Hampshire Writers' Society

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Hampshire Writers' Society The Hampshire Writer's Society aims to promote writers and writing projects throughout Hampshire.

The Hampshire Writers' Society, based at the University of Wi******er, is a group formed to promote writing and writers in Hampshire. There are meetings held on the 2nd Tuesday of the month from 19:30 - 21.30 and you can use this page to catch up on news, post details of your writing projects, invite people to your events, or anything else you want to share.

Blessings to all on this fine Autumn Equinox🌞What a better day to reveal our October’s meeting Guests. We are lucky to s...
23/09/2026

Blessings to all on this fine Autumn Equinox🌞

What a better day to reveal our October’s meeting Guests.

We are lucky to say that we will be joined by the talented Shimrit Janes and Edward Adonteng at 7:30pm on Tuesday, October the 13th at the Tower Arts Centre.

Shimrit will be offering a talk titled ‘Writing Nature’s Voices’:
We are nature. And, in an age of profound
nature disconnection and ecological collapse, poetry and prose can be powerful methods to help us remember that we are an intrinsic part of the natural world rather than objective witnesses to it. This talk will explore ways we can write ‘as’ nature, rather than ‘about’ nature.
Shimrit is a writer, poet, facilitator and researcher. Her work includes exploring different
perspectives from the natural world, as well as how humans can remember themselves as of
nature rather than separate from it – particularly within urban environments. She is co-author
of the non-fictional Nature of Work: The New Story of Work for a Living Age (2021), and is
currently working on her debut verse novel, which is about rediscovering an eco-spiritual
worldview after burnout.

Edward’s talk is titled ‘Musings on the Manuscript’:
How do we bring the stories that
percolate throughout our minds to the people around us? How do we arrange and design the way in which we want to share these stories? Is now the time? Why a manuscript? This talk/workshop invites you to bring yourself and your pen/keyboard/pencil/screen and ponder the process of what it looks like to assemble works to create a collection.
Edward is an essayist, poet, grower and researcher from South London. Published as a Contemporary Ghanaian Poet (Contemporary Ghanaian Writers Series 2024), his poetry explores themes of time, identity and humanity, as well as a reckoning with self. He was a
Barbican Young Poet for 2025-26 and has been longlisted for the Forward Prize. His work has been published in CING Magazine and Make it Plain. He is currently working on his debut collection.

We hope to see you there🍂

The week since our New Season Launch has flown by🚀A big thanks to our wonderful guest speakers for such a successful eve...
16/09/2026

The week since our New Season Launch has flown by🚀

A big thanks to our wonderful guest speakers for such a successful evening (R to L):

- We had the pleasure of hearing from Gopi Chandroth as he shared insights from his witty and engaging memoir, The Indishman. A highly recommended read if you are looking for a reflective escape.

- Vaseem Khan imparted his wisdom on how to write a best seller, sharing tips he has gathered throughout his journey from the business world to chart-topping authorship.

- Bravo to Stephen Hodgson, who is pictured holding his certificate of “Highly Commended”. A short story selected by Vaseem Khan.

If you want to have your work read by a writer, with the potential of winning the monthly competition, visit our website:
https://hampshirewriterssociety.co.uk
Or keep an eye out for a story with the competition outlined.

Thanks to everyone that came, we hope to see you all again soon☺️🍂

A New Season Launch for HWS on the 8th of September (2 weeks today!) 🌞As summer comes to a close, Hampshire Writers Soci...
25/08/2026

A New Season Launch for HWS on the 8th of September (2 weeks today!) 🌞

As summer comes to a close, Hampshire Writers Society begins.

The first talks we offer this Season are something that will cheer up the post summer blues.

We welcome….

Vaseem Khan: “The Magic Ingredients to Writing a Bestseller”

Vaseem will examine the key ingredients in writing fiction for today’s readership. He will discuss with illustrations five essentials which every author should consider when penning their novel. This workshop will also give you the tools to plan, write, finish or edit your novel, as well as advice on how to make one’s work stand out when submitting to today’s agents and publishers.
Vaseem is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India, as well as the Q Mysteries, beginning with Quantum of Menace (the first in a series, featuring Q in the now familiar James Bond franchise). Vaseem’s debut, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was one of the Sunday Times 40 Best Crime Novels of 2015-20. In 2021, Midnight at Malabar House, the first in the Malabar House novels (set in 1950s Bombay), won the CWA Historical Dagger. Vaseem was born in England but spent a decade working in India.

&

Gopi will consider the funny side of life through the lens of someone who has absorbed many British values while being firmly rooted in Indian traditions. This is a self-described Indishman, neither wholly Indian, nor entirely British. Gopi’s Indishman: Reflections from India, Britain and the Sea is a travelogue, in both fiction and non-fiction, from a writer who is not necessarily ‘all at sea’ when not on land. A marine engineer by training, Gopi spent the first 15 years of his career at sea and the last 15 as a marine accident investigator for the UK Department for Transport. His tendency is to write purely for pleasure, while, like many writers, aspiring to a wider readership.

All are welcome.
Admission £10; £2 for students (free for HWS members); no advance booking is necessary.

I hope you have all been enjoying the sunshine🌞🌞🌞🌞This Tuesday, the 12th of May, Hampshire Writers' Society presents: Pe...
09/05/2026

I hope you have all been enjoying the sunshine🌞🌞🌞🌞

This Tuesday, the 12th of May, Hampshire Writers' Society presents:

Perspectives on Historical Fiction

We are excited to be welcoming Alice Jolly as a returning speaker, and Stephen Hodgson.

A brief note on the guests:

Alice Jolly will be speaking to "The Challenges of Hindsight in Historical Fiction.”
Alice's new novel The Matchbox Girl was published by Bloomsbury in November 2025 and has been long-listed for the Walter Scott Prize. Here, she uses the voice of a twelve-year-old girl who struggles to understand the rise of fascism in 1930s Austria; she interpolates, as well, the histories of Dr Hans Asperger and his colleagues during World War II and after. She will discuss the decisions she made in plotting this novel with the benefits —or challenges—of hindsight, commenting on how such decisions might assist other writers, not just of historical fiction.
Alice is a novelist, dramatist, short story writer and a memoirist. She taught fiction at Oxford University for 16 years. She has won the Ackerley Prize for memoir and the V.S. Pritchett Prize, awarded by The Royal Society of Literature, for one of her short stories.
Stephen Hodgson will be presenting 'Helen and Lysander in Sparta.’

Stephen is our guest speaker, speaking about life in ancient Sparta and focusing on the experience of children growing up there. He will give an overview of his historical novel The Adventures of Helen and Lysander about a sister and a brother and their experiences of the Spartan education programme, the agoge. He is a new author: The Tales of Helen and Lysander is his first novel, the first in a series he intends to write about these characters, which will follow them on their path into adulthood. He recently had two short stories published in the Paul Cave Prize for Literature 2023.

All are welcome.
Admission £10; £2 for students (free for HWS members).
No advance booking is necessary.

We hope to see you there!

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University Of Wi******er, Sparkford Road
Wi******er
SO224NR

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