope you've kicked off 2026 in style! 🥂

Goodbye 2025! 👋🥂 We've had a BIG year with lots and LOTS going on, from masterclasses to zine launches, The Writers' Conference to our BTS Festival, young writers' retreats to competition announcements. Here's to a 2026 with more words to be written and more stories to be told! ✍️❤️

Meet our Youth Advisory Board members 🎉 📙 Careese Hutchinson 📗 João Estorninho 📘 Priya Gill 📕 Annie Cross Our Youth Advisory Board are enthusiastic writers aged 18-25, presenting a valuable perspective and insight on challenges and opportunities and bringing new ideas and energy to WEM.

Join us in applauding our first place short fiction winner: Charlotte Sinclair! 👏👏👏 Charlotte's award-winning entry 'Millimetres' was a raw, real and honest take on postpartum motherhood that demonstrated the power of short stories in communicating complex topics with nuance and care.

Merry Christmas 🎄🎅 From the WEM team! However you celebrate, we're wish you a day of laughter, joy and merriment. 🫶 (And hopefully some writing-related gifts under the tree! 📖🎁)

Introducing our Youth Advisory Board members 🎉 📙 Via Macnab 📘 Katherine Monk-Watts 📗 Leo McFaul Our Youth Advisory Board are enthusiastic writers aged 18-25, presenting a valuable perspective and insight on challenges and opportunities and bringing new ideas and energy to Writing East Midlands.

Seasons greetings! ☃️❄️ The Writing East Midlands team are now away from our desks until Monday 5th January 2026 for a much needed Christmas break! 🎄 We'll still be checking our emails for anything urgent and posting to socials. So keep an eye out for any news from us! 👀 See you in the new year! 👋

Christmas shopping for a writer you know? 🎅 Here's a quick and easy last-minute present to bulk out their stocking. 🎄 Show your partner, friend or family member that you believe in them and their ambitions with a truly thoughtful gift this Xmas.🎁 Only £25 - tickets available here ➡️ bit.ly/AGENTSDAY