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Our residential courses and workshops in literature and creative writing of all kinds are led by such internationally respected mentors as Mimi Khalvati, Matthew Sweeney, Mark Doty and Judith Barrington. We also offer facilities for your own courses and workshops.
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| October 4th to 11th |
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| Mentor: Penelope Shuttle |
INNER AND OUTER VISION in Poetry - the poet, like the poem, can be both mirror and window - reflecting and observing. The act of reflection is made active, energized by language. The poet's 'secret working mind' draws power equally from inner and outer vision - the interior vision where felt experience is mirrored in language, and the outer view where language both sees through and then opens the window to life - there is indeed more than glass between the huge roses and the snow - and we'll engage with the ways in which language crosses the miraculous threshold of the window.
This course will focus on self-discovery and on the exploration and re-visioning of the outer world - landscapes, urban and pastoral, the social world with all the challenge, pain and (sometimes) bliss of daily life, relationships, all the beauty and danger of living. We'll also be looking at visual images in the form of portraits and self-portraits, and writing responses. These are also mirrors and windows, revealing aspect of individuality. And we'll be writing from music, where the ear both mirrors and reveals, in order to free ourselves, through language, from the blindfolds that habit and the pressures of life often place upon our senses - working to achieve the synaesthesia poetry so richly offers us.
The price of the course is all inclusive save travel costs to Alicante airport or RENFE railway station, where we will meet you n the course opening day and return you at the close. Accommodation is in private single rooms with most accessing a private shower room. Cuisine is Mediterranean comprising buffet breakfast and lunch and a three course communal eevenig meal. Painters and walkers are supplied with pack lunches where requested. A daily vegetarian option is available and wine is served with meals. We recommend you take out cancellation and conventional health insurance insurance and all vistors are wise to bring an E111 card. We advize on weather conditions and local facilities well before your arrival at the Almassera.
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| Price: £495 |
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| 19th April - 26th April |
| Landscape and Memory - A Memoir Workshop |
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| Mentor: Judith Barrington |
This workshop will adress the literary memoir with a particular emphasis on place. Whether exploring the natural world or a city neighbourhood. we'll dig beneath the surface for history, characters and stories rooted there. Readings, craft discussions and prompts will generate new material, or take your existing draft to a new level.
The price of the course is all inclusive save travel costs to Alicante airport or RENFE railway station, where we will meet you n the course opening day and return you at the close. Accommodation is in private single rooms with most accessing a private shower room. Cuisine is Mediterranean comprising buffet breakfast and lunch and a three course communal eevenig meal. Painters and walkers are supplied with pack lunches where requested. A daily vegetarian option is available and wine is served with meals. We recommend you take out cancellation and conventional health insurance insurance and all vistors are wise to bring an E111 card. We advize on weather conditions and local facilities well before your arrival at the Almassera.
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| Price: 495 pounds |
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| 5th April - 12th April 2008 |
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| Mentor: Tamar Yoseloff of the Poetry School |
This course, which takes its title from a poem by Elizabeth Bishop, explores the impact that journeys, both real and imagined, have on the poet's vision. We will look at poems, fragments of travel writing, and compile a 'travel diary' of the week. The course is designed to stimulate new work.
The price of the course is all inclusive save travel costs to Alicante airport or RENFE railway station, where we will meet you n the course opening day and return you at the close. Accommodation is in private single rooms with most accessing a private shower room. Cuisine is Mediterranean comprising buffet breakfast and lunch and a three course communal eevenig meal. Painters and walkers are supplied with pack lunches where requested. A daily vegetarian option is available and wine is served with meals. We recommend you take out cancellation and conventional health insurance insurance and all vistors are wise to bring an E111 card. We advize on weather conditions and local facilities well before your arrival at the Almassera. |
| Price: 495 pounds |
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| 31st May - June 7th 2008 |
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| Mentor: Alfred Corn |
“THIS WEEK’S WORKSHOP I simply call ‘Getting to the Next Level.’ It assumes that students already have some ability and points out avenues to further accomplishment. Topics will include rhythm, the line, metre, metaphor, visual description, and mutual support of different components of a poem.”
ALFRED CORN is a poet of international status – he has published some nine collections of poetry, published a novel and an acclaimed collection of essays. He has received Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, an Award in Literature from the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets, and the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine. In October 2003 he was a fellow of the Rockefeller Study and Conference Center at Bellagio, and for 2004-2005, he held the Amy Clampitt residency in Lenox, Massachusetts.
The price of the course is all inclusive save travel costs to Alicante airport or RENFE railway station, where we will meet you n the course opening day and return you at the close. Accommodation is in private single rooms with most accessing a private shower room. Cuisine is Mediterranean comprising buffet breakfast and lunch and a three course communal eevenig meal. Painters and walkers are supplied with pack lunches where requested. A daily vegetarian option is available and wine is served with meals. We recommend you take out cancellation and conventional health insurance insurance and all vistors are wise to bring an E111 card. We advize on weather conditions and local facilities well before your arrival at the Almassera.
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| Price: £495 |
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| 6th September - 13th September |
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| Mentor: John Hartley Williams (The Poetry School) |
'Mexico', observed Malcolm Lowry, 'was a sestina of the words: adobe huts, cats, dogs, chickens, lizards, children'. His first wife, Jan Gabrial commented that he could never come out of a restaurant or bar without four pages of notes. So what was he looking at? What was he writing down? How did he shape it later, to make a poem or a story? This course will invite you to replenish your notebook and use what you have found.
The price of the course is all inclusive save travel costs to Alicante airport or RENFE railway station, where we will meet you n the course opening day and return you at the close. Accommodation is in private single rooms with most accessing a private shower room. Cuisine is Mediterranean comprising buffet breakfast and lunch and a three course communal eevenig meal. Painters and walkers are supplied with pack lunches where requested. A daily vegetarian option is available and wine is served with meals. We recommend you take out cancellation and conventional health insurance insurance and all vistors are wise to bring an E111 card. We advize on weather conditions and local facilities well before your arrival at the Almassera. |
| Price: 495 pounds |
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