New Fiction Writers’ Group in Westwood Starts January 16

When Westwood resident Anu Agarwal approached Westwood Public Library’s Molly Riportella about whether a writers’ group existed at the library, she found none existed, Agarwal had self-published non-fiction books (All about Chai - Chai tea recipes for all occasions and Fly Away with Kids: How to make air travel easy and stress-free for you and your children) on Amazon, and took writing courses at Boston’s GrubStreet. With enthusiastic support from Riportella, she founded Westwood Writers’ Group, a writers’ group for adults who write fiction whose first meeting will be January 16 from 7 to 8:30pm.

Westwood Writers’ Group meetings will have three parts. The first twenty minutes will be writing, either on a piece the member is working on or on a piece based on a prompt from Agarwal. The second part will be critiquing other members’ work, either what was written during the opening part of the meeting or a part of a members’ work in progress. “It is important that the critique remains respectful. It will be focused on what we like and dislike about the member’s work and how they can improve,” she says. The final part of each meeting will be a discussion of a writing topic of interest for the group. The first meeting’s topic will be finding the time to write, but Agarwal reports other topics may be plot and structure, character arcs, or how to improve one's vocabulary (English is not her first language, and this may be the case for others in the group as well).

Westwood Writers’ Group has four members from Westwood, Norwood, and Sharon. One writer reports their writing is “thriller and horror” based, but “Everyone is welcome. We can all learn from each other,” says Agarwal. Publicity about the group emphasizes that regardless of how long a person has been writing for, what genre of fiction they write, or the length of their works, all writers are welcome at Westwood Writers’ Group.

Westwood Writers’ Group first meeting will be at the Westwood Public Library’s main branch on January 16 from 7pm to 8:30pm. Interested writers can sign up by emailing Agarwal at composeadream@gmail.com, call 781-320-1045, or stop by the 2nd Floor Info Desk at the Main Library. A Meetup Group for Westwood Writers’ Group also exists.