Winter Newsletter
Happy New Year to Everyone!
Wishing you a happy, healthy and creative New Year from all of us at WordPath. Here’s hoping that 2022 is a better one for the world… And in the meantime, some news from us:
Firstly, we have our weekend course coming up soon: On the WordPath: Creating Your Novel Friday 25th February-Sunday 27th February. This offers you a chance to get back to a project in more depth - or even start that novel you’ve always wanted to write. It will be a short, intensive and highly productive time together, that’s for sure. Details here.
We’re also pleased to announce our new weekend Focus Upon your Writing: Mentoring course Friday 20 May to Sunday 22nd May. All writers need one good reader: a kind, but clear eye on their writing and the support skills to help you move on. We’re here to help. This bespoke course will focus on one-to-one sessions and feedback on work-in-progress.
WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING:
YIYUN LI: DEAR FRIEND FROM MY LIFE I WRITE TO YOU IN YOUR LIFE
The title comes from a line by Katherine Mansfield. Yiyun Li’s book is a melancholy, disturbing, exasperating and engrossing look at writing, emigration, family, and the joys of reading.
MAGGIE NELSON: THE RED PARTS: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TRIAL
Here Maggie Nelson revisits her aunt’s murder, the trauma the family carried for decades and the trial that was only possible thanks to 21st century DNA testing. Her prose is lyrical and scorchingly honest.
WHAT’S GOT US THINKING:
'I FEEL THE UNREST OF THE WORLD IN THE PIT OF MY STOMACH'
Do human beings have to become more conservative, fearful and risk-averse as they get older? Artists are here to show the world that this is not necessarily true. Patti Smith is one such artist.
WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO LATELY:
LA PETITE MAMAN
Appreciating Celine Sciamma's latest film. La Petite Maman, a beautiful visual poem about motherhood, childhood and the imagination.
Twenty-one years after its first publication, Meaghan’s novel In the Blue House has now been re-issued in digital form as part of the Untapped Project, which aims ‘to identify Australia’s lost literary treasures and bring them back to life’. Read about the project here.
BE INSPIRED:
Interesting Times: A blog by Alan Spence
Our friend, the poet and novelist Alan Spence, reflects on his time as Edinburgh Makar (Edinburgh’s Poet Laureate) and reads from his work, Interesting Times. This poem will be placed under the Robert Burns statue at the top of Leith Walk in a time capsule, when (if!) the Edinburgh tram lines are ever finished…
JOIN OUR UPCOMING COURSE:
On The WordPath: Creating Your Novel
FRIDAY 25th February - SUNDAY 27th February 2022
A long weekend course– from Friday morning to Sunday evening – designed to kick-start your creativity and start you on your “wordpath” to completing a novel.
In three creatively charged and highly productive days you will be taking part in workshops, discussion groups, feedback sessions - all dedicated to craft and creativity - including a visit from an industry professional with Q&A and a Sunday night reading aloud of work produced. For more information, see link here.
Focus Upon your Writing: Mentoring Course
FRIDAY 20th May- SUNDAY 22nd May 2022
A long weekend course - Friday morning to Sunday evening with individual mentoring sessions focused on your writing projects and expert feedback.
Have an idea for a piece of work but are not sure how to create its structure and refine your approach to its content and style? Need help re-drafting and editing your own work?
Or do you simply want the small, specialised attention a mentoring course offers to give you a sense of confidence and ability in your own writing?
Whatever your needs, Wordpath Scotland are now pleased to tell you that we are offering a series of small mentoring courses, starting in May 2022 running through the summer, offering small classes of no more than four students, hand picked for their projects and ideas so as to form a tight, close knit community of like-minded writers, to work with us in one-to-one sessions and small tutorials which are based around your own work and needs. For more information, see link here.
