| Poetry with Jackie Wills |
 |
Dates: Fri 18 – Fri 25 May 2018
Cost: £260 (course) + 580€ (accommodation and meals)
This is a week for generating new poems and developing ideas. We'll look at work by a variety of writers and focus on some of the devices they use to provide a foundation for your own work. This will range from the use of themes and sequences to originating metaphors, how to make the most of personal experience, as well as research. We'll consider the language of contemporary poetry, from harnessing the vernacular to working with specialist vocabulary and explore form.
Jackie will take you through writing exercises every morning and be available for one to one sessions most afternoons. Every student will have two of these sessions during the week. In the evenings we'll lighten the mood with writing games and share the work of writers we admire. At the end of the week you'll read some of the work you've been producing.
Come to this writing week with an open mind and drive to find new directions, new ideas. Jackie's an experienced writing tutor who'll make sure you feel comfortable but also encourage you to use this chance in the most creative way possible.
Please bring two poems by four contemporary writers whose work you admire and don't forget a notebook!
Access to a printer (bring a UBS key) can be arranged and we have a wifi point.
As with our other weeks, massages are normally available from our on-site therapist, Frances. Walking maps can be provided, hammocks abound, and we’ll show you to the firewood pile in case you'd like to make yourself an outdoor fire in the evenings.
As part of the informal atmosphere at Gardoussel, guests are asked to participate in tidying up after meals, on a rota basis. This is generally considered to be a plus rather than a chore - as it helps the group to get to know one another better.
Arrival is from 4pm on the first day, departure is after breakfast on the final day.
Pricing
Course cost is £260
Accommodation (twin room), meals & wine is 580€ (single room supplements 150€)
Tutor
Jackie Wills is an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing for the Open University. She's published five collections of poetry as well as non-fiction, including The Workshop Handbook for Writers (Arc, 2016). Her most recent collection of poetry is Woman's Head as Jug (Arc, 2013). She helped organise the Brighton Poemathon in 2016 which raised £30,000 for the Refugee Council. She has poems in several anthologies including Writing Motherhood (Seren, 2017), Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry (Forward Arts Foundation, 2015), The Poetry Cure (Bloodaxe, 2005) and Virago New Poets (Virago, 1993). She was shortlisted for the 1995 TS Eliot prize and in 2004 was one of Mslexia magazine's 10 new women poets of the decade. Wills has worked with Rambert Dance and the London Symphony Orchestra as well as schools, colleges, galleries, businesses and community groups. She was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow 2009-12, poet in residence at Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in 2004 and co-tutor for the Aldeburgh Eight in 2015.
 |
