Los Parronales Writers' Retreat

Link with Allyson Latta, editor of Home First

2011-11-16T19:18:00.000-05:00

www.allysonlatta.ca/2011/11/04/writing-home-first-a-memoir-in-voices

Please go to Allyson's website to read about the writing of Home First.

Home First (Here!)

2011-11-11T08:35:00.003-05:00

Finally, it’s out and available. Home First A Memoir in Voices by Susan Siddeley. Email me to get a copy ($18.00 including)...and/or read on to find how I managed to get this book into print!
Ten times over six years, I’ve invited wonderful, experienced facilitators and writers to live for two week in our house on a vineyard in Chile!
To get such people to buy a ticket, step into a plane and huddle overnight in order to participate in a two week writing workshop, I had to promise to pick them up, prepare a silent sala to work in, serve empanadas, pisco sours and lucuma cake, and plan tours to Pablo Neruda’s houses, indigenous museums and the Pacific coast. I soon learned having playful puppies, grave owls, flowering cacti and a blue pool on hand helped. Nowadays, I also throw in glorious sunsets, the flower garden and Jumbo, the Supermarket, although I try to avoid mentioning earth tremors, ants & dicey showers.
We are now full for Jan 2012, but to get onto the mailing list or receive a book contact me: Susan Siddeley motocad@rogers.com

Books & ... spaces

2011-09-27T10:44:00.006-04:00

What do you get when you cross dozens of writers, a vineyard home in Chile, and a boarding house keeper’s summer helper, living out catering memories of Yorkshire in the 1950’s?

A Memoir. Mine!

Out very soon…
It’s the result of years of reflection and tapping short pieces, brought to fruition, thanks to a series of amazing writing retreats at Los Parronales.
Not that there’s been much retreating done during the eleven, two-week residential courses we’ve held there so far. Al contrario, after the all-absorbing morning sessions, participants walked, swam, wrote or consulted. It’s been brilliant - possibly because of the quiet study bedrooms, probably because of the rural setting, trips to Valparaiso and visits to Pablo Neruda’s houses. Throw in the wonderful Canadian writer, poet and memoir specialist facilitators, a pool, hollyhock garden, shady patio, dogs, owls, a rack of Chilean wine, a menu of local dishes and a cast of local characters, and you have, coming soon….

Home First by Susan Siddeley

Meanwhile, calling all Poets and Writers looking for inspiration
(under a cloudless sky below the Andes)
we still have a couple of spaces – sharing –
unless you can persuade a partner to accompany you, in

Don McKay’s Workshop
Re-seeing Things:

Two Weeks of Poetry & Perception
22ndJan—4thFeb 2012

Don McKay!

2011-05-09T10:07:00.006-04:00

After two wonderful workshops led by Lorri Neilson Glenn and Allyson Latta in January and February of 2010, came a roller-coaster ride of cliff-hangers: Earthquake mayhem and tragic tsunamis, then World Cup Soccer fever and finally the Mine Rescue Miracle. Barry Dempster returned to lead another brilliant workshop in January 2011, and now, Los Parronales is thrilled to announce that in January 2012, Don McKay will join us. See below. Los Parronales

Another Great Writing Retreat
22nd Jan—4th Feb 2012

Re-seeing Things:Two Weeks of Poetry & Perception
in Chile with Don McKay
Here is a chance to explore and extend creative resources in an inspiring setting—
a sunny vineyard within sight of the Andes.

Workshops on your poems will be combined
with perceptual and poetic exercises,
conversation, one-on-one sessions
with Don McKay, and
time to write, read, walk, observe
and contemplate.

We will also receive stimulation in the form
of talks and artistic probes from
land artist Marlene Creates.

email:motocad@rogers.com

The Return of Barry Dempster!

2010-07-05T17:19:00.002-04:00

MEMORY: IN THE MOMENT

Chile, January 16 to January 29, 2011

“I have only what I remember.”
- W.S. Merwin

Every moment we live becomes an instant memory, trailing off behind us, losing colour, texture and meaning. Try as we may, we also keep missing the moment itself, lost in distraction or responsibility, concerned more with the future. Often even our memories have only been half-lived. “Memory: in the Moment” is a workshop devoted to full immersion into both the past and the present. Through a series of language exercises, Poet Walks, memory prompts, deepening meditations and writing assignments, we will explore the various ways of making the past feel alive again, of “reliving” those experiences that most make us who we are. We will also delve into new discoveries, surrendering to the Chilean experience in ways that will be transformative, taking full advantage of the intensity and richness as it unfolds in the here and now.

This new workshop is open to all levels of accomplishment. The techniques and exercises will cross genres: poetry, fiction and memoir. It will be up to each individual what form their writing ultimately takes. The only prerequisite is that you open yourself to deepening your relationship with time and language. The workshop is designed to focus your imagination, to hone your observational skills, and to allow your unconscious to come as fully awake as possible. There will also be one-on-one mentoring sessions and group workshopping.

Join us in Chile for two weeks of deep writing and reading. Pay attention to the moment and let it carry you to a whole new level.

BARRY DEMPSTER is the author of 16 books, including the novel The Ascension of Jesse Rapture, two volumes of short stories, a children’s book, and 12 collections of poetry. His work has also been nominated twice for the Governor General’s Award and has won the Canadian Authors’ Association Chalmers Award, a Petra Kenney Award and a Confederation Poetry Prize. He is acquisitions editor at Brick Books. He has been a mentor on faculty with the Banff Centre for the Arts four times since 2003. His most recent books include Love Outlandish (Brick Books), Ivan’s Birches (Pedlar Press) and Blue Wherever (Signature Editions).

CONTACT: SUSAN SIDDELEY motocad@rogers.com for more information.

Chi-Chi-Chi-Le-Le-Le

2010-06-28T10:34:00.003-04:00

Viva Chile!

Los Parronales is rooting for a big win today.

And for writers who want to be inspired by this vigourous and beautiful country

Visit Us! Participate in our next Writing Workshop in Jan 2011.

Email motocad@rogers.com for details.

Chilean Quake

2010-04-22T19:17:00.003-04:00

Gordon and I would like to thank everyone for their concern and enquiries after the unexpected and dramatic season closer we experienced at Los Parronales, Feb 27th 2010.
We were very fortunate and suffered little damage apart from a fallen bookcase, roof tiles, lamps and pots. People further south, including relatives of El Noviciado families lost everything.

Writers who have visited us and been inspired in Chile, have asked how they might help with the ongoing aid drive. Later this year, I hope to start collecting poems and writings for an anthology, the proceeds of which will go to one of the charities.

Meanwhile, we are thrilled to announce that Barry Dempster will be returning to Los Parronales
to give a workshop in January, 2011.
Please email: motocad@rogers.com for full details

Still Time

2009-12-01T08:15:00.003-05:00

The only thing on my Holiday Wish List – a new bedside table!
Publications of Los Parronales recent facilitators Stan Dragland and Barry Dempster sit atop of those of Beth Follett, Ronna Bloom and Sylvia Adams. Volumes by participants Ruth Roach Pierson, Merle Amodeo, Shane Joseph and Barbara Myers, plus their chapbooks and previous publications are threatening the slender legs of my trusty stand. A trip to Ikea will sort that, but if you want to rest with the best - we still have spaces in January 2010 with Lorri Neilsen Glenn and in February with Allyson Latta.
Email motocad@rogers.com for full details.

Success in Spring

2009-11-03T09:28:00.002-05:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for the fires, the poems, the roadside avocados, the flowers, the cacti, the wonderful women in town, the newborn foal, the incredible meals, the many haiku, the trip to Isla Negra, the beach, the many Sophie moments, the laughter, the shopping, the Seinfeld, the quiet, the love, the love...
Chris K. Fraser
Workshop presenter
Oct 2009

Book Now!

2009-09-17T13:15:00.007-04:00

Air Canada is currently offering great savings on flights to Chile.
Some are available now, others as of Jan 10th, 2010.
It's a wonderful opportunity to visit another continent and participate in a writing workshop.
These flights are direct and non-stop.
Have your family drop you off at Toronto's International Airport, let us pick you up in Santiago.
It's overnight - you may even sleep.
Check the Air Canada Web Pages - also those of LAN Chile, and American Airlines, who will be competing - to get a deal you can't beat.

What People Have Said - Ruth

2009-08-06T11:31:00.005-04:00

A two-week writing retreat at Los Parronales outside Santiago during Chile’s spring or summer is a bit of paradise – cloudless blue skies, deliciously prepared meals, a seemingly endless flow of fine Chilean red and white wines and such inspiring guidance on the composition of prose and poetry that one magically becomes more prolific than one has ever before been in one’s life. I give it a rating not of five stars but of five constellations.

Ruth Roach Pierson Author of Aide-Mémoire (BuschekBooks, 2007), named a finalist for the 2008 Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry.

Third Workshop - Sixth Season!

2009-08-04T12:32:00.002-04:00

Journeys & Discoveries:
Writing from Your Life

A Writing Workshop with Allyson Latta

Santiago, Chile – February 7th to 21st, 2010

“Any bits of warm life preserved by the penare trophies snatched from the dark,are branches of leaves fished out of the flood,are tiny arrests of mortality.”

—Laurie Lee, I Can't Stay Long

Don’t miss this sun-drenched opportunity to experience a two-week residential writing holiday in the scenic foothills of the Andes. Long-time residents of Chile, the Siddeleys, share their love of the culture by hosting a small group of writers in their home, Los Parronales (Spanish for “vineyards”), for this unique and intimate retreat.

Morning workshops will stimulate your memories, encourage you to experiment with craft, and inspire spirited discussion. Within a supportive circle, we’ll share personal writing, considering how our past influences us, as well as our art. Days include time for private consultation with the instructor, guided and independent writing, and of course drinking in the exotic surroundings.

Whatever your age and whatever you are writing – short stories or a book, non-fiction or fiction – your personal journeys and discoveries will play an important role. Life writing can be life-affirming, entertaining, cathartic – and it is never less than illuminating. Join us . . . and see where your past leads you.

ALLYSON LATTA is an independent literary editor, writer and workshop facilitator. She has edited more than a hundred award-winning works of fiction and memoir, and teaches life writing for the University of Toronto as well as privately. Allyson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and now lives in the Toronto area.

Recommended reading: Writing About Your Life by William Zinsser

For more about memoir writing, visit www.daysroadwriters.blogspot.com
(Click link at top of main page for Los Parronales photos.)

For more information about this retreat, please contact:
Susan Siddeley at motocad@rogers.com

What People Have Said - Shane

2009-08-01T20:16:00.004-04:00

Two winters ago, I attended a writing workshop at Los Parronales in Chile, while contemplating a major life change. I was looking for new anchors, new hope, fearful of the future. There, with the snow- topped cordillera on one side and the sun-baked foothills on the other, I felt protected.
The daily walks through rows of grapevines bursting with life, displaying their crimson nectar, gave me optimism for the myriad paths my life could take. Walks up the mountain to stand on a crest, look out upon Santiago and let go, allowed me to release fear.
The writing sessions, where we reached deep into ourselves, mining inspiration, saw some of my best prose emerge - to be published in an anthology after I returned to Canada. Visiting the homes of the great poet Pablo Neruda, to gaze over the ocean as he did, uncover patterns that he laid out so eloquently in his poetry, was an experience never to be forgotten. As was the fun of drinking wines we never see in an LCBO in Canada!
To watch Chilean children, dressed in techni-coloured ponchos and black sombreros, proudly stage a cultural show for us on the day of our departure, brought a tear to my eye. It’s nearly two years since that visit. My life has moved in other directions, but the picture is still clear, and as full of promise as a Neruda poem.
Shane Joseph
www.shanejoseph.com

2009-07-09T19:31:00.002-04:00

Book Now!

Check Air Canada's Great Deals for October 2009!

They fly Toronto-Santiago direct, non-stop

and are currently advertising fares for half what people have paid previously.

If you want to experience

Latin America, The Andes, Neruda

and Write...

now is the time to do it.

Susan Siddeley 09.07.09

2010 Los Parronales 6th Season

2009-06-11T09:23:00.004-04:00

Trickster Meets the Muse

with Lorri Neilsen Glenn
Santiago, Chile, January 17th – 30th 2010

What happens when imagination meets memory, when chance meets inspiration?
This workshop will give your writing new life, open you up to the lessons of the duende, and plumb the heart and soul of work you didn’t know you could do.

In this two-week South American guided writing retreat, we’ll engage in discussions and activities, listen to our muse, dance with our trickster, and come away with a stronger sense of the vitality and depth of our poetry and prose.

Each writer’s work is given individual attention and feedback; the balance of solitude and community at Los Parronales creates an environment ideal for digging deeper and aiming higher.

Suitable for writers of all levels working in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction.
Start fresh, bring work-in-progress, or both.

You will be asked to complete a short questionnaire and to send a writing sample beforehand.

A recommended reading list and a more detailed description of the writing retreat will be available in the summer of 2009.

---------------------------

Lorri Neilsen Glenn is an award-winning poet and creative nonfiction writer and the author and editor of ten books including the forthcoming Lost Gospels (Brick Books). Halifax Poet Laureate for 2005-2009, Neilsen Glenn has developed and taught creative writing workshops in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and across Canada.

For more information about Los Parronales Writing Retreats please contact:
Susan Siddeley: motocad@rogers.com

2009-05-09T11:18:00.004-04:00

Los Parronales Writing Workshops

New Retreat

October 11th–25th, 2009

Enjoy two weeks of sun, poetry and desert flowers.
Explore the Andean foothills and the rugged Pacific coast*.

Visit us in Santiago, Chile, and

* Spring Into Poetry *

with

Chris Kay Fraser

A rare opportunity to dive into your own poetic voice
in a safe and stimulating environment,
Whilst breathing in the warm, fresh air of South America.
Walk, hike, ride horses, sample local food and
put pen to paper with a group of like-minded poets.
Suitable for writers of every level.

*The 14-day residential workshop includes a three-day trip to
Los Molles, a delightful bay with a stunning headland

200 kms north of the capital

Still Space 1 - 15th Feb. 2009

2008-11-24T10:59:00.003-05:00

Join Beth Follett & Stan Dragland at Los Parronales,
a charming house in a rural community, just outside
historic Santiago. When we're not scribbling away,
we'll be sipping Merlot under the southern sun.
Escape the coldest northern months.
Check our details.
It's a steal as they say in real estate.
motcad@rogers.com

2008-11-04T13:53:00.004-05:00

Spirit Level
w/ Stan Dragland & Beth Follett
Santiago, CHILE
February 1 to 15, 2009
“Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives."
AUDRE LORDE

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘
Just as for the poet writing verse, so it is for the prose writer: success consists in felicity of verbal expression, which every so often may result from a quick flash of inspiration but as a rule involves a patient search for the mot juste, for the sentence in which every word is inalterable, the most effective marriage of sounds and concepts. I am convinced that writing prose should not be any different form writing poetry. In both cases it is a question of looking for the unique expression, one that is concise, concentrated and memorable.
ITALO CALVINO
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `

“Wilderness. So overwritten it should probably be granted a reprieve from definition, maybe even a lengthy sabbatical from speech. Nevertheless, let me write down that something speaks inside us, something we feel called upon to name, to say sublime, or wilderness, or mystery. Some resonance reaches inside us to an uninhabited place. Uninhabited? There is, says Simone Weil, an impersonal part of the soul. I think something like that part must be the place where the wilderness resonates, where we sense ourselves to be, not masters of creation, not technical wunderkinds, but beings among beings. It is a sense that carries us farther than any humanism, farther than art. It may be experienced as astonishment; it may come tinged with terror. See how lucky we are, how blessed, to inhabit a planet of such infinite complexity; but also—and perhaps simultaneously—see how anonymous we are among these species and genera, how little the scope of our lives in the immensity of deep time.
And is there not a further recognition waiting in this uninhabited place—that the assurance of our connection to the world, its lifetime guarantee, so to speak, lies not in our artful inventions but in our deaths? The experience of wilderness is the call of the duende in the far reaches of the self.”
DON MCKAY
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Spirit Level is a ten-day writing intensive co-facilitated by writer/editors Stan Dragland & Beth Follett. Spirit Level is meant for writers who think about both the nuts and bolts of writing and about its more esoteric aspects, for those who enjoy interactive group participation, and for those less sure about the benefits of supportive group settings but ready to try. Group sessions will occupy mornings; afternoons will be reserved for writing and/or one-to-one consultation.
Participants will be given opportunities to generate new writing, working with fictional, lyrical and memoir elements, though those who have writing projects in progress will be encouraged to pursue them.
Beth Follett will explore questions of Spirit. Why write? Who writes? What is the nameless that wishes to be named? Where is the wilderness, which Don McKay speaks of, located? Is that what we write out of? How does fear & worry motivate our writing? We will look at ethical and practical concerns such as working with emotionally charged material, managing the inner Hierophant and transforming personal experience into distilled lyric or narrative.
Stan Dragland will stay more on the level. In the belief that writers can never know too much about fundamentals, he will conduct sessions on the alphabet (individual letters), on the word and on the sentence—all basic building blocks of writing, all to be given close attention for their aural as well as conceptual possibilities. He looked up that interesting word “Hierophant” (absent from the Oxford Canadian) and found it to mean “expounder of sacred mysteries.” Which is beyond interesting; it’s where we leap when the level is secure beneath us.
So the approaches of alternating sessions will dovetail.
`.`.`.`.`.`.

Beth Follett is the owner, publisher and in-house editor of Pedlar Press, a Canadian literary publishing house. She is the author of the novel Tell It Slant [Coach House Books, 2001]. She was invited to facilitate the first writing workshop at Los Parronales, in 2005, and is delighted to be returning.

Stan Dragland was founding editor of Brick, a journal of reviews and founder of Brick Books, a poetry publishing house, which he still serves as publisher and editor. He has published three books of adult fiction: Peckertracks, a Chronicle, Journeys Through Bookland and Other Passages, and The Drowned Lands. Wilson MacDonald’s Western Tour, a “critical collage,” has been followed by three other books of criticism, The Bees of the Invisible: Essays in Contemporary English Canadian Writing and Floating Voice: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Literature of Treaty 9 and (in NeWest Press’s Writer-as-Critic series) Apocrypha: Further Journeys. His Stormy Weather: Foursomes is a book of prose poems or non-fiction stories, depending on how you cut it, but his dramatic adaptation of Halldór Laxness’s novel, The Atom Station, co-written with Agnes Walsh, is certainly a play.

Recommended Reading (optional)

Margaret Avison, A Sense of Perseverance
Robin Blaser, The Holy Forest
George Bowering, Errata
Robert Bringhurst, The Solid Form of Language
John Cage, Silence
Loren Eisely, The Unexpected Universe
Edward Ethinger, The Creation of Consciousness
Jorie Graham, Overlord
Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
Murray Stein, At Mid-Life: A Jungian Perspective
FROM "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

Writing Workshops 2009 - Los Parronales, Santiago, Chile.

2008-08-05T10:26:00.003-04:00

"Keeping the Creative Spirit Alive"

A Poetry Workshop

with Barry Dempster

January 11th-25th, 2009

"Spirit Level"

An Interactive Creative Writing Workshop

with Stan Dragland & Beth Follett

February 1st-15th, 2009

Hosts:

Susan & Gordon Siddeley
email: motocad@rogers.com

Raves!

2007-09-28T15:40:00.000-04:00

What participants have said about Los Parronales Workshops:

"Crysse Morrison brought to her workshop (January 2007) not just ideas for writing exercises, but a way of listening to each writer's work that inspired us to be better listeners too. Because she came (to Chile) she taught us something that can't be learned from the written page." - Ellen Hawkins

"It is hard to find words to express how fulfilling the poetry workshop experience was - a revelation, an epiphany, a saluting of minds, like ants kissing on a trail, moving onwards, taking secrets with them ... Sylvia Adams (February 2007) herself was a gift, a fine mind, a true presence, a privilege to know, to have even glimpsed in passing. My only complaint is that it had to end." - Tessa Too Kong

"I spent a wonderful time in a beautiful setting of hills and vineyards. After a morning's hard work you can lounge by a pool and sip wine." - Pamela Yorsten

"Los Parronales was a bountiful, sacred haven for invocation. Its tranquility was broken only by a hooting owl, cackling quails, and rippling laughter ... I was uplifted, and found a penetrating observer and thinker hidden inside me." - Taeko Kushiro

"I attended the Jill Malcolm workshop in March 2006. Refreshing, exciting, a good learning experience, an opportunity to grow as a writer and as a person. The setting at Los Parronales provides an enticing atmosphere." - Gabriel Guttierrez

January 2008 Workshop in Chile

2007-09-12T21:59:00.000-04:00

Writing Wherever You Are

A Creative Writing Workshop
with Ronna Bloom

Santiago, Chile, Jan 6th to 20th 2008

Join Toronto poet and psychotherapist Ronna Bloom for a writing workshop that will explore the richness and availability of writers’ material in their current circumstances. Writing on a vineyard, in the shadow of the Andes, the workshop will give attention to geographic, emotional, and sensual forces.

- How do writers attune to the pitch of their world and themselves?
- Begin with now: what would it mean to write this moment?
- What geography surrounds you? What emotional resonance?
- How does your body feel? What tastes do you crave?
- Whom did you last speak to? What did you tell them? What didn’t you?

This is your material.

Each day the class will focus on a different aspect of writing presence: Walking, Eating, Witnessing, Being Stuck, Wanting, Speaking, Staying. These are some starting points.

Through poetry, prose, grocery lists, letters, we will look at writing practices that allow us to pay attention to the details of where we find ourselves. While the aim is to deepen and widen our writing and our clarity, it is also good to have time to eat figs off trees, in the sun, in January.

Possibilities for reading:

anything by Pablo Neruda
Raymond Carver, Where Water Comes Together with Other Water or All Of Us
Pema Chodron, The Places That Scare You
Carolyn Forche, The Country Between Us
Allen Ginsberg, Collected Poems
Natalie Goldberg, Long Quiet Highway
Rainer Maria Rilke, The Duino Elergies
W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz

Ronna Bloom has published three books of poetry. Her most recent collection, Public Works (Pedlar Press 2004), was short listed for the Pat Lowther Award (League of Canadian Poets) in 2005. Personal Effects (Pedlar Press, 2000) was recorded by the CNIB. Ronna Bloom works as a teacher of poetry and writing and as a psychotherapist. She has led workshops at Sunnybrook Hospital, The Art Gallery of Ontario, the Manitoba Writers’ Union and the University of Toronto, where she is presently on staff. Her poems have been translated into Spanish and Bangla, and broadcast on CBC Radio.

For more information:

Email: Susan Siddeley motocad@rogers.com. After mid- November: siddeley@tie.cl.
Phone: Susan Siddeley, (1) 416 968 1769. After mid-November: (56) (2) 207 35 34.

The Details...

2006-08-18T14:36:00.000-04:00

Immerse yourself in Poetry and Fiction Writing at a residential workshop in Santiago, Chile.

Enjoy a private vineyard for 14 days of literature, warmth and foreign living.

Eat local food, sip Merlot and Chardonnay on a shady patio, swim in the pool and WRITE!

The workshops feature morning and afternoon sessions, manuscript appraisals and one-on-one consultations.

During the 14-day residence, 4 days will be open for arranged and accompanied trips to the Pablo Neruda museums, the Pacific coast, and historic Santiago.

So come and enjoy Andean Mountain views, lie beneath the summer sun and view the stars of the southern hemisphere.

Our 2006 participants have said: "Incredible," "Must not be missed!" "Don't think twice," and "Go, Go, Go!" Contact e-mail: motocad@rogers.com

Book Now!

2006-07-10T22:29:00.000-04:00

Los Parronales

Writing Workshops

2007 Sessions

January 7th-21st
FINDING YOUR VOICE IN WRITING
Instructor: Crysse Morrison

This is a course for all writers, including beginners and those with work in progress, with a focus on discovering and developing personal style, and on writing from both imagination and experience. Creative stimulus is all around us, in our personal experiences, thoughts and feelings, as well as in the stunning location of Los Parronales. We will use a range of exercises, from light-hearted to lyrical, from ancient memory to sheer invention, all of which show how to develop ideas into descriptions, character studies, dialogues and stories. You will become more flexible at shifting away from self-critical "blocks" and at accessing the intuitive creative "right side of the brain." When you return home, you'll take a portfolio reflecting an amazing journey: finished pieces, ideas for development, and new confidence in your own unique "writer's voice."

January 28th-February 11th
FOLLOW YOUR MUSE TO CHILE
Instructor: Sylvia Adams

Make a date with your Muse, woo it with passion and skill, and write poems that come from the heart. Open your mind, set aside your misgivings about poetry’s constraints, and stare down the white page with confidence. This workshop welcomes all levels of accomplishment from beginner to advanced. We will examine many styles of poetry – formal, traditional, contemporary, Oriental. Exercises that shake unexpected gems will yield new angles and fresh ideas based on your lifetime of singular lessons and experiences. Your own distinctive voice will emerge. We will read and discuss some of the finest 20th century poets. Our surroundings will add their own charm and inspiration as we coax the Muse to bloom. You will share the fellowship of like-minded souls and return home with finished poems, poems to work on, and a Muse that is brimming with enthusiasm.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS:

CRYSSE MORRISON - Hailed by The Times as a "superb storyteller" for her debut novel Frozen Summer (Hodder & Stoughton 2000) which was followed next year by Sleeping in Sand, Crysse also writes short stories which have been published and broadcast. She is a regular columnist in Writing magazine and also writes travel articles. As Spoken Word Coordinator for the Merlin Theatre of Frome, Crysse organises live literature events and performs her poetry in venues throughout the southwest of England. Crysse has been leading workshops and residential courses in the UK and abroad for over 10 years and offers individual mentoring from her website: www.cryssemorrison.co.uk.

SYLVIA ADAMS's poems and stories have been widely published in North America. In 2005 she won the Arc magazine-sponsored Diana Brebner Award and was short-listed for the Malahat Review Long Poem Award. She has been an instructor/facilitator of Ottawa writers’ groups, the Field Stone Poets and Pachyderm Poets, and has edited and published their chapbook anthologies. She is the author of the novel This Weather of Hangmen and of Mondrian’s Elephant, which won the 1998 Cranberry Tree Press national poetry chapbook contest. Some of her poetry has been translated into Spanish. Her poetry collection, Sleeping on the Moon, will be published in October 2006 by Hagios Press of Regina, Saskatchewan.

SESSION FEES:

Rates range from Cdn$100-120/£65-75 per day and include full board and workshop, airport pickup and drop-off, meals, and more.

Please contact Los Parronales co-ordinator Susan Siddeley for more details, information package, and registration forms.

E-mail: motocad@rogers.com or fuego@unete.cl
Phone: 1 416 968 0769 (Canada) or 56 2 207 3534 (Chile-office)

Hello Writers

2005-10-30T18:09:00.000-05:00

Watch this site for information on a great writers' retreat...