Château Ventenac sits beside the Canal du Midi in the Languedoc region of the South of France and offers fabulous views across the vineyards towards the Pyrenees. Our poetry and creative writing courses will encourage you to explore what is important to you as a poet or a writer and will offer inspiration for new directions or help you to prepare for publication.
All Poetry writing courses offer intensive one on ones with your tutor and group workshop sessions with a maximum of ten participants.
The daily format for courses with Sean O’Brien at Chateau Ventenac is similar to that found at a course run by the Arvon Foundation in the UK. …the main difference being that at Chateau Ventenac all meals are prepared for you and served by our helpers outside on the terrace or in the Chateau’s Dining Hall.
The mornings will be spent in creative workshops and discussions while the afternoons are free for writing and for one-to-one tutorials .Sean will be on hand to chat informally throughout the course.
In the evenings the group meets up for more discussion, feedback and readings. There will also be a chance for constructive group feedback on your work and advice on editing and getting published.
Bring some of your existing work with you to share and to read in the evenings, as well as large notebooks and a laptop computer if you have one. We can provide photocopying and printing for a small cost to cover paper and ink! we also have a supply of notebooks , paper and pens to buy if you would prefer not to fill your suitcases with more weight than needed.
You are welcome to browse our library of books or use the computer to access the internet. If you bring a laptop we have wireless internet access and a wireless printer.
Rooms are extremely comfortable and mostly south facing with fabulous views. Tea and coffee making facilities are available at all times. There are desks or tables for writing in all bedrooms and throughout the house and gardens you will find quiet spots where you can sit in peace to write or just think!
April 2011 – “About Time” A course in poetry writing with Sean O’Brien
Our element is time’, wrote Philip Larkin. Poetry both witnesses and defies the passage of time. Poems of love, death, war and celebration must all negotiate with time.
The very music of poetry depends on organizing time. How can this most powerful and mysterious element be made present in poems? How do we give life to memory and catch time as it flies? Workshop activities, group discussion and individual tutorials will all form part of an intriguing and stimulating week’s work. Bring an open mind, your own work and some examples of time-poems that interest you, and expect both to write and make discoveries. |
