Residential Courses and Retreats

2532 Early August Retreat – Week 1 of 2
Mon 4th Aug - Sat 9th Aug
Fully Booked

Summer is upon us, and Moniack’s gardens and the fields around us are bursting with life.  Bring this rich energy to your writing practice with dedicated writing time on this first of two August retreat weeks.

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2533 Mid-August Retreat – Week 2 of 2
Mon 11th Aug - Sat 16th Aug
Fully Booked

In this second of two August retreat weeks, keep your writing flowing in the long summer days. Write by an evening fire in our stone circle, or in the cool shade of the stone walled living room surrounded by flowers cut from the gardens, and nourish your self and your words.

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2535 Nature Writing: The Wild Into Words with Mark Cocker and Karen Lloyd, Guests from Aigas Field Centre
Mon 25th Aug - Sat 30th Aug
Limited Places Available

The aim of this course is to explore nature and wildlife, as well as the way we use language and the ethics of writing about a world we have so diminished. Central to the week is understanding how direct observation and internalising experience can be processed into high-quality poetry or prose.

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2536 Songwriting: Things Found in Song with Boo Hewerdine and Yvonne Lyon, Guest Reader John Hegley
Mon 1st Sep - Sat 6th Sep
Fully Booked

Delve into the world around you to imagine, create and hone songs. Drawing on the wonderfully random ephemera of life, you will look at elements such as form, melody and lyric to explore what makes a powerful song.

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2537 Poetry: For Resistance and Survival with Hannah Lavery and Harry Josephine Giles, Guest Reader Roger Robinson
Mon 8th Sep - Sat 13th Sep

In this course, we’ll inspire each to write politically, to try out techniques that challenge power, and to explore strategies of creative activism. We’ll look at the possibilities and pitfalls of methods like satire, witness, testimony and celebration, finding ways to write meaningfully for ourselves and our times.

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2538 Crime Writing: From Stuck to Finished with Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Johana Gustawsson, Guest Reader Karen Sullivan
Mon 15th Sep - Sat 20th Sep

In this immersive crime writing course, bestselling crime authors Johana Gustawson and Lilja Sigurðardóttir will guide you through the roadblocks keeping you from finishing your novel. Through focused workshops, hands-on exercises, and personalised one-on-one sessions, you’ll gain the tools, insights, and confidence to move forward.

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2539 Life Writing with Salena Godden and Louisa Young, Guest Reader Michel Faber (Postponed from June/July)
Mon 22nd Sep - Sat 27th Sep
Limited Places Available

This is an exciting course with award-winning authors Salena Godden and Louisa Young, for writers who are exploring writing about or from their own life experiences, at any stage of their project.

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2540 Fiction: Finding the Light with Michael Donkor and Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Guest Reader Cecilia Knapp
Mon 29th Sep - Sat 4th Oct

Join us for a glorious week of serious play and playful seriousness on the page. We invite new writers, and perhaps those who have taken some time away from their writing, for a generative week with us, a chance to produce lots of exciting new material.

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2541 Early October Retreat
Mon 6th Oct - Sat 11th Oct
Fully Booked

As the colours turn and the nights begin to draw in, join us at Moniack Mhor for an uninterrupted week of writing. There will be roaring fires, company in the evenings, and plenty of delicious food to fuel those literary fires.

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2544 Late October Retreat
Mon 27th Oct - Sat 1st Nov
Fully Booked

As the nights get longer and the leaves fall, cosy up at Moniack Mhor and get some focused writing time. There will be company if you want it, hearty meals in the evening, but most of all, time and space to concentrate on your project without any distractions.

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2545 Scots Tutored Retreat with Hannah Rarity and William Letford, Guest Reader Amanda Thomson
Mon 3rd Nov - Sat 8th Nov

This taucht retreat is for awbody wha’s ever wantit tae or wha’s a’ready warkin tae scrieve sangs, poems or stories in the Scots leid. Baird Hannah Rarity an makar Billy Letford will haud wan-tae-wan tutorials wi ye ower the week tae gie ye a haun creatin new wark in Scots.

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2546 Short Fiction: The Adventure Starts Here with Kirsty Gunn and Meaghan Delahunt, Guest Reader Duncan McLean
Mon 10th Nov - Sat 15th Nov

Do you have ideas for stories you’ve never got around to writing? Or need inspiration and a kick-start to writing them? This course, designed for anyone interested in short fiction, is an adventure in creative writing.

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2548 Historical Fiction: The Cathedral of Mist with Andrew Miller and Lucy Jago, Guest Reader Anna Frame
Mon 24th Nov - Sat 29th Nov

For writers with a special interest in historical fiction, the week will be a chance to start new projects or push on with work in progress. Through workshops, discussions and tutorials, we’ll explore a type of storytelling that remains hugely popular with readers, that inhabits genre but also transcends it.

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2550 Fiction: Tutored Retreat with Louise Welsh and Zoë Strachan, Guest Reader Francis Bickmore
Mon 8th Dec - Sat 13th Dec
Limited Places Available

This week-long tutored retreat offers an opportunity to focus intensively on a work-in-progress: any kind of prose writing welcome!  Zoë and Louise will be on hand to help you hone characters and structure, develop style, shift blocks and think about next steps.

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