January 2026 Meeting

Minutes of meeting, 7pm, Tuesday 27th January 2026

Venue: The Garden Bar, Bridgnorth Club, Bridge Street, Low Town

Chair:  Adam

Present: Jason, Liz, John A S, Fiona, Adam, Ruth, Michele

Apologies: Kath, Andy, Ann, Jennie, Sue, Suzie, Stuart, Irena, Louise

We welcomed Jason to our group and hope he enjoys the gentle challenges that make our writing workshop special.

Adam began the meeting with a building inspired warm-up exercise. We wrote of our homes, of power stations turned art galleries, of alien structures in snowy landscapes, of Cold War echoes through bunkers and bungalows, and of the people locked into engaging with each other within buildings.

It seemed a long time since our November 'Birthday' autofiction theme was set. We had all enjoyed reading Jennie's Birthday autofiction on line and some of us had tried our own prose and poetry. Michele's achingly lovely poem about her friend Lawrence's 21st birthday will be posted (uncut) on the blog on Sunday. Michele had shortened it but we all agreed that her original uncut version was better. Fiona's poem about trying to ignore a birthday as one gets older was very relatable. Ann's shared her story of a single lady unexpectedly finding a perfect companion on her birthday and Adam's time-slip story set on the SVR was one we were all able to envisage and suggest new details.

Michele's New Year pantoum challenge was much appreciated by us all. Michelle, Ruth, Liz and Fiona had all experimented with the form and enjoyed the sounds of lines and words threading through poems creating a dream like stream of consciousness. Ruth commented on how every time you repeat a line it seemed to carry a slightly different meaning. Our poems shuffled gently forward and all seemed to arrive miraculously with satisfying closure - a most thought provoking form. Ruth pointed us to the more conventional structuring of a pantoum: Pantoum - Wikipedia We all said we would continue trying out this new verse form.

News

Reminder of the Wolverhampton Literature Festival holding from the 6th-8th February. On Saturday at 5pm Emma will be joining a panel discussion about literature arising from Victorian serial killers. On Sunday Ruth will be reading some of her poetry around midday.

Ruth told us about The Gratitude Cafe in Wellington The Gratitude Café – A Heart and Soul Experience in Wellington - The Gratitude Cafe which will be hosting a poetry open mic evening on Thursday 26th February.

Liz said that she'd been given a little diary for Christmas which had just enough space to write a haiku a day. Ruth remembered that Bridgnorth writer David Bingham would be leading a Haiku workshop on Thursday 19th February at The Poetry Pharmacy, Bishops Castle should anyone be interested in going. Haiku Moments with David Bingham Tickets, Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 11:00 AM | Eventbrite

We talked about how we enjoyed our own Saturday workshops in 2025 and at the February meeting should discuss holding more in 2026.

We also want to organise some more social events in 2026 - and Michele offered to host a barbecue in her new house as soon as the weather turns warmer! Date to be decided. Any other ideas for social events should be brought to the February meeting.

Writing Theme for the month: A Memorable Holiday (poetry, song, drama or prose - but limit prose to extracts of writing under 1,000 words for reading aloud in the meeting. Longer pieces of writing can be shared on line on the blog.)

NEXT MEETING - 7pm TUESDAY 24th FEBRUARY - Ruth to chair

March Meeting 7pm Tuesday 24th March - Fiona to chair.