THE TEACHING
The course is designed to be demanding and stimulating, though certain elements can be optional for those who wish to have more free time. There will be two writing workshops each morning with a short break between; the workshops will divide students into smaller groups. There will also be whole-group sessions in either painting/drawing, music or photography, where students are encouraged to experiment in other mediums as a way of expanding and re-evaluating their writing practice. These sessions will be hands-on classes and all necessary materials will be provided. Lectures, readings and one-to-one meetings also form part of the programme.
Rachel, Alba and Amanda are all experienced creative writing teachers who have evolved their teaching methods over many years alongside their own writing practice. The classes will focus both on work submitted in advance by the students and on new writing stimulated by the course content.
THE timetable
30 May - Arrival
330pm meet and greet/Visit to Patrick Lee Fermor’s house
7pm Arrival dinner
31 May-3 June
0930-11am Workshop
1130-1pm Workshop
1pm -140 Lunch
230pm-4pm Input workshop
430pm-6 Workshop
7pm Drinks
730pm Dinner
4 June - departures
THE submisions
Applicants are required to submit between 1000 and 2500 words of prose writing. This can be taken from existing work or can be a response to one of the writing exercises that will be supplied as part of the application procedure. It can comprise several shorter pieces if desired. These submissions will form the basis for the teaching analysis of the student’s work to begin with, though there will be opportunities to generate new work during the course.
visual art
Dimitris Tsoumplekas is a visual artist. He is primarily concerned with the influence of the private on the public (and vice versa) and the way in which the immediate environment shapes and gives meaning to our individual and social experiences. Parallel to his solo exhibitions, he has participated in many group shows in Greece and abroad. Alongside his artistic work, he has edited various photo books and catalogues and curated several international exhibitions. He has taught photography in the Athens School of Fine Arts and in many workshops around Greece and in Europe.
He has worked for many years as a writer and editorial consultant for the Kathimerini newspaper and several magazines.
drawing
Siemon Scamell-Katz is a contemporary painter. In attempting to make a record of a landscape, his ambition is to offer to the spectator a sensation of being in that same landscape. He uses his knowledge of human vision to create non-figurative paintings that explore the experience of landscape in perception and memory.
His work is collected in Europe and US and has featured in recent solo shows in Paris.
music
Tom Smail is a composer of contemporary classical music. His work has been widely performed, recent venues including the Barbican, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal Court and the Brooklyn Academy of Arts. His latest opera, Blue Electric (book and libretto by his wife, the writer Alba Arikha) was premiered at the Playground Theatre in 2020. He has also written much for television and cinema, including director Jonathan Nossiter’s ‘Last Words,’ selected at Cannes in 2021.