Over the next few months we have two exciting writing workshops which anyone can attend (pre-booking essential).

Poetry Workshop with Lesley Saunders

On Tuesday 5th May, 2026 we have a poetry workshop, One Perfect Rose : Poems with a Punchline, with Lesley Saunders.

Acclaimed poet and teacher Lesley Saunders for a workshop creating poems with a punchline. We tend to associate punch lines with making jokes, the ‘ta-da’ moment after the elaborate run-up, that elicits a groan from the audience. But the idea is more interesting than that, especially when it comes to poetry.

In a poem you can beguile your readers, lull them into thinking they know where the poem is going, and then –
– round it off with an unexpected flourish
– leave the reader hanging in mid-air
– pull the rug from under the reader’s, and your own, feet
– have the devastating last word, the last laugh
– turn the whole poem – its feeling, its meaning – on its head

We will read and talk about various poems with surprise endings; we will also take a look at
the ‘volta’, or turn, in a sonnet; and at the role of form more generally. There will then be
plenty of time to work individually and to draft a piece of writing of your own.

For more information about Lesley, please visit her website: http://www.lesleysaunders.org.uk

“… Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.” (Dorothy Parker)

Approximate timings:
11.00 am Getting started – round table introductions
11.30 am Reading and discussing resource material together
12.30 pm Breakout for lunch, and for making notes and drafting poems individually
1.30 pm Discussion followed by more drafting / editing
2.00 pm Sharing our thoughts and work
3.00 pm Conclusion and farewell

Fiction Workshop with Holly Müller

On Tuesday 9th June, 2026 we have a fiction workshop, Character Mask : Poems with a Punchline, with Holly Müller. More details of this workshop agenda released nearer the day.

Places for both workshops is strictly limited,
pre-booking is essential to secure your place.
Please email our HWC Chair, Corinne Harris – corinneonwye@gmail.com

Poetry Competition.

We are into the final couple of days before our annual Poetry Competition closes. Anyone can enter a poem on any theme! First Prize is £100, wish cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd placed poems.

Please find all the information on how to submit your entry on our Competitions page.

Good luck! 🙂

Amanda Ingram – Fiction Competition Winner, 2026!

We were delighted to announce in our last update the much anticipated results of our Fiction Competition 2026, judged by the wonderful Holly Müller.

Our winner was Amanda Ingram, whose entry, The Interim, was praised by Holly as “a spare and elegant dystopian future story, (offering) an intriguing and unsettling vision of a future world in which individuals live in institutions, being extracted from, medicated, ‘shielded’ from too much knowledge, while farming the land inside an environmentally controlled dome.

The Interim, by Amanda Ingram can be read HERE

As you can see from her author bio below, Amanda is a writer to watch out for. We hope her success in Hay Writers’ Circle Fiction Competition is the one of many creative accolades she garners in the future. Many congratulations Amanda.

Amanda was born in West Yorkshire and had her first poem published in “Pony” magazine at age 11. She has lived in this area for over twenty-five years, presently on her family’s hill farm in mid Wales with her husband Martin, her youngest daughter, Sophie and a menagerie of animals, including rare-breed pigs, ponies, chickens, and too many dogs, where she manages a small holiday let.

Writing has always been a compulsion she has crammed in between working in hospitality and bringing up a family. She has dozens of old notebooks to prove it, and along with the many short stories, is at present writing a young adult novel.

She started entering competitions after taking part-time creative writing classes with Aberystwyth University, and so far has had some success with Fiction Factory, where she was shortlisted for their Flash Fiction competition, Globe Soup, an online writing community where she has been long-listed, shortlisted and highly commended. 

Most recently, she was informed that she had made it into the second round of The Bridport Prize Flash Fiction competition. The Frances Copping Memorial Prize is her first win. A wonderful surprise and validation, she can, at last, call herself a writer.

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