YOUNG WRITERS’ GROUP RELAUNCHES

The Hastings Young Writers group is relaunching on 27th September and has places for new members. After having been unable to meet because of Covid, the group now has a new programme of events. It meets every two weeks at the White Rock Hotel and is open to young people aged 11-17 living in Hastings and St Leonards who love writing.

The group was set up in 2018 by Liz Caluori, a member of Hastings Writers Group. At meetings members write together and get the chance to share their work. They have also hosted a number of guest speakers, who have run workshops on skills from fight scenes and radio plays to song lyrics and rap. Their first anthology, Salt in the Wound, was published in 2019, and in 2020 they collaborated with young people locally to produce a lockdown anthology, Full Stop. They have also read their work at the Hastings LitFest.

A member of the group, Esme Needham, said: “I’ve really missed group meetings over lockdown, but this is such a good opportunity to find new members who really enjoy writing. I think the group is going to be better than ever.”

For more information, contact Liz Caluori at: [email protected]


Local poet published by postcard firm

St Leonards poet Rita Da Silva, some of whose poems have been previously published in HIP’s Poetry Corner, has been successful in ‘The People’s Postcard’ competition. Local firm Judge Sampson Ltd invited poets to design a postcard inspired by Hastings.

The poem postcard, pictured here, will be sold at the new Bale House visitor centre at Hastings Country Park in Fairlight.

Rita told HIP Lit: “The typing transposition in ‘quiet’ doesn’t matter to me; everyone intends well and I am absolutely chuffed.”


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