New salon announced!
Plus future cities, competitions, residencies and more...
Dear all,
We hope you’re having a glorious spring wherever you are! As usual, we’re scheming, plotting and enjoying the fruits of our labour.
What have we been up to?
On 24 April, we held stellar open mic salon at All Good Bookshop, in partnership with Insurgent Press. The readings were varied and lovely—some even brought visual aids! Thank you so much to our venue, co-hosts and, of course, our brilliant readers.
Upcoming events
We take seriously our mission of ‘Connecting Writers in Europe’ and we pride ourselves on running friendly, welcoming and stimulating events.
Part of the traveling ethos is that, though our prices are very low, traveling is a challenge for some. Holding salons in cities all over Europe means that, wherever you are, there will hopefully one day be an EWS salon near you.
We hope to see you at one soon!
EWS is going to the (British) seaside!
When: Thursday, 26 June 2025, 7.30pm GMT
Where: Afrori Books, Brighton
Join European Writers Salon and your local hosts Anika and Jack for Literary Mixer, an evening of writing, games and chat in the heart of vibrant Brighton. This is our first EWS Grassroots Salon—run by local writers, for local writers (and visitors) and supported by us. If this is something you would like to do yourself, please do get in touch on contact@saloneurope.org.
Literary Mixer is a social event for writers of all genres, a chance to meet new people in a fun and welcoming environment. The evening will include a round of literary ‘speed dating’, a game of Word Cricket and end with a short but sweet awards ceremony where our randomly selected ‘Writer of the Evening’ will be presented with a prize.
For those who’re interested (and weather permitting), we’ll also meet earlier for a stroll by the sea—and maybe some writing on the beach.
Online Open Mic Salon
When: Tuesday, 15 July 2025, 7-8:30 pm CET
Where: Online via Zoom
Booking is open for our quarterly online salon hosted by Kik Lodge. Expect a wealth of wonderful readings and the usual highly serious quiz, this time on the theme of road signs.
If you want to read (a piece related to road signs or not, you choose), please get in touch with us via contact@saloneurope.org as quickly as possible, as slots book fast! If you don’t make it, we’ll put you on the list for our next one in October.
Annual Salon in Brussels—Only 3 full weekend places left!
When: 12-14 September 2025
Where: Full Circle, Flagey, Brussels
More than 70 writers from Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Estonia, UK, the Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia, Sweden and Norway have already booked tickets for our Annual Salon!
Plenty of Sat/Sun-only places are left, and some bursary places, but full weekend tickets are now nearly sold out.
Held at beautiful Full Circle, our Annual Salon will feature:
An open mic salon where you’re invited to share your work
Readings and talks from acclaimed writers, including the wonderful Kit de Waal, Balsam Karam and more you can read about here
A day of writing workshops and informative panels
A walking tour of Brussels with Brussels by Foot (optional extra)
Writing sessions in cafes and parks
Dining, cocktails and other opportunities to meet writers from across Europe
We would love for you to join us! All are welcome, wherever you live. For more information and tickets:
Planning ahead
To help you plan, this is where we know we will be in 2025/26. We’re also working on events in Amsterdam and Paris (dates TBC), with more to come.
If you live in Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid or Paris and would like to join small, friendly volunteer teams working to plan these events, contact us at contact@saloneurope.org.
Listings
Here’s a short round-up of competitions, residencies and events you might find interesting:
Competitions
The Novelry Next Big Story novel competition is open now until 31 July. This is an incredibly opportunity with a big prize—we suggest you check it out!
Frazzled Lit are launching a short story competition on 1 June for stories 750-2000 words.
Events
London
The European Poetry Festival is back in London, Norwich and Liverpool from 18 June to 6 July. Many of the events are free. See the full programme here. We went last year and it was excellent and highly recommended.
Our friends Insurgent Press will be hosting another Verbal Discharge open mic evening at All Good Bookshop on 29 May. See you there!
Berlin
Marcel Krueger's new workshop, Here & Elsewhere: Place Writing, will start on 15 May and run Thursday evenings from 19:00-21:00 for 6 weeks at Galerie Arnarson & Sehmer, Lehderstraße 74, 13086 Berlin.
The SAND launch is 7 May at Lettrétage. Join the team behind SAND to celebrate the launch of their 28th issue! The evening will feature performances by the issue’s Berlin-based contributors, as well as the chance to connect with writers, readers and editors from Berlin’s international literary community. SAND is also looking for a new Fiction editor.
Berlin Writers Workshop has many events going on, as always, including regular social events and this month many interesting new courses. Details here.
Paris
WICE (Where Internationals Connect in English) hosts lots of great events like The Poetry Playground on 17 May. If you’re passionate about, and fascinated by, words—from their deep meanings to their unique sounds to their typography on the page—but you've been intimidated by poetry, this 3-hour workshop is for you.
Online
Fahmidan are running a Chapbook Editing & Publishing Process Workshop. This workshop is pay what you can! Producing a Chapbook is a rite of passage for any writer and is often a considerably challenging feat that takes time, dedication and re-writes. But how does this work? What decisions impact Press Selection and how are Chapbooks/Books Crafted and Formatted? In this workshop, they will walk you through the formatting, submitting and publication process from start to finish with an emphasis on Chapbooks and a segment on Full Length Collection publication. The core goal of this workshop is to provide you with the tools, tips, tricks and knowledge to collate, format, submit and publish your very own Chapbook collection.
Residencies
The Greywood Arts Family Residency is a new residency scheme designed to support parenting artists resident in Ireland, located at Greywood Arts Creative Hub in Killeagh, Co. Cork. Two artists and their families will be awarded studio space, accommodation, and one place on Greywood’s summer art camp from 20-27 July, 2025. Families will be offered up to 2 bedrooms plus studio space appropriate to their discipline (literary, visual art, performing arts).
Poetic Frequencies Residency, Heidelberg, 1 September to 30 November 2025. Together with the Centre for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe (UNESCO City of Media Arts), Heidelberg UNESCO City of Literature invite poets from all UNESCO Cities of Literature worldwide to apply for the 3-month residency “Poetic Frequencies” to explore the world of video and media poetry! Deadline 18 May.
Applications for the Jan Michalski Foundation residencies for writers open on 26 May for residencies from 2 weeks to 3 months in their beautiful home in Switzerland. Accommodation is free and residents receive a stipend. More details here.
As ever, if you have anything you would like us to share with our readers, please do get in touch contact@saloneurope.org.
Happy writing all. We hope to see you soon!
The EWS Team
