Novelists, memoirists, short story writers – do you need time, space and encouragement to move your manuscript forward? This retreat is for prose writers who want guidance and motivation to help their work-in-progress achieve its potential.
We’ll have one daily writing workshop to help develop and share ideas about voice, style and structure, as well as considering working towards publication.
Each writer will have a daily 30 minute tutorial to offer tailored individual support.
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Tutor: Zoë Strachan – Writer Zoë Strachan is the author of four novels: Lips That Touch (forthcoming), Ever Fallen in Love, Spin Cycle and Negative Space. Ever Fallen in Love was shortlisted for the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards and the Green Carnation Prize and nominated for the London Book Awards. Negative Space won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year Award. Zoë’s short stories and essays have appeared in various magazines and anthologies internationally and been broadcast on BBC Radio. Works for theatre include Something in the Air and Panic Patterns (with Louise Welsh) and Old Girls. Her short opera Sublimation (with composer Nick Fells) toured Scotland with Scottish Opera before going to Cape Town, South Africa. The Lady from the Sea, a full-length opera composed by Craig Armstrong and based on the play by Ibsen, premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2012, where it won a Herald Angel Award. She has a long-standing sound art/experimental radio collaboration with composer Nichola Scrutton. Between 2011 and 2014 she co-edited New Writing Scotland, Scotland’s principal forum for poetry and short fiction, and in 2014 she curated a new anthology of LGBT writing from Scotland, Out There (Freight) – the first of its kind in over a decade. In 2020, she was one of the judges for the Dublin International Literary Award. Zoë has been UNESCO City of Literature writer-in-residence at the National Museum of Scotland, a Hermann Kesten Stipendiaten, a Hawthornden Fellow, and a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellow. In 2011 she undertook a British Council visiting fellowship at the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa and in 2012 she was visiting faculty at Dartmouth College. Her day job is as Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. Zoe’s most recent novel, Catch the Moments as They Fly, was published in September 2023. www.zoestrachan.com/ @zoestrachan Photo: Ajamu |
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Guest, Wednesday evening: Louise Welsh – Writer Louise Welsh is the author of eight novels including, The Cutting Room, Death is a Welcome Guest and No Dominion. She is the editor of Ghost, One Hundred Stories to Read with the Lights On (2016). Louise was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Arts by Edinburgh Napier University (2015) and was a University of Otago’s Scottish Writers Fellow at the Wallace Arts Centre in New Zealand (2016). She has presented over thirty BBC radio features and written many short stories and articles. Louise has written libretti for four operas including Scottish Opera’s production of Anthropocene (music by Stuart MacRae) which premiered in January 2019. She has also written for the stage. Her play King Keich premiered at Oran Mor in October 2015. Louise is co-director (with Jude Barber) of the Empire Café, an award winning collective exploring Scotland’s relationship with empire. (@theempirecafe) Louise is Professor of Creative Writing at University of Glasgow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Louise’s new novel, To the Dogs, will be published in January 2024. @louisewelsh00 Photo: Julie Broadfoot |
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| PRICES | Fee includes all day and evening tutored workshop sessions, readings, accommodation and full board (not including alcohol).
Single – En-suite room £990 |
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| TO BOOK | £150 deposit payable on booking by bank transfer, PayPal or cheque, to secure place. Balance due six weeks before the start of the course/tutored retreat/untutored retreat. Please see Terms and Conditions. |
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| INCLUDED |
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| WHAT TO BRING |
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| START TIME |
Please arrive between 3:00pm and 4:30pm on Monday 17th June 2024 Tea, cake and housekeeping notes 4.30pm Introductory Workshop 5.30 – 6.30pm Dinner 7.00pm |
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| END TIME |
After breakfast, 10:00am on Saturday 22nd June 2024 |
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| LOCATION | The Garsdale Retreat, Clough View, Garsdale Head, Sedbergh, Cumbria LA10 5PW Nearest railway station: Garsdale, on the Leeds – Carlisle line. For directions, see Find Us section on the Contact page. |
Courses (Tutored and Untutored Retreats – see below)
The Garsdale Retreat provides an inspiring place to develop as a writer. Our courses offer opportunities for new, emerging and experienced writers. The tutors, all professional writers, lead workshops and also give one-to-one tutorials to help the individual student. In the remote and beautiful setting of The Yorkshire Dales, The Garsdale Retreat gives a wonderful opportunity to escape from the daily stresses of life and to draw inspiration from fellow participants, tutors and the landscape itself.
All courses start on Monday afternoon, arrival time 3.00 – 4.30pm.
4.30pm – Housekeeping information, tea and cake
5.30 – 6.30pm – Introductory workshop
6.30pm – Complimentary welcome drink
7.00pm – Dinner
All courses end after breakfast on Saturday (10.00am).
Course Structure
Although there will be slight variations, according to the type of course (see below), participants can generally expect the following outline:
8.00 – 9.00am: Breakfast
9.30 – 11.00am: First workshop – Participants explore particular aspects of the chosen genre and take part in writing exercises to further their understanding and expertise. All participants have opportunities to share their work with the tutor and fellow writers in a safe, supportive and nurturing environment in which individual work is respected and confidence developed.
11.00 – 11.30am: Coffee break
11.30am – 1.00pm: Second workshop
After lunch, participants are free to do whatever they like, such as: relax, go for walks, read or work on individual writing projects.
4.30pm: Tea and cake
5.30 – 6.30pm: Third workshop
7.00pm: Dinner
All participants on a course have one individual tutorial of 30 minutes with the tutor in the course of the week. These will take place in the afternoons.
Each evening, at about 8.30pm, there is an after-dinner event. The precise nature of this varies according to the type of course but participants can typically expect a tutor reading on Tuesday followed by a reading from a guest writer on the Wednesday evening. There is an informal activity on Thursday such as a writing game or a poetry/music performance from Hamish and Rebecca. On Friday, there is a shared reading of ‘work-in-progress’ produced during the week.
Poetry Course Anthology
An integral part of poetry courses is the production of an anthology of writing produced in the week. It is, of course, accepted that the writing is essentially work-in-progress. However, the aim of the anthology is to reflect a flavour of the work accomplished on the course and to provide participants with an attractive record of their time at Garsdale. The Retreat stores copies of anthologies in the library, providing pleasure and inspiration for future participants.
Tutored Retreats
These follow the same basic structure as above except there is only one workshop in the morning and participants will have a daily 30 minute tutorial, four per week.
Untutored Retreats
The only formal structure of the week is determined by meal-times (see above), allowing participants to concentrate totally on their own writing. After dinner, there are optional events such as writing games and poetry/music performances from Hamish and Rebecca. Participation in such events is entirely voluntary and people are free to continue with their writing in the evenings if they prefer. However, we do like to end the week on Friday evening with a shared reading of work-in-progress as a celebration of the week’s writing.
