Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 19th Aug - Sat 24th Aug, 2024
All Day
Location
Moniack Mhor, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire , IV4 7HT
Intersections of Experience and Nature
Inspired by the nature around us including the Highland landscapes of Moniack Mhor, we’ll look at how environment, place and wildlife can inform our poetry. We’ll think deeply about how we engage with the non-human world, and how our own personal histories intersect with our experiences in nature. The course will be led by poets Alycia Pirmohamed and Genevieve Carver and will include reading contemporary nature poets, taking field notes outdoors, and developing your writing through prompts and exercises, one-to-one tutorials, and evening performances. There will be a guest reading by Tim Tim Cheng, whose pamphlet Tapping at Glass was published in 2023 and whose collection The Tattoo Collector is forthcoming in 2024.
Tutors
Alycia Pirmohamed is a Canadian-born poet based in Scotland. She is the author of Another Way to Split Water, as well as the pamphlets Hinge and Faces that Fled the Wind, and the collaborative essay Second Memory. She is the co-founder of the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, a co-organiser of the Ledbury Poetry Critics Program, and she currently teaches on the MSt. Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge. Alycia has held post-doctoral positions at University Edinburgh and at the University of Liverpool, and she received an MFA from the University of Oregon and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. She is the recipient of several awards, including the 2023 Nan Shepherd Prize, 2019 CBC Poetry Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and the 2020 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. Find her online at alycia-pirmohamed.com, on Twitter @a_pirmohamed, and on Instagram @alyciap_.
Genevieve Carver is a writer working in poetry, fiction and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her first poetry collection, A Beautiful Way to be Crazy (Verve Poetry Press, 2020) was based on a gig theatre show with a live band highlighting female experiences in the music industry, and her most recent pamphlet Landsick (Broken Sleep Books 2023) explores connectivity and discord between humans and the natural world. Her poetry has appeared in journals including Mslexia, The White Review, The North, The London Magazine, Magma and Poetry News. Genevieve is interested in arts-science collaborations and is currently working with ecologists at the Lighthouse Field Station in Cromarty, writing in response to their research studying dolphin, porpoise and seabirds in Northern Scotland and Orkney. In 2022 she won The Moth Nature Writing Prize for this work, judged by Max Porter.
Guest Reader
Tim Tim Cheng is a poet from Hong Kong, currently based between Edinburgh and London. Her pamphlet Tapping At Glass (Verve Poetry Press, 2023) explores womanhood, multilingualism, and psycho-geography. Her full collection The Tattoo Collector (Nine Arches Press, 2024) navigates the relationship between the body, ecology, and class. Her latest appearances include the StAnza Festival, Hidden Door festival, Singapore Writers Festival, and BBC Scotland. She is a WrICE fellow (awarded by RMIT University), an Ignite fellow (Scottish Book Trust), a member of Southbank Centre’s New Poets Collective 2022/23, and a mentee under the Roddy Lumsden Memorial Mentorship scheme. With the support of Arts Council England, she is developing a poetry film. She also edits, translates, and writes lyrics. timtimcheng.com
Fees
The full fee for this course is £725. This includes your accommodation in a single room with shared bathroom, all meals, hot drinks and snacks from Monday afternoon until Saturday morning, and your tuition. For more information about the practicalities of our courses and retreats, please visit our About the Courses page.
A limited number of en-suite rooms are available, which can be booked in advance for a £50 surcharge. We will also reserve an en-suite room for anyone who may need it due to a medical condition. This will be offered out as an upgrade nearer the course start date if it is not needed.
A limited number of Twin Room places are available at a discounted price of £675 per person. When booking a Twin Room place, please tell us in the comments box which gender you are and which gender(s) you are comfortable sharing a room with. This information will remain confidential.
A deposit is required to secure your place, which is non-refundable after a 14-day cooling-off period. The balance payment of £595 is due six weeks before the course begins. Refunds are not always available – please read our Terms & Conditions for full details about our cancellation policy. If you would like to pay the full amount in advance, please call our booking office on 01463 592 828 or email info@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Bursaries are always available, and you also have the option to pay in instalments. If you have any problems paying online, or wish to discuss paying in instalments or applying for financial help, or would simply like assistance, please contact us by emailing info@moniackmhor.org.uk or phoning us on 01463 592828.
Access
Please let us know in your booking form if you have any access requirements, for example a ground floor bedroom and / or access to a step-free accessible shower room. We also reserve one en-suite bedroom per course for anyone who may need this due to a medical condition. For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.
Terms and Conditions
Please read our Terms & Conditions before booking.