National news
CSSC and the Society of Civil and Public Service Writers
A word from SCPSW
The Society of Civil and Public Servants Writers (SCPSW) was founded in 1935. The Society provides a platform for public sector workers who wish to write, and share their efforts. The range of genre has covered articles, short stories, extracts for larger projects, poetry - with encouragement coming from a range of internal publications, including anthologies and regular newsletters. Incentives include a quarterly publication The Author, a separate quarterly from our ‘Poetry Workshop’, wavelengths, and an ‘annual’ poetry publication, Waves. There are also Postal Folios for poetry, articles and short stories, circulated among small groups of the membership.
85th Anniversary Year
In 2020, our 85th anniversary year, an ambitious Anthology of 300 pages available on Amazon and Kindle, is planned. These activities are matched with an online competition every month for writing ranging from 100 word flash fiction to short stories of 2,500 words, including a short story for children, a travel article, and a biographical anecdote of 1000 words.
SCPSW Competitions
Each competition, entry free to members, is collated into a ‘compilation’ sent out to all on-line members and put to the test by judges and in at least one case the entire membership casts a vote. All of the competitions carry cash prizes for the ‘Winner’ and ‘Runner Up’ and in some cases, ‘Commended’ entries. Life is busy in SCPSW. We also intend to hold ‘events’, but because of the diaspora of the membership across the country these tend to be rare.
Our website keeps members in touch, alert to new events and competitions, gives writing advice, carries previous work, and links to other societies and external competitions which may be of interest. We are able to deliver all of this for an annual contribution of £20 per member with an additional £7 if a writer wishes to get involved with the Poetry Workshop.
Eligibility of SCPSW
The Society is open to applicants, without qualification or proof of writing ability, subject to being a current or past member of the Civil or Public services, including the NHS, central and local government, the Armed Forces and the Educational Profession. There is no age limit or other restriction - if an applicant writes, or wants to develop writing, or simply take a part in our annual, quarterly and monthly activities, then a visit to the website will provide further information. Members of CSSC are very welcome to apply for membership of SCPSW.
CSSC and SCPSW
Recently SCPSW has been consulting with CSSC to find ways in which a previous association between the Societies could be rekindled and to examine ways in which the expertise of SCPSW could be harnessed in the 2021 Centenary activities of CSSC - a number of projects are being explored, including the 100 word CSSC short story competition in 2020.
