This non-residential writing retreat will explore writing about place in poetry and creative non-fiction.  Place writing brings the setting to the foreground, often figuring place as the foremost subject. It is an exciting subgenre of writing that includes ecopoetry, nature writing, psychogeography, travel and an attentiveness to surroundings that responds to the shifting meanings of places and landscapes.

Working in the pavilion studio located in the stunning walled garden at Museum in the Park, we will spend our mornings workshopping writing and the afternoons will be dedicated to 1 to 1 meetings and quiet writing and reading time. During workshops you’ll explore a wide range of writing about places real and imagined, with a focus on developing your own writing through lots of playful and powerful prompts and exercises. With plenty of time for discussion, questions and group work there will also be the opportunity to get individual feedback from each of your tutors.

The week will culminate with Dialect’s Summer Social and an evening of readings to an audience in the pavilion at Museum in the Park.

This retreat will be tutored by Philip Rush and JLM Morton. Writer Madeline Bunting will also be joining us one morning to talk about her writing about place.

Indicative timetable

Day 1 Tuesday 12th July Workshop 9am – 1pm, afternoon for writing

Day 2 Wednesday 13th July Workshop 10am -1pm, afternoon for tutorials and writing

Day 3 Thursday 14th July Workshop 10am – 1pm, afternoon for tutorials and writing

Day 4 Friday 15th July, Workshop 10am – 1pm, afternoon for writing and preparation for readings. Evening 6.30pm – 9.30pm (approx.) social event / readings.

You will also have access to a private Slack group (online) for this retreat where you can share work, ideas, articles etc and stay in touch during and after the course.

Our venue is Museum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 4AF. Stroud is directly accessible by train from London (approximately 1.5 hrs) and with only one change on the line through Birmingham New Street and through Bristol. There is free parking available in the Stratford Park Leisure Centre car park all day.

Cost £250 for the week. Includes all workshops and tutorials and refreshments in morning break / afternoon. You will need to provide your own lunch and overnight accommodation.

Follow the links below to pay

Pay £125 deposit now to secure your place, the remainder is payable by 15th June 2022

OR

Pay the full £250 now

THIS RETREAT HAS NOW SOLD OUT! However, last minute places do become available from time to time - please email us dialectwriters@gmail.com if you would like to go on the waiting list.

Recommended reading pre-retreat

We recommend that you read the following texts before joining the retreat for discussion on Day 1:

Jason Allen-Paissant (2021) Thinking With Trees Carcanet

Robert Macfarlane & Stanley Donwood (2021) Ness Penguin

Helen Mort et al., eds., (2018) Waymaking: an anthology of Women’s Adventure Writing, Poetry and Art Vertebrate Publishing

About the tutors

Philip Rush was born and grew up in Middlesex. He taught English in Gloucestershire schools for forty years. He has been running an independent poetry press, Yew Tree Press, for a number of years and hosts regular poetry events at the Museum in the Park. Philip is a member of Dialect’s advisory group, has taught on Dialect courses (Throwing Clay, Poetry Journaling, Poetic Form I & II) and led a poetry walk along the Wye in July 2021.

JLM Morton is based in Gloucestershire. Since completing her doctorate on whiteness, gender and writing (Sussex, 1999), Juliette has worked in education in the UK and globally. Her work has featured in various publications, including The Rialto, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Magma, Ink Sweat & Tears, Fenland Poetry Journal, Places of Poetry, The Sunday Telegraph and on BBC Upload, as well as in sound installations and exhibitions including Plant Communitas at Museum in the Park, Stroud (April 2022) and ‘if trees were lone women, what would they sound like?’ Sanctuary Lab, Galloway Forest (November 2021). She has held residencies at a lake in the Cotswold Water Park, with Stroudwater Textile Trust and the Corinium Museum, Cirencester.

Visiting Writer Madeline Bunting

Madeleine is currently working on a non fiction title for Granta, Seaside, England's Love Affair. Tracing the history of one of England's most distinctive inventions, she has travelled from Scarborough to Morecombe to portray the edges of a troubled nation: exploring the places where the nation comes to play, recuperate and retire.

For twenty five years, Madeleine was a journalist and Associate Editor on the Guardian and held a number of positions including columnist 1999-2012. She wrote on a wide range of subjects including politics, social affairs, faith and global development.

​She was made a Visiting Professor at the LSE's International Inequalities Institute in 2021. She has received a number of awards and prizes including an honorary fellowship from Cardiff University in 2013, a visiting fellowship at Manchester University (2016-19). Love of Country was shortlisted for the Wainwright and the Saltire Prizes 2017, and she won the Portico Prize for The Plot in 2010 which was also shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize. Her first novel, Island Song, won the Waverton Good Read Award in 2020. She was awarded a Lambeth MA degree in 2006, The Race in the Media award in 2005 and the Imam wa Amal Special Award in 2002. She has won several One World Media awards for her journalism on global justice.