5 Best Writing Classes in Manchester

Weekly work-in-progress group at Emmanuel Church on Barlow Moor Road in Didsbury, Tuesdays 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Your first session is free, after which it is GBP 2.50 to cover the room hire and a coffee halfway through. Each week around six members read out what they have been working on for the rest of the group to comment on and question, with a different six the following week. The stated focus is getting published, so a typical evening might cover characterisation and dialogue one week and how to get a literary agent's attention the next. Mostly novels in progress, with short stories, poetry, memoir, science fiction, horror, children's fiction and the occasional play script. Contact them before turning up - there is sometimes a waiting list.

One hour of prompted writing led by poet Rachael Hill, on the last Wednesday of the month in Manchester's Northern Quarter, GBP 5. It runs immediately before The Space Poetic's open mic, so you can read what you have just written on stage afterwards or simply leave - there is no pressure either way. Hill brings poems she loves plus prompts, and you are equally welcome to bring a project already underway. Up to 40 people; dates run 30 September, 28 October and 25 November.

Monthly morning group at Withington Library, last Friday of the month at 10.30am, GBP 1 a session. Each meeting takes a theme - the group's example is 'write about what you know' - discusses it, then members read out work they have brought. Members are working on short stories, poetry and novels, and the group says it welcomes life writing, children's writing and articles too. Two things to know before booking: it runs through U3A, so you need to be a member, and U3A is aimed at people no longer in full-time work.

Free weekly workshop in Room 3.09 above the Manchester Poetry Library, Wednesdays 6.30pm to 8.30pm, run by Cultureword, which has been developing Black and Asian writers in Manchester and the north for over three decades. Open to Global Majority writers - African, Caribbean, South, Southeast and East Asian, Middle Eastern diaspora and Indigenous communities. These are proper critique sessions rather than drop-in writing time: you bring your own poem, story, novel extract or memoir, and there is a stated expectation that you both give and receive constructive feedback and return with revised work. Spoken word poetry and short fiction are the group's strongest suits. Join by emailing admin@cultureword.org.uk.

In-person course in Manchester, £180 with bursary places for low-income and underrepresented writers, taught by author David Hartley. Six Friday evenings, 6:00-8:00pm, from 28 August 2026 to 15 January 2027 at Levenshulme Old Library, Cromwell Grove, M19 3QE. Builds one invented world from blank page to fully realised island realm - drawing and map-making as well as prose, then creation myths, ballads and legends set inside it. Reads Tolkien and Le Guin against contemporary worldbuilders. The course ends with a story developed for possible publication in a Comma Press eBook, which is a concrete outcome most short courses do not offer.