Fife Writes aims to provide opportunities for local writers of all kinds and abilities to improve their writing and to perform in front of live audiences if they wish. It has been a registered charity since January 2020 and runs various workshops, writing support groups and Open Mic sessions.

You can join our mailing list (see our Mailing List and Membership Page) to be kept informed of our activities and to gain advance notification of upcoming events. You can also choose to become a member, which costs £12 annually (April to March). Membership gives you access to our Writing Support Groups, allows involvement in our associated groups and members-only projects, as well as giving you voting rights at our AGM.

Fife Writes has been around for many years, though has existed as a charity only since January 2020. On 1st July 2022, The Byre Writers officially joined with Fife Writes creating a much larger group. It is guided by a very small organising team but is always on the lookout for additional people to join and help out with the many tasks that need to be carried out to keep a small charity working.

Its main purpose is to encourage involvement and provide the opportunity to write and perform. It aims to be a peer support group for writers of all genres and to encourage each other to write and share their work. It holds events such as storytelling, short stories, novels, poetry, performance and music across Fife where readers and performers are invited from the very inexperienced to full professionals.

It also holds creative writing workshops, runs a programme of writing support groups and hosts other events to support writers across Fife.

Chair - Marianne Berghuis

Marianne took over as chair in May 2024. She is an MLitt graduate from Stirling University's Creative Writing programme, she loves all types of genres for reading and writing but poetry and creative non-fiction are what she’ll spend countless hours pottering away at. She’s had various poetry and short stories published in anthologies and has facilitated Book Week Scotland events for the Scottish Book Trust. As an active member of Fife Writes she also enjoys running writing workshops that encourage and support people at all stages of writing to get the ideas stored in their hearts & heads to flow out onto the page.

She takes over the post from Lilian who sadly passed away in April 2024. If anyone is able to fill her shoes, Marianne is the one to do it!

Treasurer - George McDermid

George joined Fife Writes in 2018 and, with Lilian, was part of the team who helped the organisation gain charitable status in 2020. Being happy with numbers as well as words, he was an obvious choice for treasurer.

Secretary - Lesley Walker

Lesley was voted in as secretary in July 2023. As a relatively new member of Fife Writes, Lesley brings a fresh view and new enthusiasm to the team.

Other Committee Members

Denise Chapman, Laura Pearson, Pamela Thomas and Billy Horsburgh join the committee for session 2024/25. This is definitely the strongest committee we have ever had and their help is really appreciated.

We also extend our thanks to Andrew Whyte who joins the committee as our SAW Representative (Scottish Association of Writers). We are really grateful for his help in keeping us informed about their activities.

October

Sunday 20th: Sunday Social at Kirkcaldy Galleries, 2pm to 4pm. Come along and chat about your latest work, what Fife Writes is up to (or could be up to), or just to have a coffee and a blether with like-minded, creative folk.

Thursday 24th: Zoom Open Mic, 7pm to 9pm, hosted by Lesley Walker

November

Wednesday 20th: Writing workshop with Andy Jackson, former Makar and current co-editor of Poetry Scotland. 6.30pm to 8.30pm, Laurel Bank Hotel, Markinch. Members £6, non-members £10. (date and place still to be fully finalised when tickets will be made available)

More details for each event (eg joining instructions for Zoom etc) will be emailed to subscribers and posted on our Facebook page nearer the time.