Literary Citzenship by Sheila Johnson

I'm currently into the second week of the certificate part of an MA in Creative and Critical writing at my local university. Some of the courses are on campus (at the moment anyway) wearing masks and one is online. But who knows what the future holds as Covid-19 gets worse?

The important point I want to make is about Literary Citizenship, a term we were learning about in one of my courses this week. Not a word I was familiar with before but in recent years many writers have been using the term. It is a concept many of us are familiar with, although we may think of it as networking. It is, having a community of writers to support and encourage you. The ACW is exactly this. 

 https://christianwriters.org.uk/

A great supportive group of people. We share Facebook posts, read each others work pre and post publication, post reviews of what we read, attend each other's Facebook Events or in person book launches. As an organisation, we have the added bonus of being able to pray for one another too, which is an added advantage we have over other writing networks or organisations. How great is that!

We also have the Christian Writer magazine which comes out quarterly.  I  have just received my autumn edition. Great articles by various members, details of a novel writing competition(free to members to enter) and details of an online ACW writing day on 3 October with author and teacher, Bobbie Ann Cole and comedian Paul Kerensa. Online, of course in these difficult times, like most events, but it sounds great and I know it will be, even though I am unable to attend this time due to work pressures. But having attended many such days in the past in various places - London, Derby, Bath, Birmingham etc I know it will not only provide a lot of interesting writing advice but also a chance to meet up and encourage one another, which is of tremendous value whether online or in person. Hands and hearts connecting with one another from across the country 

Sheila Johnson lives in Cheltenham and is a qualified journalist who has written for a number of publications both local and national. She has also written two books under her pen name Sheila Donald, Alpha Male and Waireka. Her website can be found at www.journojohnson.com