Human=Nature: Entanglements, writers’ workshops through the seasons
An immersive and thought-provoking series of writing workshops delving into the intricate web of relationships between humans and the non-human world.
Wise Women Poetry Workshop
In this 10 week in-person poetry course with Kate Potts we will read, discuss and draw inspiration from a range of exciting work from British and Irish contemporary women poets.
Level Up! Poetry Workshop Series with JLM Morton
Elevate your poetic craft in this dynamic workshop series tailored for those already writing and eager to take their poetry to new heights.
The Time Is Now
A Dialect collaboration with Voices Gloucester and photographer Emilie Sandy, to create a series of portraits of Gloucester residents, capturing their unique story and that of their communities. We are seeking nominations for portrait subjects, deadline November 30th 2024.
Winter Poetry Walks
Three winter walks through the Gloucestershire countryside with acclaimed poet Philip Rush.
Level Up! Poetry Workshop Series with JLM Morton (2025)
Elevate your poetic craft in this dynamic workshop series tailored for those already writing and eager to take their poetry to new heights.
Wise Women Poetry Workshop -
The Wise Women Poetry Workshop returns! In 10 weekly sessions from February to April we’ll read, discuss and draw inspiration from a range of work from contemporary North American women poets. In-person at Stroud Library.
The Thingness of Things, a poetry workshop with JLM Morton
Make the ineffable material, writing poems about objects with JLM Morton. A one day in-person workshop at St. Luke’s Centre, Stroud, Gloucestershire.
Words in the Woods
The last of three woodland writing days for both parents and children.
Join us at the magical Sladebank Woods Roundhouse in Stroud Gloucestershire, for:
Focused and structured writing time for caregivers and parents
Forest school for children aged 6+
Kids’ writing workshop with poet and facilitator Al Hughes
Shared fireside supper
Tickets are available on a tiered basis, depending on financial circumstances
Words in the Woods
The first of three woodland writing days for both parents and children.
Join us at the magical Sladebank Woods Roundhouse in Stroud Gloucestershire, for:
Focused and structured writing time for caregivers and parents
Forest school for children aged 6+
Kids’ writing workshop with poet and facilitator Al Hughes
Shared fireside supper
Tickets are available on a tiered basis, depending on financial circumstances
Summer Poetry Walks at Twilight
This summer, join Philip Rush for three circular poetry walks at dusk.
Mini Poetry Workshop with JLM Morton
Join us on Saturday 11th May at Sladebank Woods near Stroud, Gloucestershire, for a thought-provoking mini poetry workshop with JLM Morton. Free tickets on a first-come-first-served basis.
Three Poetry Walks for Spring
Join Philip Rush for three circular poetry walks through spring.
HUMAN=NATURE Spring Self-Directed Workshop
Running in parallel to in-person workshops at Sladebank Woods near Stroud in Gloucestershire, is this self-direct workshop which you can do anywhere. For spring, our prompts are around spring, gathering, mark-making, lore, air, care and seeds to see you through the coming weeks and months.
Stroud Poetry Course 2024: take your verse to the next level! (SOLD OUT)
Take your verse to the next level with this three month in-person course.
Writing Climate Hope with Sarah Davy
In this online workshop, meet with prize wining author Sarah Davy to explore climate change and how we can work through our fears and questions towards a place of hope and resilience.
Hedgerow Poetry Self-Study Workshop
A self-study poetry workshop to see you through the winter months. Download and work at your own pace.
Writing Retreat with Childcare
Dialect is proud to offer a ground breaking new one day writing retreat with childcare included .
Writing As Ritual: Retreat (France)
During this week-long writing retreat we will reflect on the process of writing as a ritual and the holding of writing practice as a sacred space for play, deep listening, and transformation – of our work and ourselves.
Re-Enchanting the Land: a self study course
A creative writing correspondence course to inspire wonder and connection. With JLM Morton.
Flash Fantastic workshop with Electra Rhodes
Write electrifying flash fiction with Electra Rhodes
What You Saying: writing workshops for young people
Creative writing taster workshops for young people
Tuning In: nature based practices for creative writing
Using nature based practices to deepen listening and inspire new writing.
WritingSpace: day retreat
Join us for a day of uninterrupted writing in the peace and tranquility of The Hide
Summer Poetry Walks
Three summer poetry walks with Philip Rush through the Gloucestershire countryside.
Writers' Workshop: get your words out! Summer term 2023
Monthly online writers’ feedback workshop.
Writing Hour
Join us for an online writing hour in companionable silence - a surprisingly effective way of getting words on the page!
Wild Writing
An 8-part workshop series that explores and deepens your connection to nature and to yourself as a practicing or aspiring writer. With Alun Hughes.
Writing Hour
Join us for an online writing hour in companionable silence - a surprisingly effective way of getting words on the page!
Writing Hour
Join us for an online writing hour in companionable silence - a surprisingly effective way of getting words on the page!
Re-Enchanting the Land: a correspondence course
A creative writing correspondence course to inspire wonder and connection.
Winter Poetry Walks: through Imbolc to Equinox
Join us for five walks through the winter on reading and writing poetry, through Imbolc to the Spring Equinox. With Philip Rush.
Sowing the Seed: Starting to Write
Not sure how to start writing (and how to keep going)? Join this warm and encouraging workshop to give your writing a kick start.
Extreme Poetry: Autumn Events
A series of workshops and an outdoor reading event created by Yew Tree Press in collaboration with Dialect
Disrupting Albion Poetry Workshpo
Not everyone experiences place in the same way... Is England really a land of tall ships & hay wains? Explore alternative visions of Albion at this poetry workshop for Cheltenham Poetry Festival.
On Good Beginnings
We’ve all got to start somewhere and September feels like a good time for beginning again. Whether you’re writing in prose or poetry, a good beginning is the hook that draws your reader in. But how do you craft one that seems both effortless and striking, one that’s an enticing lure into the dream of the story or poem? Join JLM Morton on this fun and playful workshop to explore this fascinating topic. This workshop is suitable for total beginners and anyone else who wants to shine up their thinking and practice in this area.
Tickets are £12.50 or £7.50 for Museum Members (free to join here).
Exploring Genius Loci: writing about place, a non-residential retreat
This non-residential writing retreat will explore writing about place in poetry and creative non-fiction. Place writing brings the setting to the foreground, often figuring place as the foremost subject. It is an exciting subgenre of writing that includes ecopoetry, nature writing, psychogeography, travel and an attentiveness to surroundings that responds to the shifting meanings of places and landscapes.
The Pavilion at Museum in the Park
Working in the pavilion studio located in the stunning walled garden at Museum in the Park, we will spend our mornings workshopping writing and the afternoons will be dedicated to 1 to 1 meetings and quiet writing and reading time. During workshops you’ll explore a wide range of writing about places real and imagined, with a focus on developing your own writing through lots of playful and powerful prompts and exercises. With plenty of time for discussion, questions and group work there will also be the opportunity to get individual feedback from each of your tutors.
The week will culminate with Dialect’s Summer Social and an evening of readings to an audience in the pavilion at Museum in the Park.
This retreat will be tutored by Philip Rush and JLM Morton. Writer Madeline Bunting will also be joining us one morning to talk about her writing about place.
Indicative timetable
Day 1 Tuesday 12th July Workshop 9am – 1pm, afternoon for writing
Day 2 Wednesday 13th July Workshop 10am -1pm, afternoon for tutorials and writing
Day 3 Thursday 14th July Workshop 10am – 1pm, afternoon for tutorials and writing
Day 4 Friday 15th July, Workshop 10am – 1pm, afternoon for writing and preparation for readings. Evening 6.30pm – 9.30pm (approx.) social event / readings.
You will also have access to a private Slack group (online) for this retreat where you can share work, ideas, articles etc and stay in touch during and after the course.
Our venue is Museum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 4AF. Stroud is directly accessible by train from London (approximately 1.5 hrs) and with only one change on the line through Birmingham New Street and through Bristol. There is free parking available in the Stratford Park Leisure Centre car park all day.
Cost £250 for the week. Includes all workshops and tutorials and refreshments in morning break / afternoon. You will need to provide your own lunch and overnight accommodation.
Follow the links below to pay
Pay £125 deposit now to secure your place, the remainder is payable by 15th June 2022
OR
THIS RETREAT HAS NOW SOLD OUT! However, last minute places do become available from time to time - please email us dialectwriters@gmail.com if you would like to go on the waiting list.
Recommended reading pre-retreat
We recommend that you read the following texts before joining the retreat for discussion on Day 1:
Jason Allen-Paissant (2021) Thinking With Trees Carcanet
Robert Macfarlane & Stanley Donwood (2021) Ness Penguin
Helen Mort et al., eds., (2018) Waymaking: an anthology of Women’s Adventure Writing, Poetry and Art Vertebrate Publishing
The Walled Garden, Museum in the Park
About the tutors
Philip Rush was born and grew up in Middlesex. He taught English in Gloucestershire schools for forty years. He has been running an independent poetry press, Yew Tree Press, for a number of years and hosts regular poetry events at the Museum in the Park. Philip is a member of Dialect’s advisory group, has taught on Dialect courses (Throwing Clay, Poetry Journaling, Poetic Form I & II) and led a poetry walk along the Wye in July 2021.
JLM Morton is based in Gloucestershire. Since completing her doctorate on whiteness, gender and writing (Sussex, 1999), Juliette has worked in education in the UK and globally. Her work has featured in various publications, including The Rialto, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Magma, Ink Sweat & Tears, Fenland Poetry Journal, Places of Poetry, The Sunday Telegraph and on BBC Upload, as well as in sound installations and exhibitions including Plant Communitas at Museum in the Park, Stroud (April 2022) and ‘if trees were lone women, what would they sound like?’ Sanctuary Lab, Galloway Forest (November 2021). She has held residencies at a lake in the Cotswold Water Park, with Stroudwater Textile Trust and the Corinium Museum, Cirencester.
The Walled Garden, Museum in the Park
Visiting Writer Madeline Bunting
Madeleine is currently working on a non fiction title for Granta, Seaside, England's Love Affair. Tracing the history of one of England's most distinctive inventions, she has travelled from Scarborough to Morecombe to portray the edges of a troubled nation: exploring the places where the nation comes to play, recuperate and retire.
For twenty five years, Madeleine was a journalist and Associate Editor on the Guardian and held a number of positions including columnist 1999-2012. She wrote on a wide range of subjects including politics, social affairs, faith and global development.
She was made a Visiting Professor at the LSE's International Inequalities Institute in 2021. She has received a number of awards and prizes including an honorary fellowship from Cardiff University in 2013, a visiting fellowship at Manchester University (2016-19). Love of Country was shortlisted for the Wainwright and the Saltire Prizes 2017, and she won the Portico Prize for The Plot in 2010 which was also shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize. Her first novel, Island Song, won the Waverton Good Read Award in 2020. She was awarded a Lambeth MA degree in 2006, The Race in the Media award in 2005 and the Imam wa Amal Special Award in 2002. She has won several One World Media awards for her journalism on global justice.