Creative Writing retreat

Under the canopy of an old Ash tree, with Red Kites circling overhead and a view onto the rolling scarpland of the Chiltern Hills, eighteen students and two staff set out on a creative writing retreat.

On Sunday July 10, we were joined by Luan Goldie, longlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, who led our first workshop, with an emphasis on the novel and short stories. Luan’s session focused on the development of character and narrative voice, using extracts from her own work, Nightingale Point, as well as extracts from the novels of Zadie Smith and Jeffrey Eugenides. 

On Monday July 11, Daljit Nagra, the President of the Royal Society of Literature, joined us for our poetry workshop. Daljit invited close readings of a number of contemporary poems, from Paul Muldoon’s Ireland to Tracy K Smith’s The United States Welcomes You. He then asked the students to experiment with their own poetry, with misdirection, rhythm and a focus on poetic form the highlights of the session.

On the final day, the students selected one piece to develop in detail, before receiving feedback from the group. Following the advice of Daljit Nagra, they then went back to rewrite these pieces with their targets in mind. Finally, we had a celebration, in which students performed their final drafts to the group. 

Such an account struggles to capture the creativity, excitement and energy generated by the retreat. Students discussed Virginia Woolf under the starlight and Robert Frost under the cover of canvas. They wrote poems critiquing the state of British politics and satirizing the mistakes of our great leaders. There were games of cricket at dawn and card games running late into the night. There was some terrible dancing to Maroon 5. 

We would like to thank our wonderful students, who made the trip such a pleasure to be on, as well as our inspirational writers for leading such brilliant workshops. Thank you too to Mr Lunn and Ms Leaver for organizing and running the retreat!