ABOUT THE RETREAT
Dates: 09th - 15th November, 2023
Course Price: €775 - €1,000
This creative writing retreat offers a chance to develop and perfect writing skills in the bucolic surroundings of Monte the Japonica. Participants will benefit from group sessions and one-on-one coaching in a congenial environment with ample time to write in silence and explore the local cork forest. Meals are taken together round a dining table with cooking by a private chef. Meals tend to be light on meat with vegetarians and vegans catered for.
Our tutor Michael Langan writes: 'I'm sometimes asked if writing can really be taught and I often think that the most valuable thing a student of writing can be given is a safe space in which to explore what writing means for them. I have always taken a holistic approach to teaching writing, one that combines practical exercises and constructive advice with an awareness of the emotional ups and downs writing entails. Just as for a painter or a dancer in their studio, or a composer sitting at a piano, the writing workshop allows for experimentation, discovery, playfulness, and a serious delving into subjects, themes, and techniques.
During our retreat we will combine guided writing exercises designed to generate new imaginative work, moments of meditation and reflection on our words, the sharing of work in a non-judgmental and supportive environment, and readings designed to inspire and energise. We will cover areas of writing such as storytelling, characterisation, description and the uses of the senses.
There will also be the opportunity for one-to-one writing surgeries with me, in which we will discuss together the particular and individual needs and desires contained within your writing practice and develop strategies to best achieve those.´
ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Michael Langan has worked as an editor, writer, and teacher for over twenty years, currently facilitating writing workshops and courses at various locations in Lisbon, where he lives. He was Programme Leader of Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich from 2002 – 2012, where he specialised in short story writing and the novel. He has a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University in contemporary creative writing and a background in performance poetry and public speaking. His debut novel, Shadow is a Colour as Light Is, was published by Lume Books in September 2019 and he is currently working on his second. His short stories and poetry have been anthologised and published in magazines, journals and online. As Arts Editor of the online LGBT culture journal Polari he wrote about visual arts, film and literature and, in 2016, was a Contributing Editor to the Paris-based Seymour magazine, writing a series of essays about creative process.