Chapter One Creative Writing Group

Carmel Smickersgill, Tours & Activities Editor

Visit now

Chapter One Creative Writing Group

Chapter 1 Books, Manchester
23 May 2024

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko
Book now

Chapter One is a haven of calm, coffee and now creative writing in the heart of the Northern Quarter. As a coffee shop that stays open later than most, it’s a welcoming and rare place to enjoy an evening activity without the presence of alcohol. Between their art classes and reading groups you can find like minded individuals to share a herbal tea with while you paint or discuss a common interest. Recently, they have introduced new weekly creative writing sessions for those who are keen to get more hands on with text.

Embarking on a creative project on your own can seem daunting. Often, the reason why people’s work goes unfinished is that it’s incredibly hard to complete something when you have to find the ideas, the motivation and the hard work from within yourself. A simple yet incredibly effective antidote to this common problem is finding a community that supports you in your mission. Creative writing groups like the one at Chapter One can be vital to keeping a writer feeling like their project is worth pursuing.

The sessions take place every Tuesday evening and are free of charge, you simply turn up with whatever you’ve created and you don’t even need to come up with all the ideas yourself. Each Friday, Chapter One is posting writing prompts via their instagram. These range in theme and can be interpreted however participants feel like responding. Let the prompts push you beyond your normal practise and lean on the group for feedback as you explore new creative territory.

With a group aimed at encouraging creativity and inclusion it’s no surprise that there’s a heavy emphasis on all levels of writer being welcome. Whether you’ve got a couple of English degrees and have been published or you used to write haikus about the people you had crushes on as a teenager your voice is equally valid within the group.

Sessions take place at 6:30 pm every Tuesday. Get involved via instagram and just turn up to the next session to see what the hype is about.

Where to go near Chapter One Creative Writing Group

York Festival of Ideas
York
Tourist Attraction
York Festival of Ideas

York Festival of Ideas is a cultural festival in York, England, that aims to “educate, entertain and inspire”.

Twenty Twenty Two in Manchester's Northern Quarter
Manchester
Bar or Pub
TwentyTwentyTwo

TwentyTwentyTwo (formerly 2022NQ) is a bar, art gallery and performance space in Manchester’s Northern Quarter that’s underground – literally & metaphorically.

Manchester
Restaurant
Sampa

Colourful Brazilian fine dining at Caroline Martin’s intimate restaurant, Sampa.

Calcio
Manchester
Restaurant
Calcio

Welcoming Northern Quarter venue, held above wonderful Brazilian food concept, Sampa.

Foundation Coffee House Manchester
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Foundation Coffee House

An echoey, spacious coffee house in the northern quarter, filled with designer furniture, a meeting room on wheels and carefully-crafted brews.

Bundobust Manchester
Manchester
Restaurant
Bundobust Manchester

Head to Bundobust Manchester for fantastic and endlessly original Indian street food, all vegetarian (and often vegan).

The seats in Three Minute Theatre.
Manchester
Theatre
Three Minute Theatre

The only purpose-built Vintage recycled indie theatre in Manchester’s City Centre. Now mother to Manchester Shakespeare Company thriving in Afflecks consortium of bohemia.

What's on:

Star Nhà Ease
Until
CinemaManchester
Star Nhà Ease at Cultplex

Following its acclaimed debut in 2024, Star Nhà Ease, the UK’s only curated season celebrating Vietnamese cinema, arrives at Manchester’s Cultplex.

From £7.50
Africana and Caribbean Food Fest
FestivalsLeeds
African & Caribbean Food Fest 2025

Calling people of Leeds and beyond! The city’s favourite African and Caribbean Food Fest is back, and this year it’s turning up the heat with Harmony of Colours, a celebration…

Free entry
Grease outdoor cinema
Cinema
Outdoor Cinema at Tatton Park

There’s movies under the stars again at Tatton Park this summer as the open air cinema returns for the August Bank Holiday Weekend.

From £14.99

Culture Guides

Cinema in the North

This month we recommend a season of Film noir, cult Australian movies and a huge celebration of DIY community cinema.

Author portrait
Literature Events in the North

Our latest round-up features plenty of one-off live literature events to wrap your ears about, so get those diaries ticking over...

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

This season’s theatre is gloriously eclectic: from radical cabaret and reinvented classics to new musicals and boundary-pushing performance.

Sprints
Music in the North

10 fresh shows across Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, threading together noise, ritual, euphoria and release in all their messy, beautiful forms.

Detail of an abstract sculpture, with burned materials and rusty chicken wire at the centre, with rusted metal bars bent around it.
Exhibitions in the North

Chocolate fountains, beautiful batiks and medieval marginalia - this month's supersized Exhibitions Guide has it all.