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.

3rd October - October 10th 2009

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.. 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(between 10-00 and 17.00 hrs arrival times) 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 evening meal. A daily vegetarian option is available and wine is served with meals. We recommend you take out cancellation and conventional health insurance and all visitors are wise to bring an E111 card. We advise on weather conditions and local facilities well before your arrival at the Almàssera. Reservations: A ₤125 pound deposit by sterling cheque (Made out to Pemberton North SL,) Bank Transfer or credit card via Paypal. Also forward full name and address and contact numbers.

Price: ₤525

August 29th - September 5th

In Search of Style

Mentor: Mimi Khalvati

THIS COURSE NOW FULL - RESERVES ONLY

Price: £525

17th October - October 24th 2009

Poetic Know-how and the Poetic Trance

Mentor: Gerard Benson

The tension between conscious control and intuitive insight is fundamental to the making of poetry. A poet needs skills, needs to understand the craft, but also needs to ensure that the deployment of techniques doesn't inhibit (rather than facilitate) the creative work of the imagination. It sometimes a bargain, always a balancing act. During this week we will try and achieve this act, writing together, we'll seek to discover whether formal or free verse liberates us more, trying traditional forms, new forms and the difficult disciplines of free verse. Our subject matter will be our own lives and other people's; landscape and objects; memory and projection; matters both social and personal: people , places , things; issues, ideas and beliefs; observation and imagination. This will be a week of writing, talking, reading and discussion. GERARD BENSON , one of the legendary Barrow Poets hales from Yorkshire. He is a poet, story-teller, singer and performer whose literary talents have taken him all over the world. He has wide life experience including bouts as sailor, actor, teacher, washer-upper and university lecturer. In 1994 he was appointed poet-in-residence at Wordsworth's home, Dove Cottage. 'This Poem doesn't Rhyme' won the 1991 Signal Poetry Award. With two friends, Gerard started, and still runs the Poems on the Underground scheme, placing poems on London tube trains. He now writes and gives readings and writing workshops to both children and adult. 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(between 10-00 and 17.00 hrs arrival times) 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 evening meal. A daily vegetarian option is available and wine is served with meals. We recommend you take out cancellation and conventional health insurance and all visitors are wise to bring an E111 card. We advise on weather conditions and local facilities well before your arrival at the Almàssera. Reservations: A ₤125 pound deposit by sterling cheque (Made out to Pemberton North SL,) Bank Transfer or credit card via Paypal. Also forward full name and address and contact numbers.

Price: ₤525

October 31st - November 7th 2009

An Introduction to Poetry Translation

Mentor: Gwyneth Box

A practical and participatory workshop using both Spanish and English and of interest to poets and translators alike. Native speakers of either language will be welcome. If in doubt about your language level, please get in touch. The product of translation offers the monolingual reader a way of approaching a poem in a foreign language. The process of translation offers the poet/translator a chance to explore the original to a depth which even critical reading rarely achieves. Here we will be concerned with both product and process. We will look at the particular problems inherent in translating the "layered" language of poetry, together with the need to define realistic objectives and to balance considerations of form and content.. We will discuss existing translations, contrasting different versions and comparing with the original poems, and will also work together on a number of new translations. We will work on team translations of our own works and also consider the inspirational aspect of translation and the possibilities afforded by re-translations and the resulting poetry "chains". The week will be an experimental and experiential exploration of texts in both Spanish and English Gwyneth Box writes in both Spanish and English and is an experienced commercial and literary translator. Works include: translations of ten children's books for Spanish publishing house, Topka, translations for screen and stage, Poetry awards include UK Writing Magazine's SwanwickCompetition, 2007, Torriano Poetry Competition, 2007, and Barnet Poetry Competition, 2007.She was Swanwick Writers' Summer School workshop tutor 2008. 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(between 10-00 and 17.00 hrs arrival times) 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 evening meal. A daily vegetarian option is available and wine is served with meals. We recommend you take out cancellation and conventional health insurance and all visitors are wise to bring an E111 card. We advise on weather conditions and local facilities well before your arrival at the Almàssera. Reservations: A ₤125 pound deposit by sterling cheque (Made out to Pemberton North SL,) Bank Transfer or credit card via Paypal. Also forward full name and address and contact numbers.

Price: £525

September 12th - 19th 2009

Get Your Writing Moving

Mentor: John Hartley Williams

IN VERSE AS IN PROSE there is one basic principle you always have to observe – Keep Moving! From the beat of your lines, or sentences, to stanzas and paragraphs, you need to make sure your motor never idles. So much writing gets bogged down in introspection and description. Think of the way a good movie holds your attention by constantly changing viewpoint as it follows the action. In many ways one can't make a clearcut distinction between verse and prose, one can only draw a graph line from the the more highly structured and concentrated distillations of verse towards the often more copious and sprawling kinds of writing we tend to label 'prose'. Stephane Mallarmé said the following: 'Verse is everywhere in language where there is rhythm, everywhere except on posters and page four of the newspaper. In the genre which we call prose there is verse of every conceivable rhythm, some of it admirable. But in reality, there is no prose: there is the alphabet, and then there are verse forms, more or less rigid, more or less diffuse. In every attempt at style there is versification.' Bearing Mallarme's conception of versification in mind, I propose to look at example of how both prose writers and poets keep their works moving along and suggest what strategies you might adopt to get your writing into gear. Whether you write poems, short stories, or even longer fiction, I'm confident you'll find some useful strategies and inspirations in this course. 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(between 10-00 and 17.00 hrs arrival times) 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 evening meal. A daily vegetarian option is available and wine is served with meals. We recommend you take out cancellation and conventional health insurance and all visitors are wise to bring an E111 card. We advise on weather conditions and local facilities well before your arrival at the Almàssera. Reservations: A ₤125 pound deposit by sterling cheque (Made out to Pemberton North SL,) Bank Transfer or credit card via Paypal. Also forward full name and address and contact numbers.

Price: ₤525