Sheppey and Sittingbourne
Writers

Sheppey Writers have been in existance for nearly twenty years and like all groups or societies have suffered from fluctuating membership, which sounds like some nasty illness, and today we have a small core of active members and a wide range of contacts in and around the area known as Swale.  With the advent of the internet and the common practice of stuffing everything on the Web as it gets more available and easier for the average person to use we have emerged from the nineteenth century to embrace the twenty-first.  What happened to the twentieth? We draw much of our writing experience from the last century and embrace older and younger writers with enthusiasm.  As normal with any society we have a small group that actually runs it and provide the means by which we keep up a profile. 

Today we have ventured a little into networking with other Kent writers' groups and following a tradition of getting involved with local arts festivals.   So, Bob Collins, James Apps and sometimes Ruth Partis respond to invitations to read our work in public. 

Our Aim  is to increase our profile in the community and to encourage local writers in Sittingbourne and Sheppey to expose their work to the public. 

To do this we offer this website as a place for new writing, news of events and as a contact with other writers.  We encourage young writers as well as older and established writers to use our site, to come to events and to express opinions through the guestbook.  We will review books and advertise them on the site.  We will also attempt the impossible and try to organise regular poetry and prose readings locally.  

Since 2001 Sheppey Writers has been involved with the Swale Festivals running or organizing workshops and other writers events during July in conjunction with the Swale Borough Council.  In 2005 we organized a successful Children's Poetry competition open to schools and children in the Swale Borough.  Divided into two sections for Juniors and Seniors the competition attracted a large entry and was supported by Kent Arts and Libraries, the Swale Council and, later by the Queenbourough Fisheries Trust who funded the production of an anthology of the winning entries. 

Now affiliated to the Swale Arts Forum, Sheppey Writers is growing and attracting new members. 

Subscribe to Sheppey Writers and recieve a Newsletter, first preference to writing workshops, subsidised or free writing events and a chance to have your work published in our newsletter or on the website.