Courses & Retreats
Arvon
Arvon offer a range of writing courses and retreats, allowing you to step away from your normal routine and be supported by experts, as you hone your creative writing skills. Arvon have three writing houses, including Totleigh Barton in Devon. Through Arvon at Home, you can access online masterclasses, writing weeks, live guest readings, and a children & young people programme, or become an Arvon Friend to access the Writer’s Hub for writing tips and exercises.
Quay Words
Exeter Custom House is home to a variety of arts and cultural events, and since 2019 has been the hub for Quay Words, a partnership between Exeter Canal and Quay Trust, and Literature Works.
With a jam-packed season of events, courses, and workshops for 2020-22, community writing initiatives, writer residencies, and a bookable Writer’s Room, Quay Words at Custom House is an integral part of Exeter’s literary scene.
Literature Works
Literature Works is the literature development agency for the South West. As well as offering courses, hosting author events, and running the Quay Words programme at Exeter Custom House, it also makes small seed-funding grants to community-based projects through its Annual Fund.
Kathryn Aalto
Kathryn Aalto is a passionate practitioner and educator of narrative nonfiction with a speciality in writing profiles, nature writing, and the personal essay.
She oversees a professional mentoring practice for emerging to published writers as well as thriving online writing courses and monthly workshops. Kathryn has taught at summer writing schools in England and leads immersive Retreat to the English Countryside each autumn at The Retreat at Saunton Sands.
We Are Here to Write
Brought to you by Beyond Face, We are Here to Write is a group for global majority writers from the South West, first established in April 2021 as a community space for early-career and established writers.
Meeting online - fortnightly on Wednesdays - to write, share and develop storytelling skills, it features guest speakers and chances to see your work performed at scratch nights!
The group is expanding in the autumn to welcome new members. If you are interested in joining a welcoming community to develop your writing, contact Corinne Walker, Artist Development producer.
Truth & Dare
Run by poet Ysella Sims, Truth & Dare is a Sandford-based organisation that runs life-writing workshops and retreats, as well as producing frequent live poetry events with established poets and open mic slots.
“truth & dare is all about finding and telling stories through writing, mixed media and performance - about taking risks and making connections.”
Raw Writing
At Raw Writing, we provide creative writing courses and workshops for everyone.
Do you have a novel in you? (It’s said everyone does!) Maybe you’ve been thinking about writing your memoir for a long time. You might want to experiment with a short story first…
Raw Writing courses and workshops offer you the opportunity to learn how to write in a supportive setting with like-minded individuals and expert, published tutors. Courses and workshops are held at Exeter Phoenix and numbers are always capped at eight people so everyone gets a good amount of attention.
Raw Writing also offers anybody who loves reading and writing the opportunity to join the Raw Writing community and attend free social events, which are held on the last Friday of the month in Exeter, and free ‘Silent Writing Club’ sessions where you can write in peace with fellow writers in a warm and supportive atmosphere, with the opportunity to socialise afterwards.
We also offer mentoring and membership opportunities. Please get in touch if you’d like to have a chat about choosing the right Raw Writing option for you! We’d love to hear from you.
Devon Writing Retreats
Join best-selling novelist and Bloomsbury mentor, Natalie Young, in a secluded valley surrounded by woodland in mid Devon. On our writing retreats you will find a place to think, to relax, to write and create, to walk, practice yoga and enjoy a sauna and cold plunge (!) with meals provided, if you wish. We also offer courses, both day and residential, and based on the courses Natalie designed and teaches for Writers & Artists.
Feral Angel Events
Based in Devon, on the South edge of Dartmoor; Rozi and Tom are both skilled Poets with years of experience in teaching and holding-space. Together, we form Feral Angels Events; a haven for poets who don't recognise themselves among the 'literati' and the generally-accepted canon. We like raw words, revelation, mythopoetic image, and none of the bravado or elitism that puts a veil over resonant-transmission.
Feral Angel Events span everything from storytelling workshops, creative mentoring, poetry immersion programmes, and residential camps for activist-poets.
Do you run workshops or writing courses that would fit here? Get in touch!