Are you a new writer* based in the North West of England? If so, would you like a one-to-one writer’s surgery/coaching session to discuss your work and your ambitions? Commonword is launching a new bimonthly service – happening on the second Thursday of every other month – and we have five slots available for Thursday 10th April.

Sessions are open to both prose writers and poets. Writers can provide up to 10 pages of prose (single-sided, minimum 1.5 spacing), or up to 5 poems (no more than 120 lines in total). To get the most out of your session, we would advise you to send this work to Commonword in advance.

Sessions will take place at Commonword’s offices, in our new, dedicated ‘writers’ pod’, and slots will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. If you think you would benefit from a surgery session, please email us and provide the 5 poems or 10 pages of prose as an attached file. Our surgeon/coach will read through your work and assess whether or not it would benefit from one of our slots. She will then give you a time when she can meet you at our offices to look over your work, discuss your ambitions, and see if jointly you can devise a plan of action.

If you are interested please email admin@commonword.org.uk or cultureword@commonword.org.uk using 'writers surgery' in your subject line (this is not a walk-in service, you must pre-book).

* ‘New writer’, here, refers to unpublished writers, or those who have had a small number of pieces published in local/small press magazines. If you have had work published in local magazines, it would help if you mentioned this when sending us your work.