Ty Newydd Course Brochure - Literature Wales

Tŷ Newydd
Writing
Courses
2012

2012
COuRSES
January 27 – 29
April 2 – 7
April 20 – 22 and
October 12 – 14
May 7 – 12
May 14 – 18
(Mon. – Fri.)
May 28 – June 2
June 8 – 10
(weekend)
July 16 – 21
July 23 – 28
July 30 – August 4
August 6 – 11
August 13 – 18
August 20 – 25
September 24 - 29
October 1 – 6
October 8 – 12
(Short course)
October 15 – 20
November 26 -
December 1
Advanced Writing Weekend
Ian Gregson and Zoë Skoulding
Poetry
Gillian Clarke and Carol Ann Duffy
Playwriting: Mentoring Project
Kaite O’Reilly
Fiction
Julia Bell and Peter Benson
Edgeworks Retreat
(details of this and other retreats page 26)
Honno Extended Fiction
Patricia Duncker and Janet Thomas
A Writing Oasis
Paul Dodgson and Victoria Field
Poetry Masterclass
Gillian Clarke and Carol Ann Duffy
Haiku and Haibun
Nigel Jenkins and Lynne Rees
Starting to Write
Siân Melangell Dafydd and Paul Henry
Poetry: Breaking Boundaries
Daljit Nagra and Pascale Petit
Creative Non-fiction
Horatio Clare and Helena Drysdale
The Short Story
Patrick Gale and Salley Vickers
Storytelling Retreat
Hugh Lupton and Eric Maddern
Nature Writing
Nigel Brown and Katrina Porteous
Landscape, Travel and Memoir
Mark Charlton and Rory Maclean
Advanced Fiction
Sarah Hall and Jem Poster
Writing in Health and Social Care
Victoria Field and Graham Hartill
Ty ˆ Newydd also runs a programme of courses in Welsh.
For details contact Ty ˆ Newydd.
Mae Ty ˆ Newydd hefyd yn cynnal rhaglen o gyrsiau Cymraeg.
Am fanylion pellach cysylltwch â Ty ˆ
Newydd.

Tŷ NEwyDD
One of the loveliest and most historic houses around the
Snowdonia National Park, Tŷ Newydd is set in exquisite,
wooded surroundings. Looking out over Cardigan Bay, it lies
between the shapely hills of Eifionydd and the sea, with the
mountains of wales ranged round the horizon. The lawned
and walled gardens slope down to the south, and the microclimate
here is mild and sunny. Quiet, curlew-haunted shores
of the Dwyfor estuary are only a few minutes walk away. There
are plenty of excellent cafés and hospitable pubs in the village
of Llanystumdwy or the nearby small town of Criccieth, as well
as walks along the river and seashore.
Tŷ Newydd itself dates in part from the sixteenth and
eighteenth centuries and was the last home of David Lloyd
George. The house and grounds were playfully re-styled by
Sir Clough williams-Ellis in the 1940s, and a major renovation
programme to the highest modern standards was completed in
2006. In a landscape of extraordinary and celebrated beauty,
and with its own tranquil and reflective atmosphere, Tŷ Newydd
offers up-to-date accommodation and facilities combined with
a milieu in which individual work can happily flourish. Contact
and supervision with skilled and approachable tutors who are
themselves eminent practitioners in their own fields of writing
ensure guidance, feedback and affirmation to those attending
the courses.
Tŷ Newydd writers’ Centre is part of Literature wales, the
National Company for the development of literature in wales.
Literature wales’ many projects and activities include wales
Book of the year, the National Poet of wales, writers on Tour
funding scheme, writing courses at Tŷ Newydd, Translators’
House wales, the BayLit and Tŷ Newydd festivals and young
People’s writing Squads. It also has fieldworkers working
specifically to develop literature activity in the south wales
valleys and north wales.
The services offered by Literature wales for writers include
mentoring, writers’ bursaries, information and advice and
independent manuscript assessment.

COuRSES
Nearly all courses run from Monday evening to Saturday
morning and provide the opportunity of working intimately
and informally with 2 professional writers. Most courses are a
combination of workshops, individual tutorials and readings
with time in between for writing. Courses are open to all over
the age of 16 and no qualifications are necessary.
There is a maximum number of 16 participants. Staff at Tŷ
Newydd are always pleased to advise on the suitability of
courses and further details about each individual course can
be obtained from Tŷ Newydd. Bookings should be made as
early as possible as applicants for a course are taken on a first
come, first served basis.
Tŷ Newydd is committed to enabling access to our courses
and has undergone extensive repairs and renovation. An
extension has been added which includes a new conservatory
housing a lift which now gives access to all the main rooms in
the historic house for wheelchair users and those with mobility
impairment. we also have a bedroom adapted for wheelchair
users or those with mobility impairment, which has an adjoining
adapted bathroom. Please see the access section of our
website for further details, or feel free to contact us to address
any concerns.
04/05

COuRSE DETAILS
Participants are asked to arrive between 4.30 pm and 6.00 pm
in time for the evening meal at 7.00 pm on the first evening of
the course. Vegetarians and people with special dietary needs
are catered for – please let us know in advance (see booking
form). Course participants help themselves to breakfast and
lunch and help to prepare one evening meal as part of a team.
All need to bring towels and writing materials. Tŷ Newydd has
free wi-fi Internet access.
ACCOMMODATION
we provide single and shared (two in a room) accommodation.
Most rooms are en-suite. Single rooms are always at a premium
and we suggest that before booking you check the availability.
Tŷ Newydd is generously provided with shower rooms and wCs.
we also have a bedroom suitable for wheelchair users or those
with mobility impairment. we are always happy to discuss and
help with access and any special needs.
HIRE OF Tŷ NEwyDD
At certain times of the year Tŷ Newydd is available for hire for
small conferences, workshops, parties or family gatherings.
SELF-CATERING
ACCOMMODATION
For several weeks of the year a self-catering cottage is
available on the site of Tŷ Newydd at very reasonable rates.
It is ideal for writers looking for peace and quiet.
wRITING COuRSES FOR
GROuPS
Tŷ Newydd can arrange writing courses for groups from
universities, colleges, writers’ groups etc.

06/07

January 27 - 29
1. ADVANCED wRITING
wEEKEND
Ian Gregson and Zoë Skoulding
This course offers new perspectives on your work in poetry or
fiction by presenting the reflective practices that can sustain
writing in the long term. workshops will focus not only on a range
of techniques for developing new projects, but also on editing
and on understanding different potential contexts for your work.
The relationship between creative and critical processes will
be explored as a means of enabling you to reflect on your aims
as a writer, considering both what is unique to your own writing
and how it relates to the time, place and culture in which it is
produced. Taught in conjunction with the MA Creative writing
programme at Bangor university, the weekend will be especially
helpful to writers who may be interested in taking an MA or PhD,
though all are welcome.
In partnership with the School of English, Bangor University
Ian Gregson is an award-winning poet whose latest book of
poems is How We Met (Salt, 2008). His Call Centre Love Song (2006)
was shortlisted for a Forward Prize. He is the editor of Salt Wales.
His latest book is a novel, Not Tonight Neil (Cinnamon, 2011). For
more information (including the opening pages of that novel)
visit: www.iangregson.co.uk
Zoë Skoulding’s most recent collections of poems are Remains
of a Future City (Seren, 2008), long-listed for wales Book of the
year 2009, and The Mirror Trade (Seren, 2004). Her collaborative
publications include Dark Wires with Ian Davidson (west House
Books, 2007) and From Here, with Simonetta Moro (Dusie, 2008). She
is a member of the collective Parking Non-Stop, whose CD Species
Corridor, combining experimental soundscape with poetry and
song, was released on the German label Klangbad in 2008. She
lectures in the School of English at Bangor university, and has
been Editor of the international quarterly Poetry Wales since 2008.
Fee: £175 (Single room)

April 2 - 7
2. POETRy
Gillian Clarke and Carol Ann Duffy
Guest: Christine Evans
A course for poets at all levels of experience. Develop your
skills alongside two of the most successful poets publishing
today. workshops will encourage discussion of work in progress
and there will be ample time devoted to one-to-one tutorials.
During the week the tutors will give a reading of their work and
participants will contribute to an anthology and a celebratory
reading on the Friday.
Gillian Clarke is the National Poet of wales since 2008 and
President of Tŷ Newydd. In 2010 she was awarded the Queen’s
Gold Medal for Poetry. Her Collected Poems was published in
1997. At the Source, six essays and a journal, appeared in 2008, a
collection of poems, A Recipe for Water, was published in 2009. A
new collection, Ice Music, is due in 2012.
www.gillianclarke.co.uk / www.sheerpoetry.co.uk
Carol Ann Duffy is the Poet Laureate. Her poetry collections
include Mean Time (Anvil Press, 1993), which won the whitbread
Poetry Award and the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry
Collection of the year), The World’s Wife (Anvil Press, 1999) and
Rapture (Picador, 2005), which was a PBS Autumn Choice and
won the TS Eliot Prize. The Bees (Picador, 2011) is shortlisted for
the TS Eliot Prize 2011.
www.sheerpoetry.co.uk
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)
08/09

April 20 - 22 and
October 12 - 14
(2 weekends)
3. PLAywRITING:
MENTORING PROJECT
Kaite O’Reilly
This unusual course offers emerging playwrights the rare
opportunity of developing a new short play (30 minutes
maximum) with guidance, tuition and dramaturgical feedback
over a six-month period by award-winning writer, Kaite
O’Reilly. It is designed for those who have already completed
at least one short script and who are committed to developing
a new play for live performance in a supportive but
professional environment, working to deadlines.
The project will begin at a residential weekend course in Spring
(April 20-22) where successful applicants will develop their
idea for a new play with Kaite over a series of workshops,
masterclasses and one-to-one ‘tutorials’. Participants will be
expected to arrive with a strong embryonic idea for their short
play, which will be developed over the first weekend, with
practical classes in storylining, creating consequential action,
conflict, and complex, motivational characters, amongst other
dramaturgical concerns.
The participants will then commit to delivering a first draft of
their script to Kaite three months after this initial weekend.
They will receive an in-depth reader’s report on the script by
Kaite, with feedback on plot, structure, pace, character,
style and theme, etc, with guidance on further development
in the next draft. Participants will revise the scripts over a
further three months and resubmit them prior to the final
short residency in Autumn (October 12-14). The content of
this intense workshop weekend will be structured around the
submitted second drafts, responding directly to the emerging
writers’ needs, offering tailor-made workshops and exercises
to strengthen the scripts further. There will also be the
opportunity for participants’ new plays to have a script-inhand
reading in the theatre in the village.
Owing to the unique form of this course and the individual attention that
will be given, there will only be 8 participants. If you wish to apply please
send your booking form with a short writing history.

Kaite O’Reilly received the 2010/11 Ted Hughes Award for
New works in Poetry for Persians with National Theatre wales,
directed by Mike Pearson, in a celebrated site-specific
production on Ministry of Defence land. Kaite was one of the
winners of the 2009 international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
for The Almond and the Seahorse (Sherman Cymru, 2008). She was
also awarded The Peggy Ramsay Award for yARD, and MEN
best play of 2004 for Perfect. Productions in 2012 include
The Echo Chamber with The Llanarth Group at Chapter Arts
Centre, Cardiff (Jan/Feb), and two Cultural Olympiad projects,
part of the official celebrations for the 2012 London Games:
Leaner Faster Stronger, a co-production with Chol/Sheffield
Crucible Theatres (May), and In Water I’m Weightless with National
Theatre wales at wales Millennium Centre (July), both part
of the Cultural Olympiad. She is an experienced mentor
and tutor, who has developed writers in projects for the
National Theatre/Tŷ Newydd, writernet/Soho/Graeae Theatre
companies, and Birmingham Rep’, amongst others. She has
taught playwriting and dramaturgy at postgraduate level at
a variety of universities internationally. She is an honorary
fellow of Exeter university’s Drama Department, and a Fellow
of ‘Interweaving Performance Cultures,’ Freie university, Berlin.
www.kaiteoreilly.com
Fee: £645
10/11

May 7 - 12
4. FICTION
WRITING YOUR NOVEL
Julia Bell and Peter Benson
Guest: Patrick McGuinness
whether you’re a beginner, an experienced writer or
somewhere in between, this course is designed to take you to
the next level of novel writing. Daily workshops will help you
discover new inspiration, tactics and ideas, while one-to-one
tutorials will offer individual guidance and support. Come
prepared with drafts, outlines or plans, and be ready to work
hard, have fun and broaden your horizons.
Julia Bell has published two novels for young adults; Massive
and Dirty Work (young Picador). Her latest novel Wise Up! was
published in 2011 and her new novel Classwork will be published
in 2013. She has also co-edited the Creative Writing Coursebook
(Macmillan) and is a senior lecturer on the MA Creative writing
course at Birkbeck in London. She is also a former Tŷ Newydd
student. www.juliabell.net
Peter Benson is the author of nine novels for which he has won
many awards including the Guardian Fiction Prize, a Betty
Trask Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and the Encore
Award. He is translated around the world. He has written
screenplays and radio plays and has taught at wake Forest
university, North Carolina, the university of Plymouth, East
Devon College, the Arvon Foundation and Tŷ Newydd.
Two Cows and a Vanful of Smoke was published by Alma in 2011.
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)

May 28 - June 2
5. wRITING A BOOK:
FICTION AND AuTOBIOGRAPHy
ExTENdEd COURsE - fOR WOmEN
Patricia Duncker and Janet Thomas
Guest: Lindsay Ashford
Are you writing a book? This course is for writers working on
a full-length book: fiction in all genres, for adults or children,
autobiography, memoir or travel. Have you finished a draft?
Are you stuck? Or have you written short fiction up till now and
you are now beginning to write a full-length novel? we are
here to help with structure, plot, viewpoint, description, and all
the technical details. Participants will be selected.*
* Details of the selection procedure and how an extended course works can be
obtained from our website or directly from Ty ˆ Newydd
Supported by Honno, the Welsh Women’s Press
Patricia Duncker is the author of Hallucinating Foucault (winner of
the Dillons First Fiction Award and the McKitterick Prize in 1996),
The Deadly Space Between, James Miranda Barry and Miss Webster and
Chérif (shortlisted for the Commonwealth writers’ Prize in 2007).
She has written two books of short fiction, Monsieur Shoushana’s
Lemon Trees (shortlisted for the Macmillan Silver Pen Award in
1997) and Seven Tales of Sex and Death, and a collection of essays
on writing and contemporary literature, Writing on the Wall.
Janet Thomas is an experienced freelance editor who works for a
range of publishers in wales and London, working on fiction, nonfiction
and children’s books. She was Honno Editor and has been
on the Honno Management Committee for the last eight years.
She has also had short fiction published and her children’s book
Can I Play? (Egmont) won a Practial Pre-School gold award.
Honno Welsh Women’s Press: 2012 marks 25 years since the
publication of Honno’s first book. From four friends sitting around a kitchen
table to the UK’s only surviving independent women’s press, Honno has
gone from strength to strength. Taking part in this course goes to the heart
of Honno’s aims: to develop writing talent and to give fresh new voices the
opportunity to see their work published. www.honno.co.uk
Fee: £620 (single room) / £540 (shared room)
12/13

June 8 - 10
(weekend)
6. A wRITING OASIS
Paul Dodgson and Victoria Field
This course is designed for writers in need of refreshment
and for people who may have a professional interest in the
therapeutic and transformative benefits of creative writing.
using life writing and other techniques, participants will draw
on their own experience to create new work – whether poetry,
fiction or memoir – and explore ways in which to develop these
drafts into more sustained pieces. The emphasis will be on
process and experiment in a non-judgemental atmosphere.
For anyone using literature therapeutically or working towards
accreditation, certificates of attendance for CPD purposes can be provided.
Paul Dodgson is a writer, composer, radio producer and teacher.
He has written and produced many plays for BBC Radio 4
including recently Binge Drunk Britain – the Musical and Windscale.
Theatre work includes music and lyrics for productions of The
Nutcracker and Alice Through the Looking Glass at Theatre Royal Bath.
Paul recently finished a two-year post as writer-in-Residence
at Exeter university where he specialized in life-writing, a genre
he now teaches internationally. He was a Hawthornden Fellow
in 2010 and his radio memoir You Drive Me Crazy was transmitted in
January this year.
Victoria Field qualified as a Poetry Therapist with the uS
National Association for Poetry Therapy in 2005 and has
worked in a wide variety of health and social care settings. She
is a former Director of Survivors Poetry and had two periods
chairing Lapidus, the uK’s organisation for reading and writing
for health and well-being. She has co-edited three books
on therapeutic writing, most recently Writing Routes (Jessica
Kingsley, 2010) and has published two collections of poetry: the
second, Many Waters was based on a year-long residency at
Truro Cathedral.
Fee: £260 (single room) / £220 (shared room)

July 16 - 21
7. POETRy MASTERCLASS
Gillian Clarke and Carol Ann Duffy
Guest: Imtiaz Dharker
This is the opportunity for committed poets to move their writing
up a gear alongside two of the most successful poets publishing
today. This Masterclass will follow a similar pattern to a normal
poetry course at Tŷ Newydd. workshops will encourage
discussion of work in progress and there will be ample time
devoted to one-to-one tutorials. During the week the tutors will
give a reading of their work and participants will contribute to
an anthology and a celebratory reading on the Friday.
In order that everyone can benefit from a high level of
participation poets will be selected. Details of how to apply for
a place can be obtained from Tŷ Newydd.
[N.B. Deadline for submission of poems: 1 April 2012]
Gillian Clarke is the National Poet of wales since 2008 and
President of Tŷ Newydd. In 2010 she was awarded the Queen’s
Gold Medal for Poetry. Her Collected Poems was published in
1997. At the Source, six essays and a journal, appeared in 2008, a
collection of poems, A Recipe for Water, was published in 2009. A
new collection, Ice Music, is due in 2012.
www.gillianclarke.co.uk / www.sheerpoetry.co.uk
Carol Ann Duffy is the Poet Laureate. Her poetry collections
include Mean Time (Anvil Press, 1993), which won the whitbread
Poetry Award and the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry
Collection of the year), The World’s Wife (Anvil Press, 1999) and
Rapture (Picador, 2005), was a PBS Autumn Choice and won
the TS Eliot Prize. The Bees (Picador, 2011) is shortlisted for the TS
Eliot Prize 2011. www.sheerpoetry.co.uk
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)
14/15

July 23 - 28
8. HAIKu AND HAIBuN
ANOThER COUNTRY: hAIkU WRITING fOR ThE 21sT CENTURY
Nigel Jenkins and Lynne Rees
Guest: John Barlow
Haiku, at their most effective, are tiny, coiled springs of poems
that release fleeting but subtle insights into how life is. Haibun,
a blend of prose and haiku, provide a narrative to amplify
those haiku moments of epiphany.
The course will dispel the myths that haiku writing is all about
syllabics, lineation and images from nature and will encourage
you to use the material from your own life, combined with the
natural and urban world, to create your own haiku journal
during the week.
Please bring suitable outdoor clothing and footwear for a
‘ginko’ – a leisurely walk through the surrounding countryside
designed to inspire haiku writing.
Nigel Jenkins is a poet and writer who teaches creative writing
at Swansea university. His travel book Gwalia in Khasia won the
wales Book of the year award in 1996 and he is co-editor of
The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales (university of wales Press,
2008). His poetry books include two collections of haiku. He
is currently at work on two books of psychogeography, Real
Swansea 2 and Real Gower.
Lynne Rees is a poet, life writer and award-winning creative
writing tutor. She blogs on food, life and writing as ‘the hungry
writer’ at www.lynnerees.com and she is currently researching
and writing Real Port Talbot (Seren, 2013). Her creative and critical
haiku writing has been published by international journals; in
2011 one of her haibun was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Another country, haiku poetry from Wales, edited by Nigel Jenkins,
Ken Jones and Lynne Rees is published by Gomer Press (2011)
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)

July 30 -
August 4
9. STARTING AND RESTARTING
TO wRITE: POETRy & PROSE
Siân Melangell Dafydd and Paul Henry
Guest: Gillian Clarke
This course welcomes those who are new to writing and also
those wishing to re-embark on previously abandoned forays
into poetry and/or prose. Both the craft and mystery of these
genres will be explored through a combination of workshops
and one-to-one *tutorials. A friendly, supportive environment
should help you to move forward in your writing and discover
new possibilities. A central aim of the course is to build
participants’ confidence in their work.
*Siân Melangell Dafydd’s tutorials can be conducted in either English or Welsh.
Siân Melangell Dafydd is an author, poet, translator and coeditor
of Taliesin. Her novel, Y Trydydd Peth (The Third Thing), won the
2009 National Eisteddfod Literature Medal. She has published
in many anthologies in wales and abroad. In 2010 she won a
Translators’ House wales–HALMA award and held residencies
in Finland and Germany. In November 2011 she took part in the
India-wales writers’ Chain: a poetry translation workshop with
Indian poets before the Hay-on-wye Festival, Kerala. She writes
in both welsh and English and is published in many European
languages and Tamil.
Paul Henry has published five collections of poetry. Described
by the late u.A. Fanthorpe as “a poet’s poet” who combines
“a sense of the music of words with an endlessly inventive
imagination”, he came to poetry through songwriting.
The Brittle Sea: New & Selected Poems was published by Seren in the
uK and by Dronequill in India, under the title The Black Guitar. A
popular creative writing tutor and broadcaster, Henry presented
the Inspired series of arts programmes for BBC Radio wales
and Do Not Expect Applause, his celebration of the Scottish poet
w.S.Graham, for BBC Radio 3. Excusing Private Godfrey, his tribute to
the playwright and actor Arnold Ridley, will be broadcast in the
Spring of 2012, on Radio 4. www.paulhenrywales.co.uk
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)
16/17

August 6 - 11
10. POETRy:
BREAKING BOuNDARIES
Daljit Nagra and Pascale Petit
Guest: Karen McCarthy woolf
Poetry should cross the bounds of imagination and conventional
taste because it should surprise by its fine excess. Pascale and
Daljit will set writing exercises designed to inspire you to imagine
in radical ways so exciting new work is produced over the week.
In addition the course will focus on how to energise your poems
so their rapture will thrill the reader.
The course will be a mixture of writing exercises, focus on
ground-breaking contemporary poetry and discussions about
the key issues that will help to innovate new writing.
Daljit Nagra comes from a Punjabi background. He was born
and raised in London then Sheffield. In 2004, he won the Forward
Prize for Best Individual Poem with Look We Have Coming to Dover!
This was also the title of his first collection which was published
by Faber & Faber in 2007 and which won the Forward Prize for
Best First Collection and The South Bank Show Decibel Award.
Daljit is on the Board of the Poetry Book Society. and is the Lead
Poetry Tutor at The Faber Academy and has run workshops all
over the world.
Pascale Petit was born in Paris, grew up in France and wales
and lives in London. She has published five poetry collections.
Her latest collection is What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo
(Seren, 2010), which was shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize, wales
Book of the year and was a book of the year in the Observer. She
tutors at Tate Modern and is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the
Courtauld Institute of Art.
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)

August 13 - 18
11. CREATIVE NON-FICTION
Horatio Clare and Helena Drysdale
Guest: Jan Morris
This course will identify key areas for the writer of non-fiction:
character, action, truth, story, structure, dialogue and setting.
using a variety of sources, exercises, examples and tasks it will
take participants into the heart of what it is to write well about
life, whether from memory, sources or observation. we will look
at how the techniques of fiction and drama can best be applied
to non-fiction with the aim of producing work which is vivid,
gripping and original. Though it will not focus explicitly on the
business of publishing or marketing books, the production of
publication-standard material is its aim.
Horatio Clare’s latest book is The Prince’s Pen, a novel based on
a welsh myth. He is the author of Running for the Hills (Somerset
Maugham Award), Truant and A Single Swallow (shortlisted for the
Dolman Travel Book of the year and longlisted for the wales
Book of the year). Horatio is also an award-winning journalist
who writes frequently for Conde Nast Traveller and the Daily
Telegraph, and a broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and 4. His next
book is Down to the Sea in Ships, a story of boats, oceans and men.
Helena Drysdale’s five books include Looking for George: Love and
Death in Romania (Picador), shortlisted for the Esquire/Apple/
waterstone’s Non-Fiction Award, and the PEN/J.R.Ackerley
Award for Autobiography and Strangerland: A Family at War
(Picador, 2006). She is currently working on a book about
Greece. She is a Royal Literary Fellow at Exeter university and
edits manuscripts for the writer’s workshop.
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)
18/19

August 20 - 25
12. FICTION
Patrick Gale and Salley Vickers
Guest: Jane Stevenson
This is a course for anyone who wants to write short stories but
which would particularly suit those who are new to writing fiction
or those who are returning to it after a long time away. Patrick
and Salley are both experienced in the challenges of the form.
Focusing in turn on characterisation, plot, dialogue and setting,
they will encourage you to create new work rather than simply
improve on what you’ve already written, and aim to have everyone
leave with a polished short story at the end of the course.
Patrick Gale has written fourteen novels, including the
bestselling Rough Music and Notes from an Exhibition. His
fourteenth novel, A Perfectly Good Man, will be published by
Fourth Estate in March 2012. His two collections of short stories
are Dangerous Pleasures and Gentleman’s Relish. To find out more visit
www.galewarning.org
Salley Vickers is a novelist and short story writer whose works
include the word-of-mouth bestseller Miss Garnet’s Angel, Mr.
Golightly’s Holiday, The Other Side of You, Where Three Roads Meet and
Aphrodite’s Hat: The Collected Stories of Salley Vickers. She also writes
poetry. www.salleyvickers.com
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)

September 24 - 29
13. STORyTELLING RETREAT
POETs, PROPhETs ANd PRIEsTs
ThE mATTER Of BRITAIN, PART 5
Hugh Lupton and Eric Maddern
After the collapse of the Roman Empire in Britain around 400
AD, several conflicting mythologies vied with each other for
the hearts and souls of the populace. Earlier belief systems
remained strong on the Celtic fringe and the Romans had left
their mark everywhere. But in the following centuries the Saxon
and Norse pantheons came into play, and there were the new,
saintly exactitudes of the Christian Church.
In this week-long storytelling retreat we will explore the myths of
the Dark Ages and visit the sites associated with them.
Hugh Lupton has worked as a storyteller and writer since the
early eighties. He tells stories from many cultures but specialises
in Celtic, English and Greek mythology. His ‘Praise Songs’
exploring the interface between biography and myth (including
the stories of Thomas Gee and Arthur Ransome) have been
widely celebrated. In 2006 he (and Daniel Morden) won the
Classical Association award for their work on ‘The Iliad’. with
Chris wood he won BBC Folk Award ‘song of the year’. His first
novel The Ballad of John Clare was published in 2010.
Eric Maddern is a storyteller specialising in historic and natural
landscapes. He’s the author of a dozen children’s picture books
and has recorded two CDs of his songs, Full of Life and Rare and
Precious Earth. He has also, with much help, created the Cae
Mabon Eco-Retreat Centre, in 2008 named top ‘natural building
project in the uK’. He is an honorary chief bard of OBOD (Order
of Bards, Ovates and Druids) and was declared a ‘Green Hero of
wales’ in 2010. For more see www.ericmaddern.co.uk and
www.caemabon.co.uk
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)
20/21

October 1 - 6
14. NATuRE wRITING
Nigel Brown and Katrina Porteous
Guest: Paul Evans
In this course we venture outside to encounter the wild coastal
landscape of the Llŷn Peninsula, its woods, fields, river, sea
shore and its living creatures. we examine the natural forces
which created this beautiful environment and the place of
our own lives within it. In trying to find a language to express
these encounters, we explore the common ground of science,
poetry and descriptive prose, and return to first principles:
observation, authenticity, listening, and discovering a form.
walking boots and waterproofs essential.
Nigel Brown is a Lecturer in Biological Sciences at Bangor
university and curator of the university’s botanic garden. Nigel
has both a professional and lifelong interest in natural history. He
has lived in north west wales for four decades and cherishes the
region’s rich variety of landscape and wildlife.
Katrina Porteous is best known for her long landscape poems for
BBC radio. She lives on the Northumberland coast, and the human
and natural history of that area inform her poetry in books such as
Dunstanburgh and The Blue Lonnen. Her poetry has won many national
awards, including a Gregory Award (1989), an Arts Council writer’s
Bursary (1993) and an Arts Foundation Award (2003). She is also a
historian and broadcaster.
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)

October 8 - 12
(Mon - Fri)
15. LANDSCAPE, TRAVEL AND
MEMOIR - FROM BLOGS TO
BOOKS
Mark Charlton and Rory Maclean
The acclaimed travel writer Rory Maclean joins the family,
landscape and nature blogger Mark Charlton on a journey from
books to blogs and back again. Through workshops, tutorials
and discussions, Rory and Mark will look at how to create
engaging and personal writing, exploring the potential for
publication in both new media and more traditional forms.
The course is suitable for anyone interested in travel, landscape
and memoir – whether that be through journals, essays, poetry
or fiction. Both tutors are regular bloggers and have a particular
interest in how the Internet and electronic publishing can
complement traditional publishing and create opportunities for
new writers to reach a wider audience.
Mark Charlton is one of wales’ most prolific bloggers; his Views
from the Bike Shed is a critically acclaimed mix of life, memoir and
nature writing. www.viewsfromthebikeshed.blogspot.com.
Mark’s first book Counting Steps - journeys through fatherhood
and landscape will be published by Cinnamon Press in 2012.
Rory Maclean is one of Britain’s most expressive and
adventurous travel writers. His nine books include awardwinners
Stalin’s Nose, Under the Dragon, Magic Bus (Penguin) and now,
in a moving departure, Gift of Time (Constable) about his mother’s
final journey. Every week he writes a provocative, personal blog
from Berlin. blog.goethe.de/meet-the-germans
Fee: £295 (single room) / £235 (shared room)
The cost of this course has been subsidised by the generosity of Bertram Books
22/23

October 15 - 20
16. ADVANCED FICTION
Sarah Hall and Jem Poster
Guest: Niall Griffiths
Jem Poster and Sarah Hall will host a course designed to help
writers to hone their drafting and editing skills. using discussion
forums, intensive workshops and individual tutorials, they will
be looking at the key components of prose writing, including
character, location, narrative, plot and style, and examining
the ways in which these combine to form a credible and
engaging piece of fiction. writers should come prepared to
generate the new work which will be the focus of the course,
and to receive detailed and constructive feedback on that
work. The course is designed to stimulate dialogue and debate
in an atmosphere of enthusiasm and mutual support.
Sarah Hall’s first novel, Haweswater (2002) won several awards,
including the 2003 Commonwealth writers Prize (Overall winner,
Best First Book).Her second book, The Electric Michelangelo (2004),
set in the turn-of-the-century seaside resorts of Morecambe
Bay and Coney Island, was shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker
Prize and the 2005 Commonwealth writers Prize. The Carhullan
Army (2007) won the 2007 John Llewellyn-Rhys Memorial Prize
and was shortlisted for the 2008 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best
Science Fiction. Her fourth novel, How to Paint a Dead Man, was
published in 2009 and was longlisted for the Man Booker prize
and won the 2010 Portico Prize for Fiction. A collection of short
stories, The Beautiful Indifference, was published in 2011.
Jem Poster’s two novels, Courting Shadows and Rifling Paradise,
were published in 2002 and 2006 respectively. A former Fellow
of Kellogg College, Oxford, he now holds the Chair of Creative
writing at Aberystwyth university, where he directs a range of
creative writing programmes from undergraduate to doctoral
level. He is also the author of a collection of poetry, Brought
to Light, and a past winner of the Cardiff International Poetry
Competition.
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)

November 26 -
December 1
17. wRITING IN HEALTH
AND SOCIAL CARE
Victoria Field and Graham Hartill
Guest: Philip Gross
There is a growing body of evidence that creative writing
and reading can promote better health and well-being.
This course is intended as an introduction to the theory
and practice of using the literary arts as an integral part of
health and social care. Participants will draw on their own
experience to explore the different ways writing can be used
with and by patients, clients and service users and in health,
educational or community settings. The writing itself may take
the form of poetry, fiction, memoir, drama or creative nonfiction.
This course will be of interest to writers of all kinds,
medical and healthcare professionals, counsellors, therapists,
social workers, librarians, academics, teachers, service users
and service providers in a variety of health and therapeutic
environments. It is also suitable for anyone with a personal
interest in any of these fields.
Victoria Field qualified as a Poetry Therapist with the uS
National Association for Poetry Therapy in 2005 and has worked
in a wide variety of health and social care settings. She is a
former Director of Survivors Poetry and had two periods chairing
Lapidus, the uK’s organisation for reading and writing for health
and well-being. She has co-edited three books on therapeutic
writing, most recently Writing Routes (Jessica Kingsley, 2010) and
has published two collections of poetry: the second, Many Waters
was based on a year-long residency at Truro Cathedral. She
was an Associate Artist of Hall for Cornwall who have produced
two of her plays. She will be a Hawthornden Fellow in 2012.
Graham Hartill - poet, workshop facilitator, lecturer. He studied at
the universities of wales and Massachusetts, and has since given
countless workshops and classes in the uK, uSA and China. Co–
founder of Lapidus, the uK–wide association for the promotion
of creative writing in therapeutic contexts, Graham has worked
in settings as varied as hospitals, mental health centres and with
the elderly. He is writer-in-residence at HMP and yOI Parc, one of
the biggest prisons in Europe and he teaches on the MSc. course
“Creative writing for Therapeutic Purposes” for the Metanoia
Institute. His selected poems, Cennau’s Bell was published in 2005
and his latest book A Winged Head by Parthian Books in 2006.
Fee: £540 (single room) / £460 (shared room)
24/25

wRITERS’ RETREATS
The retreats have been designed to give writers peace and quiet
in an inspiring and supportive environment. It is the opportunity
to get on with work in progress and for relaxation you can walk
along the beach and the river or take a trip out to Portmeirion or
into the mountains of Snowdonia.
Everyone has a single room and most of these are en-suite.
All food is provided. we ask you to help yourself to breakfast
and lunch (which is prepared for you) and to help prepare one
evening meal as part of a team. Vegetarians and people with
special dietary needs are catered for – please let us know in
advance (see booking form).
Our retreats are open to everyone, at all ages and level
of experience and in whatever genre or language they
choose to write.
May 14-18: Edgeworks Retreat
Price: £345 (single room)
Other retreats will be available during the year. Please check our
website or contact Tŷ Newydd for further details.
CREATIVE wRITING AND
READING IN HEALTH AND
SOCIAL CARE
A project supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
Creative writing can improve mood, wellbeing, encourage the
development of emotional insight as well as of literacy. This new
project, based in Tŷ Newydd, aims to develop the use of creative
writing and reading in health and social care.
Literature wales is developing a portfolio of courses in writing in
Health and Social Care to increase the opportunities available
to writers and health and social care professionals to train in
the field. This project will also reach out to those often excluded
from the arts for social or personal reasons by developing
outreach projects in health and social care which will lead to
tailored courses at Tŷ Newydd. Literature wales is also working in
partnership to develop the field of Reading for Health in Gwynedd
and across North wales.
Contact:
Alys Conran (Project Manager)
01766 523 737 / tynewydd@literaturewales.org

BuRSARIES
It is the aim of Literature wales to enable everybody who would
benefit from a course at Tŷ Newydd to do so and a bursary
fund has been set up to help those on a low income. It must,
however, be pointed out that bursary money is limited and
financial help cannot always be guaranteed.
The Wilfred Owen Association Bursary
The wilfred Owen Association (www.wilfredowen.org.uk) awards
a full bursary to a promising poet to attend a poetry course.
The Jan Mark Bursary
This bursary was set up in memory of Jan Mark and is awarded
to an unpublished children’s writer.
The Judi Thwaite Bursary
In memory of Judi Thwaite, poet and painter.
Bursary application forms and selection procedures are on our
website and available from Tŷ Newydd.
COuRSES FOR SCHOOLS
Literature wales offers residential courses for school groups
which run along exactly the same lines as courses for adults.
There are two tutors, who are professional writers and who
have experience of teaching creative writing and often a guest
reader. Courses are for 16 pupils and 2 teachers.
Everyone lives at Tŷ Newydd for the duration of the course and
the atmosphere is relaxed and informal. Pupils help themselves
to breakfast and lunch and help, as part of a team, to prepare
one evening meal for the rest of the group. There are group
sessions, individual tutorials, readings and some time for pupils
to work individually on their own writing.
The experience of spending this time in the atmosphere of Tŷ
Newydd and having the opportunity to concentrate just on
writing is of enormous value not only in the development of
pupils’ writing skills and their confidence overall.
Courses are tailored to the needs of individual schools.
The content is discussed beforehand and the teachers are
consulted about the choice of tutors for their group.
Further details along with a DVD, can be obtained from Tŷ Newydd.
26/27

TRANSLATORS’ HOuSE wALES
Tŷ Cyfieithu Cymru/Translators’ House wales, a partnership
between Literature wales and wales Literature Exchange, is a
programme of activity held at Tŷ Newydd. It offers residencies
and training opportunities for translators of literature from wales
and for translators of foreign literature into welsh and English.
Short residencies are also organised for international writers.
One of its most popular initiatives is the annual Translation
Challenge. Tŷ Cyfieithu Cymru/Translators’ House wales is a
member of the HALMA network of European literary houses.
COuRSE FEES
The fee for a four-and-a-half day course (Mon – Sat):
Single room £540 / Shared room £460
N.B. Some courses vary so please check each individual course.
Fees include all workshops, tutorials, readings, accommodation
and meals.
Payment can be made:
By card: online by PayPal - www.tynewydd.org
By cheque: fill in the booking form opposite and send with a
cheque payable to Literature wales
By instalment: it is possible to spread the cost of a course over
up to 12 months by paying in instalments by standing order.
Please contact Literature wales for further details.
BOOKING CONDITIONS
1.
A deposit of £100 or the full amount must be sent with the
booking form and this deposit is non-returnable once the
booking is confirmed by us. The balance is due 4 weeks
before the start of the course. If you make a cancellation
after this date the balance will only be refunded if we can
fill your place on the course. It may be advisable to arrange
your own insurance to cover this eventuality.
2. Literature wales reserves the right to cancel up to 3 weeks
before the start of the course. In these circumstances a full
refund will be made.
3.
Literature wales reserves the right to make changes to
the programme.

✁
Booking forms
should be sent to:
Tŷ Newydd
writers’ Centre,
Llanystumdwy,
Criccieth, Gwynedd,
LL52 0Lw
BOOKING FORM
Course name:
Course number:
Course start date:
Room (please tick): Single Shared
Name:
Address:
Telephone Number:
Mobile Number:
Email Address:
Dietary Requirements (e.g. Vegeterian):
I enclose: Deposit £100 or Full Amount £
Cheques payable to: Literature wales
Instalments: it is possible to spread the cost of a course over a
period of time by paying in instalments by standing order
I enclose a Bursary Application Form (please tick)
May we give your name and contact details to
other course participants prior to the course? yes / No
Literature wales would like to keep you updated with information
about our events, courses, products and services. Please tick
the box if you do not wish to receive this information
I have read and agree to the booking conditions.
Signed Date
28/29

HOw TO GET TO Tŷ NEwyDD
BY TRAIN
Cambrian Coast line to Criccieth (2 miles from Llanystumdwy)
- connections available from Shrewsbury, Birmingham and
Aberystwyth. The journey from Machynlleth to Criccieth is considered
to be one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world.
Intercity to Bangor (25 miles from Llanystumdwy) - London/Euston to
Holyhead train.
BY AIR
Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester International Airports
are approximately 2 hours’ drive from Llanystumdwy. Flights
operate between Cardiff and Anglesey airports.
BY BUs
Arriva coaches operate to and from Llanystumdwy.
Trawscambria to Porthmadog (Cardiff to Bangor)
Note: Arrangements can be made for people to be picked
up from Porthmadog and Criccieth. we also meet people
at Bangor station but due to the distance involved, a small
charge has to be made. These arrangements should be made
at least 3 weeks prior to the start of a course.
CONTACT
Literature wales,
Tŷ Newydd, Llanystumdwy,
Criccieth, Gwynedd, LL52 0Lw
01766 522811 / tynewydd@literaturewales.org
www.tynewydd.org
Photography: Touchstone (p2), Keith Morris (cover, p5, p7),
Poetry Live! (Gillian Clarke), John Briggs (Carol Ann Duffy),
Anita Schiller-Fuchs (Patricia Duncker), Owen Sheers (Paul
Henry), Kaido Vainomaa (Pascale Petit), Peter Finch (Horatio
Clare), Claire McNamee (Patrick Gale), Derek Adams (Katrina
Porteous), Richard Thwaites (Sarah Hall).

Dylunio/Design—Kutchibok