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.

November 6th -13th 2010

Taking the Plunge: Starting to Write Fiction

Mentor: Mavis Cheek

IF YOU HAVE BEEN hesitant about starting to write but think you might, this course will give you some of the pointers and encouragement you need to have a go. If you have already begun but have ground to a halt, the course will help to kick start your writing again and encourage you to look at your work afresh. We will look at character, setting, dialogue and form - sometimes a book is actually a short story and a short story is really a book. There will be morning workshops to loosen up the creative muscles with writing exercises that are fun as well as practical and in the afternoons you will each have the opportunity for one to one consultation with your tutor. At this stage writing is all about enjoyment - the pain comes later MAVIS CHEEK was born and grew up in Wimbledon. She began her working life at Editions Alecto, the contemporary art publishers. After Alecto, she attended Hillcroft College for Women from where she graduated in Arts. After her daughter Bella was born, she began her writing career in earnest; journalism and travel writing at first, then short stories, and eventually, in 1988, her novel Pause Between Acts was published by Bodley Head and won the She/John Menzies First Novel Prize. She is the author of thirteen novels novels including Mrs Fytton's Country Life, Janice Gentle Gets Sexy and, most recently, Amenable Women which was described in The Times as 'a brilliantly funny, warm, intelligent read'. She now lives and writes in the heart of the English countryside..

Price: ₤595

28th August - 4th September 2010

The Imagination of the Ear

Mentor: Mimi Khalvati

IT IS THE IMAGINATION of the eye we think oftenest of in connection with poetry. We remember the poet’s injunction to poets to write with the eye on the object. We value poetry too much as it makes pictures. The imagination of the ear is more peculiarly poetical than the imaginative eye, since it deals with sound which is what poetry is before it is sight… Its first pleasure is in the fact of the voice.’ Robert Frost This course will examine the pleasures of the lyric voice, in particular its musicality, tones and modes of address, and will include acting techniques we will play upon and adapt to the skills and aims of the poet. MIMI KHALVATI s acclaimed poetry in such collections as ‘White Ink’, ‘Mirror-work’, Entries on Light’, ‘Chine’ and ‘The Meanest Flower’ (Shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize) is always superbly crafted, with painterly touches and masterly control. A keystone in ‘The Poetry School’ and one of their mentor/tutors most in demand – we are delighted that she has agreed to return to the Almàssera for a fifth visit to run this exciting course.

Price: ₤595

October16th - October 23rd 2010

Time Zones

Mentor: Penelope Shuttle

TIME IS A WINGÉD CHARIOT. It is also a measuring stick by which we chart our journey through life; how we attempt to comprehend the past, and how we plan our future. Time is an unavoidable element in life. It is no surprise, then, that poetry’s double function of celebration and lament is particularly resonant when considering time. Buddhism and other allied philosophies suggest to us that we become mindful of the now – and that our negotiations with past and with future are a distraction from the fully-experienced now that releases us from the dominion of time. Is this possible? We’ll be working both with the now and the then of our imagination and experience. POETS HAVE always been fascinated by time. Poetry tends both to mourn the past, be it golden or others, and to consider possible futures. There is poetry still to be found in the almost magical symmetry of the twelve months of the year, as there is in the phases of the moon, in eclipses, constellations and comets. And moving from the outer world to the inner world, we often find a rich source of poetry in considering birthdays and anniversaries. On our course we will be writing about both the individual and the historic past, on present and future. We’ll explore the now. We’ll be devising personal calendars and significant seasons. We will look to the stars, and to the ground beneath our feet, and discern how time modulates our experience. PENELOPE SHUTTLE has published six collections of poems since 1980 including ‘Selected Poems’ in 1998 – a PBS recommendation. She has also published 5 novels and is co-author of two prose works: ‘The Wise Wound’ and ‘Alchemy for Women. Since 1970 she has lived in Falmouth, Cornwall and was married to the poet Peter Redgrove who died in 2003. Her acclaimed most recent collection is ‘Redgrove’s Wife’.

Price: ₤595

11th September - 18th September

Beginning to Write

Mentor: Christopher North

THE RESOURCE OF CREATIVE WRITING is the most freely available and accessible way of developing and expanding creative and spiritual drives. It needs no more than a pen and paper – and the time to use them. With these simple tools you can explore the world afresh – find ways of seeing things more deeply and in ways that are more fulfilling and rich. No matter what writing discipline you favour, be it keeping a journal, maintaining a correspondence, script writing, writing for children, fiction, memoir, poetry, family history, travelogue, blog or monograph, there are common craft skills that can greatly extend your range of expression. This week we will explore ways to make creative writing a central enriching part of your life. Expect exercises, explorations, fun and, most important, the opening of doors and windows into fresh worlds of creativity… CHRISTOPHER NORTH’s poetry collection ‘A Mesh of Wires’ was shortlisted for the Forward prize in 2000 and he has published and won many prizes for his poetry both before and after. Chief facilitator at the Almàssera, he has been involved with the world of writing workshops for the last fifteen years. His latest collection ‘Explaining the Circumstances’ is now available from Oversteps Books http://www.overstepsbooks.com/

Price: 595