We are a group of international writers currently living in Almeria,
in the far south east of Spain, next to the Alboran Sea. Normally it’s a desert, in fact the only official one in the whole of Europe but a lot of work, effort and love has created an oasis of life here since the 11th century. We thrive on the light life and the Almerian & Andalucian buzz. The word is out!
Somos un grupo de escritores internacionales que actualmente residen en Almería, en el extremo sureste de España, junto al mar de Alborán. Normalmente es un desierto, de hecho el único oficial en toda Europa pero mucho trabajo, esfuerzo y amor ha creado aquí un oasis de vida desde el siglo XI. Prosperamos en la vida ligera y el bullicio de Almería y Andalucía. ¡Se corrió la voz!
People have asked us what does your Almerian writing group actually DO?
Well, there are many possibilities that our group can help assist in facilitating, for Almerian based writers of both English, Spanish & other nationalities. These are some of the things we do and a few others we flagged up as possibles in the future too:
Our key activities include:
a) helping give constructive criticism and encouragement to each other in our own writing by listening to, reading, sharing and commenting on our own work.
b) encouraging others to take the plunge & start to write
c) creating spaces for 1-1 meetings to talk in more personal detail about our work and how it might be improved
d) encouraging members to broaden their literary skills by for example writing prose or poetry or keeping a diary, for the first time
e) encourage members to consider pushing the boundaries of the written word, by being experimental ,creative, thinking ‘out of the box’
f)share work online on our google drive etc for helpful positive feedback & comment
In the future:
We have also talked about these activities that we might like to develop, in time, that might be of use/interest to some of our members:
g) Visiting places together of literary interest, (for example Federica Garcia Lorca’s house in Granada etc) and sharing, discussing our feelings of visits, creating work inspired by such visits
h) assisting in self publishing of our work eg) through Amazon etc
i) developing and sharing a list of literary grant funding bodies & assisting in applications for such funding
k) holding ‘open meetings’ eg) in bookstores where we share our work with others through readings, discussions , events or online through zoom meetings etc
l) going to literary festivals & events in the Andalucian area (or wider) as a group
m) creating contacts more widely with other writers groups in Spain & more widely eg) in the UK and sharing knowledge, writing, ideas, pooling resources
n) taking to illustrators to find ways of accompanying our work with images
o) talking to producers, filmmakers, visual artists, creative artists to find ways of developing our work into other forms
p) having creative writing workshops by inviting ‘experts’ to come and help us develop our work, our ideas, our thoughts into a written form
If you’de like to join us and have other ideas we would be glad to hear them!