Hi Reader,

Hope you had a good holiday break! Now that 2026 is firmly here, we hope you're settling into your writing routine, or perhaps building a new one.

Whether you're a "new year, new me" kinda person or simply prefer to plug along as usual, we have plenty of events coming up to kickstart your writing this month!

Recent News & Plans for 2026

• Thank you to everyone who came to our impromptu inter-holiday drinks on the 29th of December. It was great to catch up with so many of you, and introduce people who joined at different points across Spectrum's long tenure to each other. We hope to hold another social in the next couple of months, so watch this space!
• We're also working on expanding the Novel Track again this year; more updates coming very soon, but if you are interested in joining, do check out the Interest Form on the website, and find out more about how the Novel Track works 👀
• The winners of last year's Short Story Contest categories should have emails in their inbox about collecting their prize—a writing class from one of several SFF writers or organisations that support genre authors! We're now starting to think about the 2026 contest which will run over the summer, so if you have any ideas for prizes you'd be interested in seeing from us, do let the organising team know by email, Discord message, or chatting to us at any of our events.
• We are beginning to fundraise for this year's running costs, so as always if you are able to toss us a few quid via Ko-fi or our direct donation link, we would appreciate it. The group will always be free to join and attend, but as our activities cost a bit of money, anything you can give us—either as a one-off or monthly donation—will be a big help in offering you more and better events, activities, and prizes in the year ahead. You can also donate at our various events (see below!), whether in person or online, or through the widget at the bottom left corner of our website.
• On the Discord front, we're working on upgrading the server for better audio quality during virtual events, among other things. If you are able to toss us a Server Boost or two, we would appreciate it. As a thank you, you'll get monthly benefactor perks like discounted tickets to our special events (which we're working on for 2026), as well as on upcoming merch, for as long as you are boosting us!

PS: If you haven't joined our Discord server yet, please do! Notifications for upcoming events go out there first, so it's the best way to keep up with what the group is up to before we send out emails to everyone else. Plus, we're all hanging out there 24/7, swapping writing tips and short story submissions advice, and chatting about our favourite recent SFF reads and watches.

Upcoming Events

This month we have weekly events for you, starting with a virtual critique meeting tomorrow!

Online Critique, 13/1 Our first online critique of the year is this Tuesday (tomorrow), and there are still spaces available! Join us at 7pm GMT on the #critique-meeting Voice & Chat channels, and do make sure to read the stories ahead of time. Register here

In Person Critique, 21/1 Our first in person critique evening of the year is on the 21st January at 7:30pm at our usual venue near London Bridge. Stories are up on the website now, so make sure to read them beforehand! Register here

Workshop on Writing Communities, 29/1 Our organiser Ana Sun is holding a workshop titled Writing a Community, Not a Lone Hero, which she previously ran at World Fantasy Con last October. Come to the Constitution Pub in Pimlico at 7:30pm on the 29th Jan and learn about an alternative approach to storytelling! Register here

That's all from us this time! We hope to see you at one of our events soon, or on Discord in the meantime—come let us know what you're working on, and how your writing is going right now.

With wishes for a good writing year ahead,

Kat & the Spectrum Writers London organising team:
Janey, Ana, Malcolm, James, Bex, Jon, and Richard