The Essex Writers' Circle (EWC)



The EWC began its life in blog form in late 2013. It was founded by a group of students from the University of Essex for the purpose of giving a public domain to their private writing. The space itself was freed from editorial standards and was shaped solely by the work posted to it. Over the next months the number of contributors and contributions kept growing and peaked at 20 individual voices in early 2015. During this time, the EWC also grew beyond its presence in the virtual world. For the 2014-15 season of study, weekly readings were organised around campus, where writers would stand-up and read aloud their work, and infrequent writing sessions took place with varying amounts of caffeine and alcohol. Since then, and mostly due to the graduation and departure of the original members from the University, the blog has largely become an archive for its early years, though still plays host to new writing more or less every month. We are publishing the present anthology as a celebration of the blog, its writers and what both it and they have altogether come to signify. The openness, individuality and evolution of the EWC have been factors that in one way or another encouraged those who took part in its central years to write and find through private expression a personal creativity and understanding of themselves. This is for the Circle.