Tutored courses start on a Monday evening with a welcome talk from staff at 6.30pm who will then join you for a meal. Your two tutors will lead an introductory session after dinner. Tutored Courses usually include workshops each morning from one or both of your tutors. A buffet lunch is provided at 1pm. Afternoons provide time free to write or explore the surroundings, as well as a 30-minute one-to-one tutorial with each tutor during the week.
Evenings are often spent in the company of your group. Tutors will read from their own work on a Tuesday, and lead a sharing of your work at an informal ceilidh on Friday. A guest author usually joins you on Wednesday for dinner, followed by a reading from their work and a Q&A session.
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Courses
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2523 Non-Fiction: Essay Writing with Jen Stout and Peter Ross, Guest Reader Kathleen Jamie
Mon 2nd Jun - Sat 7th Jun
Fully Booked
This course will cover a range of techniques and issues, drawing upon examples of excellent non-fiction from across decades. Topics are likely to include: ways to structure; the ethics and challenges of writing about self and others; finding your voice; creating a sense of place.
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2524 Myth: Prose and Verse with Daniel Morden and Catherine Fisher, Guest Reader Dimitra Fimi
Mon 9th Jun - Sat 14th Jun
Limited Places Available
A course exploring Norse and Celtic myth, with a sprinkling of Arthurian legend, and the ways of weaving them into modern tales, novels and poems.
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2527 Life Writing with Salena Godden and Louisa Young, Guest Reader Michel Faber
Mon 30th Jun - Sat 5th Jul
Fully Booked
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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2529 Fiction: Make Real Progress with Jessie Greengrass and Kevin MacNeil, Guest Reader Lesley Glaister
Mon 14th Jul - Sat 19th Jul
Fully Booked
On this course, writers Kevin MacNeil and Jessie Greengrass will help you navigate through frequently encountered obstacles including pace, setting, and dialogue. They will show you how to strengthen your work’s foundations by considering meaning, purpose, and direction.
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2531 Poetry: Vital Ingredients with John Glenday and Helen Mort, Guest Reader Kit Fan
Mon 28th Jul - Sat 2nd Aug
Fully Booked
Aimed at writers at all stages in their careers who are keen to put some spice back into their writing and live a healthy, sustainable life as a poet. We’ll use workshops, discussions, examples and ladlefuls of useful tips to guide you through a sequence of dos and donts that will help revitalise your writing and enrich your poems with a longer shelf life.
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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
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
Limited Places Available
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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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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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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