Exploring Genius Loci: writing about place, a non-residential retreat

• Museum in the Park, Stroud
• July 12 - 15
• 09:00 - 21:30

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.
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.

Recommended reading pre-retreat
We recommend that you read the following text(s) 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