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Welcome to Rugby Cafe Writers

Rugby Cafe Writers are a friendly group of authors and book-lovers who meet regularly in the Midlands town of Rugby to discuss the craft of writing. You are most welcome to join us. We meet at St Andrew’s Church, Rugby every fortnight on a Friday morning at 10am. We also have a monthly online Bookchat, usually on a Thursday morning, to keep in touch with members who are not able to come along to our Friday meetings. You do not need to be an experienced writer to come along. Everyone is welcome.

Buy our new books

A Story For Every Day of Summer contains nearly 100 short stories, arranged for you to read one for every day of June, July and August. Nearly 30 members of the Cafe Writers have contributed to this book which will be part of a series of four books, each dedicated to one season of the year. The book is available from Amazon for £6, or you can buy it in person from the Rugby Cafe Writers for £5. We appear regularly at local festivals. Watch this space for more details.

Buy the book here.

The Rugby Cafe Writers have published a new anthology of poetry. Press Pause: Relax with a Poem is a 250-page book featuring poetry by more than 25 members of the Cafe Writers. You will find a range of poems – some humorous, some serious – on a variety of subjects, ideal for a few moments of relaxation in the midst of a busy day.

The book is available from Amazon as a paperback, ebook or as a hardback (though this doesn’t ship from the UK). You will also be able to buy a copy at various festivals and events where the Cafe Writers have a stall. To purchase a copy, click here.

What we did in 2022.

Here’s a link to our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/350096759218120


Here, our founder Theresa Le Flem, introduces the group.

Running for over five years now, Rugby Café Writers is a lively gathering of local writers, poets and playwrights; we meet simply to talk about our work over a coffee. All of us have one thing in common: we need encouragement and advice, and we enjoy sharing our journey along that hazardous road into print.

Our meetings run fortnightly on a Friday morning throughout the year without a break. We usually choose a topic to discuss, anything from tackling writer’s block to how to promote sales of our books. An average of fourteen of us meet in the Thirteen Bells Café, inside St. Andrew’s Church, in Rugby town centre.

Founder Theresa Le Flem.

A few years ago, during an author talk I gave for the Rugby Festival of Culture, I was surprised by the number of writers in the audience. Their questions led to a conversation continuing long after my allocated time, as people discovered their common interest – writing! This gave me the idea to start up the opportunity for these writers to meet again and get to know each other, and hence Café Writers was born. 

The common saying that ‘everyone has a book in them’ is, we have discovered, surprisingly true.

Theresa Le Flem, founder of Rugby Cafe Writers.

Since that day, I’m proud to say some of them who were still finding their way then, are now published authors. More recently, several of us have taken Café Writers out to literary festivals in Southam and Northampton and given talks and book-signings locally. The curiosity the general public has in the mysterious world of a writer is, it seems, never dimmed; in fact, by sharing our experiences, we enjoy encouraging others not only to buy our books but to set out on that journey themselves. Some have always dreamt of doing this, but never taken the first step. The common saying that ‘everyone has a book in them’ is, we have discovered, surprisingly true.

So, we hope you enjoy this website and trust it will inspire you to look further into our work, to purchase our book and understand a writer’s passion. Perhaps this might even prod you into putting pen to paper yourselves. There are always more stories out there, just waiting to be written. And if you live locally and would like to join us, there’s always room for one more.

Theresa Le Flem, founder of Rugby Cafe Writers.

FIND OUT MORE…

Why I joined Rugby Cafe Writers.
Meet the members of Rugby Cafe Writers.
How to write about love.
Should stories have a moral?
Can you write during the lockdown?