Introduction Five years of the Hall Writers’ Forum is surely something to celebrate! During that time, the Forum has been through several incarnations and its genius loci (Chough) has roosted on several different severs. Throughout, it has continued to grow and prosper. Thanks must go, firstly, to Lucy Newlyn and Stuart Estell for founding the Hall Writers’ Forum on 9 February 2013 and giving us all somewhere to share and discuss our writing. I think everyone would agree that the Forum has been a terrific spur to creativity. At the time of writing, there are ninety-nine members, who have collaboratively authored more than thirty thousand posts on over three thousand topics. Many of these pieces would not have come into being - at least in this form - without the Forum. Thanks must go, also, to the team of Forum Facilitators, who have helped to steer the Forum along its path, and to all of the members, who have contributed creative and critical writing with so much thought, perceptiveness, and dedication. The Forum has grown to become a formidable archive of collective memory and creative exchange, with a gift economy all of its own. None of this would have been possible without Andrew Breakspear, who provided generous technical support until the Forum’s ‘migration’ away from the College (it is now privately housed by Lucy Newlyn). In recognition of this great archive of writing and sharing, it was decided to celebrate the Forum’s fifth anniversary with two publications, distilling some of the copious highlights. Many pieces on the Forum grew out of the various Challenges which members have posted along the way. Recently, the Weekly Challenges set by Alexander Bridge have become a mainstay of Forum life and creativity. The winning entries to these challenges will feature in their own, separate online publication.
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