Non-Fiction Writing

A session on writing true stories. David will use the example of Sarah Woodbine, a black nurse who trained and worked in Victorian Croydon. It promises to be very interesting.

**The Talbot Room at the George Inn** The George provides the room free of charge (they are awesome), and we encourage you to purchase drinks (and food – the burgers are great!). As it’s a pub and not a picnic area, please don’t consume your own food and drink there. We usually meet in the Talbot room which is on the top floor on the left hand side of the pub as viewed from the courtyard. If lost please send a message here shortly before the meeting starts. **We are sorry to say that there is no step-free access to the Talbot room, and it is at the end of three flights of stairs.** **Format** We start at 7pm and run until 9pm. We hear approximately six readings of 10 minutes (\~2000 words), then discuss the piece for 10 minutes. Email your work to: london60transmitter@emailitin.com as an attachment (It must be an attachment). A link for access to googledocs will be given at the start of each session to enable people to read along, which in turn enables more considered feedback. Work submitted will be automatically deleted after 10 days. We decide on readers/pieces at the beginning of each session. **Safe and respectful space** The group is run by volunteers, and we don’t have the capacity to read submitted work in advance. If there is anything in your work that might distress or disturb some readers, for example concerning any kind of abuse, please give a trigger warning before you read. Be specific and concise. If it becomes apparent during a reading that a piece is inappropriate, the moderator will stop the reading. In discussing others’ work, please be mindful of how you express yourself and do not use discriminatory language, even if such language features in the piece.

**The Common Cold: 30,000 Years of the Sniffles** Dr David Miles Everybody knows what a cold feels like: miserable. The first cold virus was detected in a milk tooth shed over 30,000 years ago and ever since, the common cold has been a bane. Yet while sore throats and blocked noses are annoyingly familiar, the processes that lead to them are not widely known and often misunderstood. Processes like the misdirected immune response that makes us ill with a cold instead of protecting us from illness. Like the way heating a building enhances cold virus transmission. Like the way that most cold viruses can only exist at all thanks to the society we’ve built over the last few millennia. And, most importantly, what we can do about them. David Miles is an infectious disease immunologist who spent ten years researching immunity to infections and the vaccinations that protect against them in various parts of Africa. He now lives in London and teaches on the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s online postgraduate course. His first popular science book, How Vaccines Work, was published in March 2023 and his second, Sneeze: The History and Science of the Common Cold, will be published in March 2026.

Join us to discuss "Blindness" by Jose Saramgo. We will be in the function room (please ask at the bar if you can’t find us) Please arrive from 6.30pm and order any food or drink for a 7pm start. Your first meet up is free and then it is £1.50 to cover Meet Up's costs. You are welcome to bring suggestions for August (we vote 2 months in advance) 😊

WELCOME! We’re a supportive community, and I’m here to organise this Meetup space. I’m looking foreword to seeing it grow and become a regular place for people to get-together. I also invite likemindeded people with shared interests from society. I hope this develops into a fully fledged, shared, literacy lounging experience. INTRODUCTION Join us for some focused coworking writing or reading time. All experience levels are welcome and don’t worry, no one will see what you've written. This session is about getting your writing and reading done and meeting other literacy enthusiasts in the area. EARLY ARRIVALS around 6:30pm When you show up, the group will be located in the large room next to the fireplace. Take a seat and settle in and spend some time to chat with your fellow writers before the start of the session if you like. START OF SESSION around 6:45pm I’ll set timers for our no-talking and focused writing sessions (write, break, write, end). END OF SESSION around 8:30pm Afterward, there’s time to hang out, and many people stay for over an hour. Perhaps to chat and get to know each other. Everyone tends to talk about their successes and challenges as writers/readers or similar interesting topics. If we don’t have time to stick around, no worries! We’re here every week anyway!! FORMAT A note about the format: We don’t host critiques or readings. These events are a safe space for writers andd readers of all skill levels and genres to work on their craft. VENUE Sandwiched lovingly between Crouch Hill and Stroud Green, the Stapleton Tavern is a warm, welcoming, quirky pub fit for a vibrant community. home to a truly bizarre collection of ornaments, they serve a wide variety of tasty food and drink from all over the world. LOCATION & TRAVEL Located in the junction of Stroud Green Road and Stapleton hall, 10 minutes walk from the Finsbury Park Underground station and 2 minutes from Crouch Hill station on the Suffragette line. INTERNET Name: Stapleton Guest Password: StapletonTavern For our full event schedule\, visit \[https://shutupwrite\.com\]\(https://shutupwrite\.com\)

Please note registration opened just this week (11/5), please register for your QR code as soon as you can. Attendance fee of £3 for the running of the group (Meetup site costs). "In June 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union in a referendum that reshaped British politics, society, and the economy in profound and lasting ways. **Ten years on, this event brings together leading voices** from politics, journalism, and academia to reflect on how Brexit has transformed political identities, party competition, public trust, and Britain’s place in the world. The panel will consider what has changed since the referendum, what has endured, and **how Brexit continues to shape debates** over democracy, sovereignty, and the UK’s relationship with Europe and the wider global order." The LSE offer lectures that are open to the public (attendance fee applies) on a variety of subjects. Let's meet outside Holborn tube station, just to the left of the main entrance on Kingsway. We will walk down together at 6.10pm on the dot. Please be on time, the venue can be at capacity at 6.15pm! Please register for your free entrance ticket (Meetup attendance fee applies), they are asking a couple of questions: https://www.lse.ac.uk/events/brexit-and-britain We can go for a drink afterwards.

**A space for exploring creative writing as practice and journaling for self reflection. There will the support of the group, suggested exercises, methods and forms. Space to share your words, space to choose not to. Share your struggles and surprises with your creativity. A space in your week to connect, drop deeper and breathe some life into some familiar and strange ideas.** **Writing can be a practice of journaling to get your thoughts and feelings onto the page and have some distance and perspective. There can be a sense of finding out something new through writing that brings up unexpected thoughts, stories and emotions. This can be a therapy of taking more care of yourself, mind and heart.** **Writing slows our words down, and gives us time to taste, observe and pay attention to the flow and receiving of words and language. Did I really say that? And who said that? Can be revealing questions and open new ways of being yourself with others. We can also be with our choices to share, not to share, exploring privacy and secrets in our communications. Our words often reveal what we are not able or willing to say and so we may ask ourselves, how is this true? And stay interested in the gaps, pauses and shadows of our descriptions.** I will be writing a case study on this group, I will anonymise everyone and anything that could identify the members of the group.

YOU CAN ALSO BOOK DIRECTLY VIA OUR WEBSITE HERE: https://www.writeandpint.com/events/flash-fiction-once-upon-a-pub-a-free-book . Hi there! For this session, we'll be using a single tarot card draw to spark fast, instinctive fiction — no deliberating, no second-guessing, just you and the story that lands. The session will be hosted by published fiction writer, editor, and general story lover, Annie Percik. If you're already writing something, great! And if you're approaching the page for the very first time — that's great, too! **Whoever you are, we'd love you to come and join us.** When you arrive, please feel free to buy yourself a drink at the bar, then come and join us in the upstairs function room and say hello to some new, friendly faces before we begin. \*\*\*No experience of creative writing is necessary. \*\*\*No pressure to read your work in front of the group. **For this session, we'll be working in the spirit of flash fiction** — tight time limits, very short pieces, and a single card draw to get you going. You'll write to a prompt, trust your first instinct, and see what emerges when you don't give yourself time to overthink it. Fast, focused, and surprisingly revealing. You're welcome to use the session to develop something you're already working on, but if you're just starting out, the constraints of flash are actually a brilliant place to begin. We've been hosting writing workshops, social events, retreats, and courses for 10+ years now and we strive to make our events inclusive, friendly, informative, and highly creative. If you have **any questions whatsoever, you're very welcome to text 07891948039** and we'll answer as soon as possible! Otherwise, please RSVP, book the date in your diary, and join us for this exciting event. Cheers! Write & a Pint

From the author of the global bestseller The Secret History of the World comes an epic new history of the relationship between spiritual belief and cutting-edge science. Jonathan Black shows that from Marie Curie to today's architects of AI, many of our greatest scientists have been guided by secret, mystical and 'higher' teachings towards an understanding of the universe familiar to the builders of the pyramids of Giza or the Temple at Jerusalem. He explores how these discoveries, foreshadowed and paralleled by geniuses including Carl Gustav Jung and Hilma af Klint, raise deep and urgent questions about our understanding of the universe. Is the material universe we perceive with our senses an illusion? Is a higher intelligence directing it? Are events in the future already fixed? How does modern physics show we are all connected in ways old science said were impossible? Are different kinds of intelligence - divine and less benevolent - emerging around us? **This is the science hardline atheists don't want you to know about.**

"*The experiments I am about to relate may be repeated with great ease, whenever the sun shines."* North Downs nature from Zone 6! On Thomas Young's birthday in 1773, this walk links places connected with two great intellects. Armed with a piece of board into which he cut a couple of slits, in 1803 Thomas Young proved for the first time that light travels in waves. A year later he was developing a theory of capillary phenomena and surface tension. Also defined the term 'energy'. When not expanding knowledge of physics, there was time to decipher the Rosetta Stone and define as a group the Indo-European languages. Thomas ended up at Farnborough in Kent, whose church sits on the edge of open countryside, invisible to the metropolis that lurks behind. Along the way we'll lunch at Downe, home of Charles Darwin. "*Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral."* Plenty of ups and downs along the way🚶‍➡️ WALK START: 10.30 AM from NEW ADDINGTON tram stop (Zone 6). Village stop at lunchtime. Bring a packed lunch. Walk ends at ORPINGTON station (Zone 6). Travelcards, Oyster & Contactless cover all travel. *How to join?* * The walk is entirely free of charge; * You only arrange for your own travel and pub expenses; * Understand our terms and conditions below (the "IMPORTANT" part); * Understand how to stay safe outdoors, as you will be responsible for yourself. See our quick safety tips: http://www.meetup.com/Free-Outdoor-Trips-From-London/about/ *What to bring* * Plenty of water, 1-2 litres recommended * Enough snacks and packed lunch to keep you energized along the walk * Extra snacks and an extra packed lunch just in case * Rainproof (ideally waterproof) clothing, sturdy shoes/boots you don't mind getting muddy * Spare socks * Walking poles and/or an umbrella :-) * Yourself... * ...and your camera! * Cash for train ticket * Cash for pub at the end of the walk? Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section! IMPORTANT Please bear in mind this is a free of charge, self-guided trip with a hobby group. It is not organized by a business nor any entity with commercial purposes. Any trip details, travel advice, route planning, instructions and other content in our group merely represent our shared personal knowledge, research and suggestions as outdoor enthusiasts. As this is no business, there is no "product", "service" or "package" and also no "tour guide", "operator" or "walk leader". Each participant is responsible for their own safety. Even if some of us are very experienced walking outdoors, nobody assumes responsibility for any kind of injury, damage or loss that may happen. Despite this, we take extreme precautions and all trips we plan are very safe, fun, highly educational and popular. Our experienced members volunteer their time and effort to shape a pleasant and quality adventure for everyone :-) By participating you acknowledge and agree with this disclaimer. Here are our tips on staying safe during outdoor trips: http://www.meetup.com/Free-Outdoor-Trips-From-London/about/ TRAVEL, ACCOMMODATION, INSURANCE Although we provide detailed suggestions, each participant is expected to arrange their own travel and (if required) accommodation - this gives everyone the freedom and choice to join from wherever they want and stay wherever they want. Anyone interested in travel or outdoor insurance should also arrange this on their own. As mentioned above we always take extreme precautions, but some people may still feel safer if covered. We advise not to buy tickets until the day. People getting tickets from the same station are encouraged to meet early on the day to benefit from discounts such as GroupSave.

Let’s meet and share discussion of the James Baldwin short story collection, Going to Meet The Man.

Greetings writers! Come down and join your fellow wordsmiths for one hour of uninterrupted writing time in the upper level of the Market District Supermarket in Upper Arlington. The main entrance of the shopping center opens onto stairs/elevator leading up to the 2nd floor cafe section where we will have a table displaying a sign with the Shut Up & Write logo. Writing is largely a solitary craft. Practicing with others in a community setting may be the thing you need to fire your own routine. We’ll meet on Wednesday evenings, starting the clock at 6:30, following a brief period of introductions. This is solid writing time and all inclusive. Any project is acceptable, be it fiction, non -fiction, work or homework assignment. All is welcome and will remain private to you. The market boasts a Starbucks, a full service bar and various affordable food options. Parking is plentiful, free Wifi is provided as well as outlets for charging your devices, though they are somewhat limited, so plan accordingly. Show up as early as you like, or stay late. This group tends to socialize some, both before and after the alloted time, but this is not mandatory to you. Feel free to come and go as you please and late arrivals are welcome. The cafe may be noisy on occasion so headphones/ earbuds are reccommended as you see fit. Please try to RSVP if possible so that we may grab enough seats for all—the venue can be busy at times. Feel free to message me privately wth any questions and/ or concerns you may have. Happy writing!

Welcome, readers! Our June read is ***Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible*** ***Voyage*** **by Alfred Lansing.** A work of nonfiction, and one of the most astonishing survival stories in history, we follow Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew after their ship is crushed by Antarctic ice. Stranded in one of the harshest environments on Earth, the men endure months of isolation, freezing temperatures, and near starvation—yet refuse to give up hope. Lansing brings their ordeal to life through vivid detail and firsthand accounts, capturing both the brutality of nature and the resilience of the human spirit. At its core, the story is a powerful testament to leadership, perseverance, and the unbreakable will to survive against impossible odds. Looking forward to discussing with everyone! We will meet at Zaftig Brewing Co in their event room in the back. We are welcome to bring in our own food, but **all** **drinks must be purchased at the bar.** Happy reading! 📖

Join us for an hour of writing! We’ve discovered that it’s strikingly helpful to write with other writers. See if it’s true for you at 7:00pm on Wednesday, February 11 at Streetlight Guild. Be it a book, blog, script, essay, dissertation, resume, melody, poem or just plain work stuff, you are invited to write it with us. No one will see what you've written or give you unsolicited advice. Instead of just thinking about writing, come and get some real writing done. **SCHEDULE:** 6:45ish - Quick introductions 7:00 - Timer starts: write for 1 hour 8:00 - The End **OPTIONAL SOCIALIZING** happens before and after the writing hour. Writing is very solitary. Connecting (and sometimes even commiserating) with other writers is a cool thing. **BEING LATE IS OKAY:** just show up and get settled! If you were on time, please be willing to make room for the friendly latecomer. Happy writing & I look forward to seeing you at Streetlight Guild! **WHAT SHOULD I BRING?** Whatever you need to be able to write! You're welcome to bring earplugs/headphones if noise will bother you! **OTHER IMPORTANT DETAILS:** * **RSVP:** Please RSVP by 6:00pm the evening of the meeting. This helps me know how many to expect, and if we'll need additional space! * **COVID:** While masks are not required, please be mindful of the other writers around you and their comfort levels. * **WIFI/OUTLETS:** Outlets are limited, so please ensure your devices are charged when you come! But Streetlight Guild does have free WiFi! Yay! * **PARKING:** There is free public parking at Streetlight Guild.

Let’s meet and wander the galleries! General admission on Sundays is free.

We'll meet at The Capital One Café, 167 Easton Town Center, Space A-103. This is in the main mall where the Microsoft store used to be, on your left if you're standing at the bottom of the AMC Theater escalator. Join us on Saturday for an hour of uninterrupted wordmaking! • What we'll do Join us for an hour of writing! We’ve discovered that it’s strikingly helpful to write with other writers. See if it’s true for you at 10AM on Saturday mornings. Be it a book, blog, script, essay, dissertation, resume, melody, poem or just plain work stuff, you are invited to write it with us. No one will see what you've written or give you unsolicited advice. Instead of just thinking about writing, come and get some real writing done. SCHEDULE: 10:00 - SESSION 1: quick intros. 10:10 - timer starts: write for 1 hour. 11:10 - chat / take off / keep writing. OPTIONAL SOCIALIZING happens at 11A-11:30ish. Writing is very solitary. Connecting (and sometimes even commiserating) with other writers is a cool thing. BEING LATE IS OKAY: just show up and get settled, then check-in with me after the session. (I’ll be the person with the Shut Up & Write! sign.) If you were on time, please be willing to make room for the friendly latecomer. Happy writing and I look forward to seeing you! • What to bring Whatever you need to be able to write! Bring earbuds/earplugs if you want to block noise or the occasional conversation by other patrons. Electrical outlets are limited, so charge your devices before whenever possible. See you at The Café on Saturday!

Topic to be announced. **THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/ **DIRECTIONS** Franklin University Fisher Hall 300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215 Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8 Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map. NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com