Tŷ Newydd Courses 2016

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TÅ· Newydd Courses 2016


Contact Us Tŷ Newydd, Llanystumdwy, Cricieth, Gwynedd, LL52 0LW 01766 522811 tynewydd@literaturewales.org @Ty_Newydd / @LitWales For more information about Tŷ Newydd and the 2016 courses, including online booking and FAQs, please visit: www.tynewydd.wales For information about the Welsh-language courses, flip programme to the Welsh side, or visit the website for a full list of courses in both languages.” Photography Credits: Richard Outram, Keith Morris and Emyr Young Programme designed by Hoffi - www.hoffi.com Tŷ Newydd is part of Literature Wales, the national company for the development of literature in Wales: www.literaturewales.org


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Tŷ Newydd In this iconic white house in Llanystumdwy, once the final abode of former Prime Minister David Lloyd George, you will find the National Writing Centre of Wales. With bedrooms and homely communal areas dotted throughout the house and coach house, this will be your home away from home during your course. Parts of the house and gardens, which look out over Cardigan Bay and the Eifionydd hills, were re-styled by legendary architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis in the 1940s, and provide the perfect setting for you to observe wildlife and write in peace and quiet. Hot on the heels of last year’s 25th birthday celebrations, 2016 is promising to be another busy and exciting year for Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre, filled with day and residential courses covering a huge range of subject material. And with new furnishings, carpets and a lick of paint; Tŷ Newydd looks better than ever. We hope you will enjoy a truly unique experience with us and look forward to welcoming you to Tŷ Newydd. Leusa Llewelyn, Acting Head of Tŷ Newydd

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The Courses At Tŷ Newydd we believe that the course experience is unique; we take great pride in our hospitality and the informal atmosphere of the house. Working closely with the professional tutors, we’ve tailored each course to be as rewarding as possible, with chances to learn from tutors in diverse ways. Whether you attend a short course or a week-long course, workshops will help you explore specific aspects of your writing. For the majority of courses you’ll share the space with up to 16 other writers. You’ll enjoy group sessions, workshops, tutorials and readings, but there’s always time for your own writing, and for walking and exploring. Valuable one-to-one mentoring will be available on most courses to guide your creativity on a personal level.   W Welsh language course E English language course B Bilingual course

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Practicalities Courses are open to all over the age of 16 and no qualifications are necessary. Staff at Tŷ Newydd are always pleased to advise on the suitability and the content of courses. Participants are asked to arrive between 4.00 pm and 6.00 pm in time for the evening meal at 7.00 pm (unless otherwise stated) on the first evening of the course. Those with special dietary requirements are catered for – please let us know your requirements in advance. Participants help themselves to breakfast and a freshly made buffet lunch, and take turns helping to prepare the evening meals. We ask you kindly to bring your own writing materials. The Wi-Fi at Tŷ Newydd is free to use and printing and photocopying services are also available. A lift in the house gives full access to all of the main rooms for those with impaired mobility. We also have an en-suite bedroom adapted for wheelchair users. We recognise the limitations of some of our guest rooms. As this is a Grade II* listed building, we’re constantly reviewing the best options to improve facilities and accommodation while respecting its legacy, architectural merit and history. Visit our website for FAQs.

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How to Book

Financial Assistance

1. On our website www.tynewydd.wales You can register your place online. Our website also includes more detailed information about the courses and tutors.

It is the aim of Literature Wales to enable everybody who would benefit from a course at Tŷ Newydd to do so, regardless of income or level of experience. Therefore, course Fees may be paid in instalments over a maximum of 12 months, except for the non-refundable deposit (£100 payable upon booking).

2. By contacting the Tŷ Newydd office to request a booking form tynewydd@literaturewales. org / 01766 522 811 We ask that you please provide a deposit of £100 when you book to secure your place on the course. The deposit is non-refundable once booking is confirmed. The balance is due 4 weeks before the start of the course. If you cancel after this date, the balance will only be returned if your place is filled on the course. It may be advisable to arrange your own insurance to cover this eventuality. Literature Wales reserves the right to cancel up to 3 weeks before the start of the course. In these circumstances, a full refund will be made. Literature Wales reserves the right to make changes to the programme.

We also have bursaries available for individuals who may need further financial assistance, though funds are very limited. While we prioritise people on lower incomes, we cannot always guarantee to offer financial assistance. In order for us to assess needs and to be fair to all, it is essential to indicate a request for assistance when booking a course. Bursary requests cannot be considered after a booking has been made. For further details, please contact Tŷ Newydd. 5


Create your own course Schools Tŷ Newydd arranges residential and day-long creative writing courses for schools and universities. We work with teachers to create bespoke courses, with a choice of genres, content and tutors, to suit the group’s creative aspirations. Private Hire Tŷ Newydd is an ideal venue for family parties, large group holidays, weddings or small conferences. It is a house of great character and has recently been refurbished with upto-date facilities. The site can sleep up to 25, and has large communal areas including a kitchen, library and dining room. Business Use If you are interested in arranging a corporate course or awayday for your business, company or group, Tŷ Newydd might be the perfect venue. We offer venue hire, residential and day sessions with creative writing tutors at reasonable rates. Contact us for more information.

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2016 Courses 7


Creative Writing for Welsh Learners Friday 19 – Sunday 21 February

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Tutors: Aled Lewis Evans and Mared Lewis Fee: £275 (single room) / £220 (shared room) This is a great opportunity for Welsh learners who enjoy creative writing. On this weekend course, you’ll have fun improving your Welsh skills, and the opportunity to write poems and prose with two tutors experienced in teaching Welsh and creative writing. There’ll be workshops in the mornings and afternoons, plenty of time to write individually and one-to-one sessions with the tutors. This course is suitable for learners at higher and proficiency levels, and good intermediate level students. Aled Lewis Evans is a poet and tutor who runs Welsh classes in Wrexham, Mold and Llangollen. In 2006 he was awarded a Writers’ Bursary from Literature Wales to travel to places with specific qualities of tranquillity and serenity as research for his travel book, Llwybrau Llonyddwch (2015). His poems are regularly used as recital pieces at Eisteddfods.

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Mared Lewis has written two books for children and several radio plays. She’s also published four novels for adults, including Y Maison du Soleil, which was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year in 2009. She’s a Welsh tutor for adults at Bangor University and is currently working on her first novel for Welsh learners.


Poetry and Dementia Friday 26 – Sunday 28 February

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Tutors: Karen Hayes and John Killick Fee: £295 (single room) / £220 (shared room) This course is a taster of what’s involved in embarking on creative writing with people living with dementia. It aims to demonstrate the considerable potential for increased health and wellbeing through this work, as well as covering some of the problems that may be encountered. It will explore the characteristics of dementia as they affect communication, truth telling, editing, ownership of material, collaboration with staff and mentoring. The course will be interactive and will use video and sound recordings to make participation and understanding easy for everyone. Karen Hayes creates poetry involving people with dementia and has published two anthologies, Only Just Orchid and The Edges of Everywhere. She was a dementia consultant for Collective Encounters Theatre and librettist for Welsh National Opera’s dementia-specific opera film, I Had an Angel.

John Killick has been writing poetry with people with dementia for 22 years, and eight books of poetry have emerged from this work. He is currently in his fifth year as Poet Mentor at the Courtyard Centre for the Arts in Hereford. His most recent publication in the field is Dementia Positive.

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Clowning with Words Friday 4 – Sunday 6 March

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Tutors: Alice Robinson and Mark Winstanley Fee: £295 (single room) / £220 (shared room) This weekend course aims to help you experience the joy of writing without the pressure of having to produce your best work. Write for the sheer fun of it, and discover the freedom that comes with letting your mind flow onto the pages from a place of playfulness. Through games, exercises and fun experimentation, we will find and deal with your inner self-critic, allowing you to write without sabotaging yourself. Join in for a weekend of laughter and light writing that improves mental wellbeing and happiness. Alice Robinson is a director and teacher with an MA in Movement Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She regularly teaches at RADA, Colchester Institute and across the country with Clown Lab. Recently she has directed for physical comedy companies Hot Coals Theatre Ensemble and Goofus Comedy Troupe.

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Mark Winstanley is a teacher, performer and theatre-maker who trained at RWCMD and the Ecole Philippe Gaulier. He teaches at RADA, East 15, University of Wales Trinity Saint David and Colchester Institute. Between 2005 and 2007 he was Co-Artistic Director at the theatre company Inky Fingers, and currently works with A Ship of Fools Theatre Company.


Spring Gardening Retreat Monday 7 March – Friday 11 March Fee: £200 (single room) Head Gardener: Bob Mole Join us for a working holiday – a spot of gardening and maintenance of Tŷ Newydd’s beautiful grounds, specially designed for former Prime Minister David Lloyd George by the legendary architect of Portmeirion, Clough WilliamsEllis. Keen gardeners and beginners looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life are all welcome. There will also be plenty of spare time to find tranquillity on woodland walks or meet the locals at the village inn. Everyone will have a comfortable room of their own, and homemade meals made with local ingredients will be prepared for you. After a 33-year digression into the arts, Bob Mole decided it was time to get his hands dirty literally, rather than just metaphorically. Six years of commercial gardening down the line, he now has a portfolio of around 30 clients. With no official training behind him, he says that his gardening skills are instinctive; might the clue be in the name? 11


Writing the Wild: A Poetry Course Monday 14 – Saturday 19 March

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Tutors: Robert Minhinnick and Pascale Petit Guest Reader: Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) Engaging imaginatively with wild nature has dominated the work of some of the greatest writers throughout history, but is often overlooked in our lives. On this course, each person’s unique poetic interpretations of the wild will be encouraged and explored, whether based on tropical rainforests or Welsh coastline. Robert Minhinnick’s fiction has been shortlisted for the Ondaatje prize and the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. He’s won Wales Book of the Year and the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem twice. His recent publications include New Selected Poems and his novel Limestone Man. Pascale Petit’s collection Fauverie was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize. Her previous collection, What

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the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo, was shortlisted for both the T S Eliot Prize and Wales Book of the Year. Bloodaxe will publish her next book, Mama Amazonica, in 2017. Samantha WynneRhydderch’s collections Not in These Shoes and Banjo were shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year. Her most recent publication, Lime & Winter, was a finalist for the 2014 Michael Marks Award.


Writing for Welsh Learners Tuesday 19 – Friday 22 April

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Tutors: Bethan Gwanas and Siân Eirian Lewis Fee: £375 (single room) / £295 (shared room) This is a course for foundation and intermediate level Welsh learners who enjoy creative writing. Everyone will be speaking Welsh, so you’ll be improving your speaking skills, although the main focus will be writing. There will be opportunity to work in groups, but also individually, and we’ll be using all kinds of things to get you inspired: stargazing, walking, chatting on the street and Welsh classes. Bethan Gwanas has written more than 30 books for children and adults and is an experienced Welsh tutor. She’s also a television presenter, and is currently working on a musical, Bywyd Blodwen Jones. Her novel Hi yw fy Ffrind was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year in 2005.

Siân Eirian Lewis works for the North Wales Welsh for Adults Centre. She won the Crown at the 2004 Urdd Eisteddfod, and the following year was awarded the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize for her first novel, I Fyd Sy Well, which went on to be longlisted for Wales Book of the Year. In partnership with the North Wales Welsh for Adults Centre.

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Storytelling from the Start Friday 22 – Sunday 24 April

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Tutors: Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden Fee: £295 (single room) / £220 (shared room) The folktales, fairy tales and myths of our ancestors are the building blocks for every story that has been told since, and in many ways, for our identities and our understanding of the world and one another. This storytelling course for beginners is a chance to learn how to prepare and perform traditional stories in the company of two of Britain’s leading exponents of the artform. Hugh Lupton has been a central figure in the British storytelling revival for 30 years. Storytelling is in his blood – he’s the greatnephew of Arthur Ransome, author of classic children’s book series Swallows and Amazons. Hugh tells myths, legends and folktales from many cultures but his particular passion is for the hidden layers of the landscape.

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Daniel Morden has been a professional storyteller since 1989. He has twice won the Welsh Books Council’s Tir na n-Og Award for his retellings of traditional tales. His collections of stories have focused on a range of areas of inspiration, from the folklore and mythology of his native Wales to the Roma and Gypsy oral storytelling tradition.


Writing for TV and Film Monday 25 – Saturday 30 April

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Tutors: Catrin Clarke and Sophie Francis Jones Guest Reader: Rob Gittins Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) This course will aim to give writers a good grounding in the craft of screenwriting for film and television and will cover the basic skills of storytelling, story structure and the development of complex characters and dramatic conflict. As a group we will examine classic and contemporary film and television dramas, identifying and analysing particular elements to improve your own work. Catrin Clarke is a university tutor and a multi-awardwinning scriptwriter who won a BAFTA Cymru award for her work on the BBC Wales’ drama Belonging, and her television credits include Indian Doctor, Mistresses, Casualty and The Bill. TV producer Sophie Francis Jones was part of the team that created Belonging, winning BAFTA Cymru awards and a Celtic Torc for

Best Drama Series. She’s produced episodes of BBC1’s Casualty and Torchwood and online content for Doctor Who and Torchwood. Rob Gittins has written for almost every major UK TV drama series from the last 20 years, including Eastenders, Casualty, Emmerdale, Heartbeat and The Bill; and has written over a hundred episodes of The Archers.

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Writing Drama for Radio: A play in a week Monday 2 – Saturday 7 May

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Tutors: Neil Brand and David Hunter Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) Write a short radio drama in four-and-a-half days, picking up the skills needed to plan and develop your own plays along the way. This is a practical and hands-on approach to writing vivid and arresting audio drama, which can see you increase your standing as a writer of drama, or build your profile from scratch. Working with your peers and in one-to-one sessions with the tutors, this course will pay particular attention to structure, characterisation and dialogue, and encourage bold and imaginative approaches to the use of sound and language. Neil Brand is a writer and composer. His radio writing includes the Sony-nominated Stan (subsequently adapted for BBC4 TV), and with David Hunter the Tinniswoodnominated Getting the Joke and hugely successful Big Broadcasts. His work includes classic adaptations for actors and orchestras, most recently A Christmas Carol with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

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Before joining the BBC David Hunter worked for the Arvon Foundation and in theatre, most recently as Literary Manager at the Bush Theatre, London. Recent productions include The Churchill Barriers, A Christmas Carol, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, Big Broadcasts, A Night Visitor, Blink and Tommies.


Memoir, History and Travel Writing – Life and Other Journeys Monday 16 – Saturday 21 May

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Tutors: Rory Maclean and Justin Marozzi Guest Reader: Jan Morris Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) Lives and journeys alike lend themselves to narrative. But how do you turn a personal excursion – or a lifetime voyage – into prose? Writers need to be imaginative, flexible and ingenious in shaping the stories they tell, in order to accommodate the rich unpredictability of life, the complexities of character and place, and the way time changes the traveller. Through creative engagement with language and structure, this course will explore how to transform experiences, whether our own or those of others, into stories and books. Travel writer Rory MacLean’s ten books include the UK bestsellers Stalin’s Nose, Under the Dragon and most recently Berlin: Imagine a City, chosen as a Book of the Year by the Washington Post. Justin Marozzi is a travel writer and historian. He is the author of five books on travel, exploration and the history of the Muslim world. His most recent book is

Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood, winner of the 2015 Ondaatje Prize. Jan Morris is a historian, author, novelist and travel writer. In 1953 Jan was a correspondent for The Times, and was responsible for reporting the success of Hillary and Tenzing after accompanying them on the Mount Everest expedition.

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Summer Poetry Masterclass 2016 Monday 23 – Saturday 28 May

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Tutors: Gillian Clarke and Carol Ann Duffy Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) Closing date for applications: Monday 28 March This is an opportunity for committed poets to move their writing up a gear. The focus will be on group workshops, small group meetings for mutual support and discussion, and individual writing time. Daily workshops will engender new poems and encourage discussion of work in progress. During the week the tutors will give a reading of their work and the visiting poet will give an evening reading. Participants will edit and contribute to an anthology, and the course will finish with a celebratory reading on Friday evening. Gillian Clarke was appointed National Poet of Wales in 2008. In 2010 she was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, and the Wilfred Owen Award in 2012. Her latest collection, Ice, published by Carcanet, was shortlisted for the 2012 T S Eliot Prize. Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for 18

Children’s Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and T S Eliot Prizes, and the Lannan and E M Forster Prize in America. She was appointed Poet Laureate in 2009. In 2011 The Bees won the Costa Poetry Award, and in 2012 she won the PEN Pinter Prize. So that everyone may benefit from a high level of critical discussion and participation, writers will be selected for this course based on a sample of their work.


Summer Retreat Monday 30 May – Friday 3 June Fee: £450 Are you looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life; to find creative refuge – that perfect, peaceful location, where you can write, read or reflect? Our week-long retreats, set in the stunning surroundings of rural north Wales, offer the perfect creative escape. Find tranquillity on woodland walks or meet the locals at the village inn. Take inspiration from the spectacular sea views over Cardigan Bay, share ideas over dinner, or simply just sit back and relax in Tŷ Newydd’s cosy library. Everyone will have a room of their own, and homemade meals, made with local ingredients, will be prepared for you.

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Beginnings, Middles, and Ends: A Masterclass in Writing for Performance Monday 6 – Saturday 11 June

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Tutor: Kaite O’Reilly Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) Closing date for applications: Monday 18 April Working with participants’ own work-in-progress as well as selected performance texts by established writers, this masterclass will explore beginnings, middles, and ends. From dynamic openings, and sustaining pace, tension, and engagement, to satisfying ends avoiding the formulaic, through discussion, workshops, and writing tasks, this course aims to strengthen each writer’s skills and individual voice. In order to focus on the writers and support their writing, the course will run with only eight select participants. To apply for the masterclass, please submit your initial ideas for new work or an outline of work in progress (max. 500 words) plus a paragraph outlining your goals for the week (max. 300 words). Kaite O’Reilly works internationally as a playwright, dramaturg and tutor. Her awards include The Peggy Ramsay Award and the Ted Hughes Award for New Works in Poetry for her version of Persians for

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National Theatre Wales. She teaches dramaturgy at The Intercultural Theatre Institute in Singapore, and is a fellow of the International Research Centre, Interweaving Performance Cultures in Berlin.


Writing and Yoga Monday 13 – Friday 17 June

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Tutors: Siân Melangell Dafydd Guest: Cai Tomos Fee: £495 (single room) / £395 (shared room) On this course, we will use meditation, ‘pranayama’ (breathing exercises) and ‘asana’ (poses) to shut down the chatter of the fluctuating mind and settle into the joy of using words. We will be looking at the meaning of voice or ‘dharma’ – on the mat, on paper and beyond. Pairing yoga practices with writing exercises, and Hindi mythology with aspects of our own creativity, we’ll see how writing becomes urgent and original, and how yoga and writing combine into creative synergy. This course is playful, experimental and fun. Bring a yoga mat and a notebook. Siân Melangell Dafydd is a certified teacher by the Yoga Alliance and teaches with Dharma Yoga Inspired. She is the author of award-winning novel Y Trydydd Peth and has published short stories and poetry in publications including The Best British Short Story 2014 and The Best British Poetry 2014.

Cai Tomos is a choreographer and movement artist. He has worked both nationally and internationally as a dancer, choreographer and movement director. Cai has presented dance and performance in the fields of education, mental health and community arts in Wales and England.

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Embodying Poetry Monday 18 – Saturday 23 July

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Tutors: Damian Walford Davies and Richard Marggraf Turley Guest Reader: Oliver Balch Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) How can poetry map the human body in unexpected ways? What are the links between the substance of a poem and our very flesh; the breath of poetry and our own breathing? How have poets movingly responded to the body’s pathologies, as well as its joys? This course will equip participants with the tools to write poetry that gives a powerfully physical meaning to writing the human heart, offering new and experienced poets alike a practical insight into ways in which verse can stirringly embody flesh and bone. Poet and librettist Damian Walford Davies is the author of five collections of poetry, the latest being Judas and Alabaster Girls. His forthcoming book, Docklands, is a ghost story in verse set in 1890s Cardiff. He is Head of the School of English, Communication & Philosophy at Cardiff University. Poet and novelist Richard Marggraf Turley’s most recent volume of poetry is 22

called Wan-Hu’s Flying Chair. In 2007, he won the KeatsShelley Prize for poetry. He is Professor of English and Engagement with the Public Imagination at Aberystwyth University. Oliver Balch is the author of two non-fiction books, Viva South America! and India Rising: Tales from a Changing Nation. He writes regularly for the The Guardian and various other publications.


Sky in the Eye: Developing Creativity using Women Surrealists’ Art as a Palette Monday 25 – Saturday 30 July

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Tutors: Pascale Petit and Pamela Robertson-Pearce Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) This course will develop creativity through women surrealists’ art and practices. Whether you are a poet, prose writer, or visual artist this course will help you find an authentic voice for sustained art practice. You will explore the rich heritage of surrealism, focusing on female artists such as Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Lee Miller and Annette Messager. A dream journal will be started and time set aside to add to it each morning with drawings or writings. Apart from morning workshops, films and talks, there will be private time in the afternoons and one-to-ones with the tutors. Pascale Petit’s latest collection, Fauverie, was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize. Her fifth, What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo, was shortlisted for both the T S Eliot Prize and Wales Book of the Year. She trained at the Royal College of Art before deciding to concentrate on poetry. Bloodaxe will publish her next book, Mama Amazonica, in 2017.

Pamela Robertson-Pearce is an artist, filmmaker, translator, editor, and book cover designer for Bloodaxe Books. She has made two feature films on surrealist women artists as well as numerous documentaries on poets. She took her BFA at Central Saint Martins and an MA in Theatre Arts at Emerson College, Boston. Pamela has taught seminars on surrealism at Durham University and at Harvard University. 23


Poems about People Monday 1 – Saturday 6 August

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Tutors: Patience Agbabi and Jonathan Edwards Guest Reader: Kim Moore Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) From Seamus Heaney’s ‘Follower’ to Dylan Thomas’ ‘The Hunchback in the Park,’ from the monologues of Carol Ann Duffy to the marriage poems of Thomas Hardy, many of the best poems are written about people. This course will look at different ways of writing about people, from the character sketch to the monologue. Through a range of workshop exercises and feedback on your writing, your aim is to write poems with their own beating hearts. Patience Agbabi is a poet, performer, mentor and Fellow in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University. Her fourth poetry collection, Telling Tales, a contemporary retelling of The Canterbury Tales, was shortlisted for the 2014 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, and Wales Book of the Year 2015. Jonathan Edwards’ first collection, My Family and Other Superheroes won the 24

Costa Poetry Prize and the Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice Award. It was shortlisted for the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. Kim Moore’s poetry collection The Art of Falling was published by Seren in April 2015. She won a New Writing North Award in 2014, an Eric Gregory Award in 2011 and the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2010.


Prose Boot Camp Monday 8 – Saturday 13 August

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Tutors: Cynan Jones and Tyler Keevil Guest Reader: Mary-Ann Constantine Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) Through group exercises, one-to-one tutorials, and (sometimes off-beat) workshops, this course will tackle the more technical aspects of writing prose. How to show not tell; being physical with the narrative; choosing details that matter; setting characters into their environment, and compelling readers to join them. Over the week, your prose will be put through its paces to get it into shape, exercising words and firming structure to help you craft a stronger story. You might even have a little fun along the way. Cynan Jones has written four short novels including Everything I Found on the Beach and The Dig. He has won a number of awards including an SOA Betty Trask Award, a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and Wales Book of the Year’s Fiction Prize. Tyler Keevil grew up in Vancouver, Canada. His short fiction has appeared in a wide range of publications, and he is the author of three award-winning

books: Fireball, The Drive, and Burrard Inlet. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire. Mary-Ann Constantine’s short stories have been published in many publications including New Welsh Review and Planet. She has published two collections of short stories, The Breathing and All the Souls, and a novel, Star-Shot. 25


Poetry from Conflict Monday 15 – Saturday 20 August

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Tutors: Nazand Begikhani and Amir Or Guest Reader: Moniza Alvi Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) Can poetry help us transcend our conflict-stricken world? How, through poetry, can we breach our many boundaries and create a space for peace, tolerance and hope? This course aims to create an encouraging environment to transcend interpersonal, religious and political conflicts. In a number of conceptual sessions, we will consider the idea that poets can touch the hearts of many in society, and create hope from the raw material of thoughts and feelings. Nazand Begikhani has published eight poetry collections in English, Kurdish and French. She won France’s Prix de Poésie Féminine Simone Landry in 2012, and a poem from her 2006 collection Bells of Speech was selected by Forward Poetry Prize as one of the best poems of the year. Israeli poet Amir Or has published 32 books in Hebrew and in translations. His awards include the Prime 26

Minister’s Prize, Fulbright Award for Writers, and the Stefan Mitrov Ljubisa International Literary Award 2014. He founded the Helicon Poetry Society, and the Arabic-Hebrew Poetry School. Moniza Alvi’s publications include The Country At My Shoulder and a booklength poem At the Time of Partition. Three of her poetry collections have been shortlisted for T S Eliot Prize. She tutors for the Poetry School.


Starting your Novel and Carrying On Monday 22 – Saturday 27 August

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Tutors: Nathan Filer and Tiffany Murray Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) The course will cover a range of topics for the first-time novelist, from the spark of an idea to writing an irresistible opening line; from discovering your characters to shaping a plot; from that messy first draft to becoming your own most helpful critic. You will examine your own writing and that of other writers on the course in a creative, adventurous and friendly community. Be prepared to make big and small decisions about your novel, and to have fun. Nathan Filer is an author and journalist. His novel, The Shock of the Fall was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Costa Book of the Year. It has been translated into 30 languages. He lectures in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Tiffany Murray’s novels, Diamond Star Halo, Happy Accidents and Sugar Hall have been shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman

Wodehouse Prize and the London Book Award. Tiffany was a Hay Festival Fiction Fellow, a Fulbright scholar, and she is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing. Francesca Rhydderch’s debut novel, The Rice Paper Diaries, was longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and won the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize 2014. She was also shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2014.  27


Writing for Health and Wellbeing Monday 5 – Saturday 10 September

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Tutors: Victoria Field and Graham Hartill Guest Reader: Rachel Kelly Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) This course will explore the potential of creative and expressive writing to promote our own, and others’ health and wellbeing. The course will be of interest to beginners and experienced writers as well as professionals in the medical, education and social sectors. We will work to develop a supportive, joyful and safe context for exploring writing and our lives. Victoria Field works as a writer and poetry therapist. She is a fully-approved Mentor-Supervisor for the long-established International Federation for Biblio-Poetry Therapy and offers training in therapeutic writing. She writes poetry, fiction, drama and memoir. Graham Hartill is a writerin-residence at HMP Parc and teaches on the MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes at 28

the Metanoia Institute. In 2013 he was the first writer in residence at Swansea University College of Medicine. His latest solo collection is Chroma. Rachel Kelly began her career at Vogue and went on to spend 10 years as a journalist at The Times. She now campaigns to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness. Her latest book is Walking on Sunshine: 52 Small Steps to Happiness.


Introducing Young Adult Fiction Monday 12 – Saturday 17 September

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Tutors: Lucy Christopher and Marcus Sedgwick Guest Reader: Melvin Burgess Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) Young adult fiction is one of the fastest growing areas of publishing today, with millions of books sold not only to teenagers but to adults every year. But what exactly is YA fiction, and why write it? Through exercises, workshops, lectures and serious play, we will think deeply about what it takes to write new and original fiction for this particular audience, and introduce some of the important key components in writing for young adults. Lucy Christopher is the bestselling and international award-winning author of Stolen, Flyaway and The Killing Woods. She works as Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, where she has a PhD in Creative Writing. Lucy has co-written the screen adaptation of Stolen, and is currently writing her fourth novel. Marcus Sedgwick is a YA author. His books have been shortlisted for more than 40 awards including the

Printz Award, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Melvin Burgess has won various awards including the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award for Junk, and the LA Times’ Best Young Adult Book of the Year Award for his book Doing It. His work has been adapted for the stage, TV and film.

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Rooted in Nature: Writing and Illustrating for Children Monday 3 – Saturday 8 October

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Tutors: Nicola Davies and Jackie Morris Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) This course will draw its material from the natural world and our diverse relationships with it. Its aim is to create and build the skills needed to create work that inspires the new generation of Earth stewards. We’ll explore how to communicate information and emotion to children through narratives that cross boundaries between fiction, non-fiction and poetry, combining words and pictures. You will be encouraged to think visually, drawing words from pictures, and pictures from words. Nicola Davies worked as a presenter and writer for the BBC before becoming an author, and has written more than 40 books for children that span different genres. Her books have won awards in Europe and America and appear in more than twelve language editions. She is a trained zoologist, and her work centres on the natural world and our relationship with it.

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Jackie Morris left college with a degree in illustration and worked for ten years in the editorial world before moving into books. She began writing in her mid-thirties, and her work includes illustrating Ted Hughes’ How the Whale Became and James Mayhew’s Can You See a Little Bear. She has a passion for the wild, animals and silence, and a love of story.


Storytelling Retreat: Songlines of Britain Monday 10 – Saturday 15 October

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Tutors: Hugh Lupton and Eric Maddern Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) For twenty years, through a series of retreats at Tŷ Newydd, Hugh and Eric have explored tales from the Matter of Britain, partly from a desire to find the British equivalent of the Aboriginal Dreaming. In Australia this refers to a complex of myth, ancestral story, moral law, spirituality and land. These storied trackways were told in the form of song or chant and become known as songlines. This is a course to uncover and develop one’s understanding of Britain’s songlines. This is a retreat for experienced storytellers who would like to create a songline for a part of the country they know well. Australian-born Eric Maddern is a singer and storyteller who was involved in the creation of Cae Mabon, the renowned eco-retreat centre in Snowdonia. He has written children’s picture books and released two collections of his music. His Snowdonia Folktales is the inspiration behind a new storytelling piece, The Songlines of Snowdonia.

Hugh Lupton has been a central figure in the British storytelling revival for 30 years. Storytelling is in his blood – he’s the greatnephew of Arthur Ransome, author of classic children’s book series Swallows and Amazons. Hugh tells myths, legends and folktales from many cultures but his particular passion is for the hidden layers of the landscape. 31


Autumn Poetry Masterclass 2016 Monday 17 – Saturday 22 October

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Tutors: Gillian Clarke and Imtiaz Dharker Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) Closing date for applications: Monday 22 August This is an opportunity for committed poets to move their writing up a gear. The focus will be on group workshops, small group meetings for mutual support and discussion, and individual writing time. Daily workshops will engender new poems and encourage discussion of work in progress. During the week the tutors will give a reading of their work and our visiting poet will give an evening reading. Participants will edit and contribute to an anthology, and the course will finish with a celebratory reading on Friday evening. Gillian Clarke was appointed National Poet of Wales in 2008. In 2010 she was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, and the Wilfred Owen Award in 2012. Her latest collection Ice, published by Carcanet, was shortlisted for the 2012 T S Eliot Prize.

Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist and documentary filmmaker. Awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014, her collections include Postcards from God, I Speak for the Devil ,The terrorist at my table, Leaving Fingerprints and Over the Moon (Bloodaxe Books UK). So that everyone may benefit from a high level of critical discussion and participation, writers will be selected for this course based on a sample of their work.

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Making Poems Monday 7 – Saturday 12 November

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Tutors: Tony Curtis and Paula Meehan Guest Reader: Ian McMillan Fee: £625 (single room) / £475 (shared room) Poetry as “craft and sullen art”, to use Dylan Thomas’ resonant and mysterious phrase, will be at the heart of this course, tracking poems from interior dreamscapes and imaginations and shaping them to live in the world. The course will help participants to develop individualised strategies for revision and rewriting, in order to make the poems they need and want to write, and to make them on their own terms. Our ambition is to foster in each participant confidence in their vision and their truth, to deepen their practical skills as makers of poems. Tony Curtis has ten poetry collections to his name, his most recent titles are Approximately in the Key of C and Pony. Tony was awarded the Irish National Poetry Prize in 1993, and he is a member of Aosdána, the Irish Academy for the Arts. Poet and playwright Paula Meehan lives in her native Dublin, and her collections include Painting Rain and Mysteries of the

Home. She was the 2015 recipient of the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry, and is Ireland Professor of Poetry 2013 – 2016. Ian McMillan is a poet, broadcaster, writer and performer. He’s poet-inresidence for Barnsley Football Club, and presents BBC R3’s weekly poetry programme, The Verb. 33


Communicating Flavour: Cooking, Writing and Visualising Food Monday 21 – Friday 25 November

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Tutors: Francine Lawrence and Elisabeth Luard Fee: £495 (single room) / £395 (shared room) Spend a week in the run-up to Christmas learning how to cook, draw and illustrate your own food stories under the tutelage of two experts in the world of food writing, illustration and publishing. Get trained in creating irresistible work of a standard suitable for magazine-work, books and e-publishing. Although the emphasis is on practical, handson experience, literary and artistic sources will be explored to give an overview of both historical and contemporary methods of communicating about food and cookery. Elisabeth Luard is an award-winning food writer who currently contributes a column to The Oldie magazine. She provided the watercolour illustrations for her most recent cookbook, A Cook’s Year in a Welsh Farmhouse. A new food-andtravel memoir with her own illustrations, Squirrel Pie and Other Stories, is due in June 2016.

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Francine Lawrence is an award-winning journalist, magazine designer and photographer. She was the art director and later the editor of Country Living magazine. She now lectures in Visual Journalism on the MA course at City University, London, and also runs workshops for people who think they can’t draw.


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