“The sun was shining through the windows and it was a warm evening. There was lots of food and drink available and people were talking and Imogen, one of the members, was busy selling the anthologies with a pile on her desk. You could feel the anticipation in the room and people were eager to listen to the readings.

The atmosphere was warm and people were sitting with family and friends around tables concentrating on the readers facing them as they read their pieces from the Anthology,” said Liz

“The evening started off with an explanation and information about the writing space group to everyone present,” added Dee

“The readers were very clear even though they were understandably nervous.  I thought how brave they were as I am sure everyone in the audience thought too.  Joshua read my poem “Thinking and Doing”.  It was interesting to hear someone else read my poem and I put my head down wanting to just listen.  Joshua really did it justice and I was very glad he read it as it is such a hugely personal poem for me.  You can also hear it differently when someone else reads your work.  Gillian, one of the Writing space volunteers, and I remarked on this afterwards.

I enjoyed listening to the work read by the group members and seeing and hearing the reactions from the other people as an observer. Justin’s stories were funny and made everyone laugh as he read them to us.  Tom read his own work and some new work which I hadn’t heard before.  He read my Dinka poem about My Black Cat and he was smiling which was great.  Again, it was really interesting to hear my work read by someone else.  A lady asked me afterwards about this poem and said she was inspired to write a Dinka poem so that was lovely.

“Hearing the readers read their own and other’s work makes it come alive and you notice new things in the work that you hadn’t before.  It was also lovely to see Gillian again and to see her get our thanks for being such a great inspiration and teacher.

Sarah (our volunteer) did a great introduction, telling everyone about how Writing Space started and facilitated the evening brilliantly.  Thanks to Gillian ” for all her work putting the Anthology together and arranging the printing for us.” Dee

Everyone’s style is completely different and that’s something you really appreciate.” Liz

“It was a lovely evening and a success, and I’m happy to have been a part of it and grateful for Writing Space and the experience,” commented Justin.

“I personally felt very proud to be a member of this really special writing space group.” Dee