The online meeting place for women who write
Welcome to the Mslexia Salon: the members-only area of our website, where you can attend a workshop with top authors, get feedback from agents and editors, share your work, join a group, meet likeminded writers, browse writing opportunities, and access a wealth of ‘how to’ writerly resources, prompts and workshop material – all for just £18 a year. Salon membership is available only to subscribers of Mslexia magazine.
Upcoming Salon events
We’re pausing our events over August, but if you're looking for inspiration for your entry to our 2025 Fiction Competitions, make sure to check out our 'Spotlight Events'. We'll be highlighting some of our favourite fiction workshops in the Salon over the summer and will be back online in September with a fabulous line-up of workshops and write-ins! Here's what we've got coming up...
Lunchtime Write-ins | Mondays, 12-1pm via Zoom
Get ready to embrace the ‘back-to-school’ feeling as we kick off our autumn write-ins on 8 September. Whether you’re able to join us for the full hour or you just want to do a few minutes to free writing, pop in and say hello. Visit the event page in the Salon to join in.
Crafting a Cure | with Victoria Field | 8 September, 5-7pm via Zoom
In this interactive session, Victoria Field will share ways in which creative writing can enhance our health and wellbeing. The emphasis is on spontaneity, the energy of first drafts, and how our writing can speak back to us. No experience is necessary, just a willingness to participate. You will come away with plenty of material to use in your more formal writing, as well as techniques to nurture your writing self. Visit the Salon to register.
All Over the Place: How to generate new poems from fresh encounters with familiar and unfamiliar places | with Alison Binney | 22 September, 5-7pm via Zoom
In this workshop participants will be invited to explore places from both within their own experience and beyond it, using fresh approaches not only to establish a sense of place but also to portray places in surreal and innovative ways. Visit the Salon to register.
Bloodaxe Books Launch Reading | 30 September, 7pm
Come celebrate the launch of Emilie Jelinek’s The Sky Around My Father, winner of our 2024 Poetry Pamphlet Competition. We’ll be providing further information about this event and how to join in nearer the time.
OuLiPo: The Freedom of Constraints | with Sue Burge | 27 October, 5-7pm via Zoom
In 1960 a group of writers and mathematicians, mostly based in Paris, formed the Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle (Workshop for Potential Literature) to explore constrained writing techniques as a means of creating innovative new work. In this session we will turn the Mslexia Salon into an OuLiPo workshop fit for the 21st century with a series of playful and challenging prompts. OuLiPean writing constraints can be surprisingly elastic, generative, and freeing, taking our writing in unexpected directions and hauling us out of the writing ruts we so often fall into. Bring old poems that need a good shake-up, a paper dictionary (if you have one), an open mind, and let's see what happens...Visit the Salon to register.
How to Edit Your Poems | with Marjorie Lotfi | 3 November, 5-7pm
If you’re looking to get your poem or pamphlet competition ready, don’t miss this workshop with Forward Prize-winning poet Marjorie Lotfi. She’ll be joining us in the Salon for a workshop focused on the art of editing poems. Gain insight into how to edit your poetry and come away with a checklist of things to consider when editing your work. Visit the Salon to register.
Writing Our Relationship with Women | with Jennifer Lee Tsai | 17 November, 5-7pm
In this generative workshop, we will explore writing about our relationships with women – grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters and friends. We will take inspiration from a range of poets including Isabelle Baafi, Katrina Naomi, Dzifa Benson, Degna Stone, and more to navigate our imagination as well as experiment with various forms and ways to write about this theme. Visit the Salon to register.
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