Blue Sky Meeting

“There is nothing permanent except change”, Heraclitus.

Every few years we create the opportunity for a group get-together wholly focusing on developing and evaluating the direction of our group. We call it our “Blue Sky” event. We discuss in subgroups topics ranging from meeting agendas and locations, data protection and communication, social media and writing projects, local community events and competitions…..plus everything else that a writer’s circle does in between.

Our President, Ange, ran this special event in Cusop Village Hall, posing interesting questions which got us all thinking and talking. It was a fabulous way to share ideas for the future and adaptations we could make right now, with a measure of evaluating any potential concerns by beginning the process of problem solving them. Lily kindly typed up all the notes from the day (of which there were many!) into a coherent format which the HWC Committee can endeavour to develop.

We all thoroughly enjoyed this meeting, heartened by the many positive expressions of what the group means to it’s members. Onwards with writing we all go!

HWC Annual Summer Lunch 2025

“Stop overthinking everything. Just let it be. Relax and go with the flow more. Worry less. And don’t take life so seriously… live a little!” Mandy Hale

With so much thinking accomplished, at 1pm we finally turned our desks around to make a long banqueting table and celebrated the end of our writing year with the Hay Writers’ Circle Summer Lunch. It was a lovely time to relax, blow off steam, exalt successes, praise endeavours and honour all our hard work. It was also time to tuck into a delicious meal – Hooray!

Cheers to all writers and may your imagination never fail!

And finally … The 2025 Non-Fiction Competition

Before we completely rest on our laurels, don’t forget the deadline for the Richard Booth Prize for Non-Fiction is midnight, Tuesday 12th August.

This year we are thrilled to confirm that the judge for our Non-Fiction Competition is Alan Bilton.

Alan Bilton is the author of four novels, The Sleepwalkers’ Ball, The Known and Unknown Sea, The End of The Yellow House, and At Dawn, Two Nightingales, as well as a collection of surreal short stories, Anywhere Out of the World, and books on silent film comedy, the 1920s. and contemporary fiction. He is head of Creative Writing at Swansea University.

Richard Booth Prize Non-Fiction Competition 2025

This is an open competition meaning – ANYONE CAN ENTER

For full competition details, criteria and an entry form, please go to our COMPETITIONS page.

GOOD LUCK! 🙂