# Spectrum Writers > London Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Group ## Posts - [Fancy stopping by for a festive drink? Event details inside!](https://spectrumwriters.com/news/fancy-stopping-by-for-a-festive-drink-event-details-inside/): Neither quite one thing or another, the time between Christmas and New Year is a fine opportunity to draw the thoughts of a busy year to a close, and look towards a new year ahead with fresh eyes, new optimism and the up-bubbling of wonderful creative ideas. Spectrum would like to invite those who can attend to a little social gathering for waifs, strays and those of you just keen to get some fresh air. We can share a chat about our shared passion for writing, genre fiction and any... - [2025 Short Story Contest Results](https://spectrumwriters.com/news/2025-short-story-contest-results/): Find out who wrote each story this year, and the top-placing stories in each category (and overall). - [October 2025 Bulletin](https://spectrumwriters.com/news/october-2025/): Updates from our annual Short Story Contest, welcoming new organisers, and sharing recent news from our members! - [The 2025 Short Story Contest is now open!](https://spectrumwriters.com/news/the-2025-short-story-contest-is-now-open/): The wait is over—our 10th annual (!) themed short story contest for Spectrum Writers London members is now open! A big thank you to critique organiser Malcolm Barclay, our first ever two-time winner, for bestowing us with this year’s theme… As always, the word count limit is 5000, and we encourage you to write a new story to this call by the deadline, which is on the 14th September 2025. This year’s prize for the top-placing story in each of our voting categories is a gifted online writing class from a list of SFF authors and organisations, and the grand […] - [2024 Short Story Contest Now Open!](https://spectrumwriters.com/news/2024-short-story-contest-now-open/): Hear ye, hear ye! The 2024 edition of our Annual Short Story Contest is now declared open! A big thank you to Alex Forbes, winner of last year’s contest, for picking this great theme for us. This year’s theme is… Escape As always, the word count limit is 5000, and we encourage you to write a new story to this call by the deadline, which is on the 15th November 2024. Alongside our usual Portal Books vouchers for all first, second, and third place stories in all the voting categories and overall, the grand prize winner will receive a copy […] - [2023 Short Story Contest - submissions now open!](https://spectrumwriters.com/news/2023-short-story-contest-submissions-now-open/): With just two weeks to go till the deadline for the 2023 short story contest, we have opened the submissions form so folks can send us their entries. The final stretch is here! To access this page, you must be logged in as a member, so do sign up for an account if you haven’t already. You’ll find the form under the contest portal in the main menu. Remember that to be eligible to enter, you must be a full Spectrum member (ie. to have attended at least 2 critique meetings, whether online or in-person), and for at least one […] - [Rejoice: in-person meetings are officially back!](https://spectrumwriters.com/news/rejoice-in-person-meetings-are-officially-back/): We’re delighted to be bringing back regular in-person meetings in London! After taking a long break due to the Covid-19 pandemic and establishing an online routine for all our activities, Spectrum Writers London is now entering our hybrid era. Starting in January 2024, we are introducing a minimum of one in-person critique session a month, in addition to any online critique sessions going on. This way, we hope to bring more in-person connection to our London members, while still keeping our activities accessible to everyone, regardless of where they are based. The next in-person critique is on the 17th of […] - [The 2023 Short Story Contest is now open!](https://spectrumwriters.com/news/the-2023-short-story-contest-is-now-open/): The wait is over – Spectrum London’s 2023 contest is declared open as of today! A big thank you to all who attended our little launch party in London; what a great way to usher in our yearly staple. As ever, last year’s winner gets to pick our theme for this year. The 2022 winner and newly minted assistant organiser, Malcolm Barclay, has very thoughtfully selected a versatile and interesting theme that can echo across many genres: Legacy The usual rules (see below, and in the members’ contest portal) apply: anonymous entries, 5k word limit, any speculative genre – just […] ## Pages - [AI & LLM Use Policy](https://spectrumwriters.com/ai-llm-use-policy/): As per our human-created content statement pertaining to the text found on this website, the Organising Team at Spectrum Writers London believes that: The creative products of other persons are at the core of what makes us human – the very heart of our shared and individual culture, values, and ideals. No matter how quickly AI can spew out regurgitated content, it cannot replicate the human connection. via No AI Icon/Thomas Knutsen Naturally, this belief also extends to cover the work created by our members—which, as all art, seeks to share ideas and values and create emotional and intellectual experiences with its […] - [2025 Short Story Contest Prizes](https://spectrumwriters.com/2025-short-story-contest-prizes/): Congratulations on placing first in one or more categories in this year’s short story contest! We’d like to offer you an online writing class from any of the below trusted providers who work in the genre and are well-regarded within the SFF community. Most are US-based organisations or individuals, with on-demand classes you can take at your leisure, and one (noted below) is a provider of live online classes based in the UK. Please select one class up to ~£60, and let Kat know by email which class you’d like. We’ll then either procure a voucher for that particular provider, […] - [Write Together Attendance Archive](https://spectrumwriters.com/organisers/write-together-attendance-archive/): This is an admin only page. When a write-together event is past, copy the attendance shortcode from the Organisers page into here for record-keeping. Feel free to add any notes underneath that would be relevant for the other admins to know, like last minute drop-offs, no-shows, or any inappropriate behaviour we should keep tabs on. To add a new record: 2025 In-Person Write Together on 26/11/25 | Organisers: Janey, Jon, Bex Late Drop-offs & No-shows Name Time No-show? Notes [Any extra notes go here.] - [Workshops](https://spectrumwriters.com/about-us/workshops/): From creative writing workshops such as brainstorming for new ideas, testing the waters of speculative poetry, and trying out new literary techniques, to business skill workshops such as pitching to agents, establishing a social media presence, submitting to magazines, and even a monthly short story discussion club, we have run many different kinds of workshops here at Spectrum Writers London. The high point of our workshop activity was lockdown, where we ran many creativity workshops and speaker events with workshop elements online; currently, we are looking at integrating workshop elements into some of our newly re-launched in-person Write-Together events, as […] - [/newsletter](https://spectrumwriters.com/newsletter/) - [Attendance & Ticketing Policy](https://spectrumwriters.com/attendance-ticketing-policy/): Last updated: 10th October 2025 Ticketed Events Terms & Conditions Our Special Events, such as speaker evenings, contest award nights, and the occasional social outing, are ticketed. In-house events tend to be priced between £5-10, and outings will include a ticket to the cinema or theatre, or entry to whatever activity we have planned. Free Events Attendance Policy Our core activities (Critique Meetings, Write Togethers, etc) are always free to register for and attend. However, we ask that you respect the below policy when registering to attend an event, in order to continue ensuring the long-term success of the group. […] - [Critique Attendance Archive](https://spectrumwriters.com/organisers/critique-attendance-archive/): This is an admin only page. When a critique is past, copy the attendance table from the Organisers page into here for record-keeping. Feel free to add any notes underneath that would be relevant for the other admins to know, like last minute drop-offs, no-shows, or any inappropriate behaviour we should keep tabs on. To add a new record: 2025 In-Person Critique on 6/11/25 | Organiser: Janey Stories critiqued: In-Person Critique on 6/10/25 | Organiser: Janey Stories critiqued: Online Critique on 28/07/25 | Organiser: Kat Stories critiqued: Late Drop-offs & No-shows Name Time No-show? Notes Brian Simpson Noon No Didn’t […] - [2025 Short Story Contest](https://spectrumwriters.com/members/2025-short-story-contest/): Welcome to our 10th annual short story contest, which this year is a special winter edition! Please make sure you read through all of the information below before submitting a story. This contest is a multi-part process: On this page Eligibility To submit, you need to be: AND OR We will continue to run critique sessions between now and the contest deadline to help newer members to qualify. If you have any questions on eligibility, please get in touch with one of the organisers. By entering the contest you are committing to reading all other contest entries, voting in the contest and providing written critiques on […] - [Speaker Events](https://spectrumwriters.com/about-us/speaker-events/): Through the years we have hosted several speaker events with published authors and publishing industry professionals, to hear them speak about their work and areas of expertise, and glean some insights into different pathways into publishing, skills worth developing, and genres worth exploring. Past Events During the various lockdowns, we also held a Short Story Reading Club, where we read short speculative fiction and discussed it in a book-club setting, and were the first platform for the virtual ideas-generation workshops by our member Maria, now operating independently as A Space to Write. We are always open to speaker event and […] - [My account](https://spectrumwriters.com/my-account/) - [Checkout](https://spectrumwriters.com/checkout/) - [Basket](https://spectrumwriters.com/basket/) - [Shop](https://spectrumwriters.com/shop/) - [Privacy Policy](https://spectrumwriters.com/privacy-policy/): Welcome to https://spectrumwriters.com (the “Site”). We understand that privacy online is important to users of our Site, especially when conducting business. This statement governs our privacy policies with respect to those users of the Site (“Visitors”) who visit without transacting business and Visitors who register to transact business on the Site and make use of the various services offered by Spectrum Writers London (collectively, “Services”) (“Authorized Customers”). “Personally Identifiable Information” refers to any information that identifies or can be used to identify, contact, or locate the person to whom such information pertains, including, but not limited to, name, address, phone […] - [Order Completed](https://spectrumwriters.com/tickets-order/) - [Tickets Checkout](https://spectrumwriters.com/tickets-checkout/) - [Terms of Use](https://spectrumwriters.com/terms-of-use/): These Terms govern your access to, usage of all content, Product and Services available at https://spectrumwriters.com website (the “Service”) operated by Spectrum Writers London (“us”, “we”, or “our”). Your access to our services is subject to your acceptance, without modification, of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules and policies published and that may be published from time to time by us. Please read the Agreement carefully before accessing or using our Services. By accessing or using any part of our Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not […] - [Novel Track Interest Form](https://spectrumwriters.com/members/join-novel-track/): Interested in joining the novel track? Please fill out the form below so we can match you to the right group. Please be advised that: For any queries about eligibility or about the form below, please contact an organiser on Discord or by email. - [Steph's Sandbox](https://spectrumwriters.com/organisers/sandbox/): A place where Steph conducts experiments to get sh*t working. - [Annual Short Story Contest](https://spectrumwriters.com/about-us/short-story-contest/): Every year we run a themed short story contest for our members, with the view to encourage writing fiction to a brief, finishing and polishing a draft, and getting used to submitting anonymously. It is a period of encouragement and engagement for the active members of the group, topped off with exciting prizes, an awards party, and the achievement of having yet another story one can send off to magazines! Themes in the past have included: BetrayalWaterRebirthMirrorsDepthsHomeLegacyEscape … and prizes have ranged from custom printed Spectrum mugs, to bookshop vouchers, to story critiques from authors and magazine editors! Our timeline […] - [Frequently Asked Questions](https://spectrumwriters.com/faq/): Have questions? We have the answers! If you don’t see your question answered below, drop us a line through the contact form at the bottom of the page. How long have you been around? Spectrum Writers London was founded in 2015, just as another big group known as the Cola Factory Writers disbanded. Many of our founding members came over from there, and continued running critique meetings using the Milford method. Who runs this group? We are a team of volunteer organisers with a variety of skills and interests; we split up event organising duties across our different activities, so […] - [Joining our Discord server](https://spectrumwriters.com/members/discord/): Most of Spectrum’s online activities happen on our own, dedicated Discord server. It’s kind of like our online home, with text chat channels that are open all day, voice channels for calls with other members (including our online critique sessions), and dedicated announcement channels for publication successes (and failures!), and more. How to join Discord To access the server, you need a Discord account. It is free to make one, and you can do so easily at https://discord.com/. All you’ll need is a valid email address. Once you have that set up, you can be invited into the hallowed halls […] - [Providing a good critique](https://spectrumwriters.com/members/providing-a-good-critique/): First and foremost, Spectrum exists to support and encourage one another as writers.  The goal of the critique process to help each of us improve our craft collectively. There are many things you can tell the author about their piece in your feedback; a good starting point is to consider your overall impression. Some other things to think about include: Some useful Do’s: Some useful Don’ts: - [Next critique sessions](https://spectrumwriters.com/members/next-critique/): All critiques (whether online or in-person) are scheduled through the Spectrum website. Online sessions are held on Discord, and in-person critique sessions typically take place in a pub in Central London. See the event calendar here. You must reserve your spot on the event page for all critique sessions. If the event is full, hop on to Discord and put your name down in the dedicated thread on the #critique-meeting channel that is marked with the date of the critique meeting in question. Click into that and express interest by replying to the thread, and an organiser will add you […] - [Novel Track](https://spectrumwriters.com/about-us/novel-track/): How it works Novel groups usually meet at least once a month, either independently or as part of a larger Novel Track get-together.  Typically, one or two people in the group submit a chapter or section of their novel in advance of the meeting, and the rest of the group provides feedback during the meeting itself, similar to our regular meeting format but with a longer scope. There are groups that operate with different methods as well (such as providing feedback on completed drafts or on outlines). Depending on where you are in your drafting process, you should be able […] - [Organisers](https://spectrumwriters.com/organisers/): This is an admin only page. Upcoming Events Online Critique Evening 13th January, 2026 Critique Queue Warning: please don’t delete any rows from the table. You can safely delete old critique files directly from the Media Library folder. (Steph: at some point I’ll make this more user friendly, e.g. separate out new/past/scheduled.) For the moment, use the S.No as the ID to show the details on the Next Critique Session page. This does mean we should keep the oldest critique submission at the top for now. Sorry for the inconvenience. Edit this table in Tablesome. Organisers’ Documentation Any questions on […] - [Submit your work for critique](https://spectrumwriters.com/members/submit-a-story-for-critique/): In order to submit your work for critique, you need to have attended two or more of our standard critique meetings and given feedback during these meetings. If you meet this criteria, then please fill in the following details in order to get your work into the critique queue. All work must be the author’s own and original work and we do not currently accept any work written by or with the assistance of AI or LLM technology. Scheduling Typically, critiques are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis, except if: Formatting and word count Make sure your manuscript is in […] - [Critique Meetings](https://spectrumwriters.com/about-us/critique-meetings/): How it works You need to be a member of Spectrum to join our critique sessions — it’s free to join and there’s no obligation to stay a member if the group isn’t the right fit for you. At each critique meeting, attendees give feedback on one or two pieces of writing that have been submitted in advance by members eligible to do so (see below) — the submissions are usually complete short stories, but can also be the first 1-2 chapters from a novel. Each submission should be no more than 5,000-6,000 words and must be the member’s own […] - [About Us](https://spectrumwriters.com/about-us/): Spectrum Writers London was started in 2015 by Grant, Vee, and Rachel, taking the reins from the now defunct Cola Writers group and continuing a tradition of genre fiction critique groups in the city. The current roster of group organisers includes Kat, Ana, and Jane, with support from James, Malcolm, Jon, Felicity, and Esper. Our Organising Team Kat Kourbeti Lead Organiser Ana Sun organiser James Clark Socials Organiser Jane Morecroft Lead Critiques Organiser Malcolm Barclay Critiques Organiser Jon Page Critiques & events Organiser Felicity Darke Critiques & events Organiser Esper Yu online Critiques Organiser Our aim is to create an […] - [Password Reset](https://spectrumwriters.com/password-reset/) - [Account](https://spectrumwriters.com/account/) - [Logout](https://spectrumwriters.com/logout/) - [Hello!](https://spectrumwriters.com/members/): Welcome to the Spectrum Writers’ members-only area. Quick links: … or use the menu above. If you have any questions, please speak to one of the @@admins on Discord. - [Sign up](https://spectrumwriters.com/sign-up/) - [Log in](https://spectrumwriters.com/login/) - [User](https://spectrumwriters.com/user/) [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)