Creative Writing & Yoga Retreat August 4- 11, 2009
St. Non's Retreat Centre, Pembrokeshire Retreat to the spectacular Coast near St. David's for Creative Writing & Yoga.
Retreat to Wales for a week of Creative Writing & Yoga
with: Patricia Lee Lewis and Jacqueline Sheehan
Includes: 8 days, 7 nights at St. Non's Retreat Centre, all meals, single or double accommodations, all written materials, all writing & yoga sessions, individual writing tutorials.
Costs:
$1800 if you register by May 1st; or 1950 thereafter.
A $500 non-refundable deposit is required to reserve
your place. Your final balance is due July 1,
2009.
How to get there:
St. Non's Retreat Centre is a ten minute walk
from the historic small city of St. David's on
the southwest coast of Wales in Pembrokeshire.We
suggest flying into Cardiff, Wales or Manchester,
England and making your way by bus or train to
St. David's. It's more direct than going through
London, and quicker. Click
here for coach and train information in Wales.
(does not include transportation to St. Non's Retreat Centre. Tips for house staff. Special outings.)
This will be our tenth year
to offer creative writing retreats in the
British Isles. Participants will include
people with a wide range of writing experience,
from very little to professional. We are
always enriched by the diversity. While
we will offer a daily schedule of suggested
activities, all sessions are optional: your
time is your own.
Writing Practice. Each morning and several evenings, you will have opportunity to write in an encouraging, confidential and inspiring setting, in response to exercises Patricia suggests. You will be invited to share what you have just written, and to respond to the writing of others with what is fresh, what you like, what you remember. (We use the method developed by Amherst Writers & Artists which is described in detail at Our Writing Method.) As time permits, Patricia will offer individual consultations on (short) manuscripts written prior to the retreat or on any writing problems you wish to discuss.
Jacqueline Sheehan and David Clemson will offer
workshops about the craft of writing and Jacqueline
& Patricia & David will counsel each individual
writer on his or her work.
Yoga Practice. Jacqueline will offer yoga sessions in the early morning and some afternoons, indoors or out of doors above the sea, as weather permits. The practice of yoga, the joining of body and mind, can open pathways for your writing into the feelings, memories, stories and images embedded in the tissues. We will encourage you to use your yoga practice to develop a deeper relationship with your body as well as to enjoy the physical and mental benefits of practice. The sessions are, of course, completely optional.
Wales is a magical land-why not extend your visit a few days? Contact the British Tourist Authority, 551 Fifth Avenue, Suite 701, NY, NY 10176; tel. (800) 462-2748; Internet is www.btausa.com for more information. Check www.priceline.com or www.cheaptickets.com for the best air fares.
Combining Yoga & Writing
The practice of yoga, the joining of body and mind, can open pathways into the feelings, memories, stories and images embedded in the tissues. Writing workshops during the retreat are designed to help you shift your awareness and write from those deeper levels of consciousness.
Through Hatha Yoga, we will get in touch with our kinesthetic sense of self. We will use special meditation techniques to slow the mind and create a sense of the sacred. No writing or yoga experience is required - only a sense of adventure. Beginning and experienced writers will find a supportive, encouraging context in which to write from their deepest selves. We will write in response to exercises offered by Patricia Lee Lewis, MFA. In a small group, writers will be invited to read their work aloud, and the group will offer simple affirmations of what is done well and what stays in the memory.
ABOUT ST. NON'S
St. Non's Retreat Centre lies on Wales' famed Coastal Path, a ten-minute walk from the small, historic city of St. David's in exquisite Pembrokeshire. It overlooks St. Non's Bay, one of the many bays forming the ten mile stretch of St. Bride's Bay in The Irish Sea, on the west coast of Dyfed; and is part of an area steeped in religious history and of holy places - chapels, crosses and sainted wells, many of which are pagan in origin.
Accommodations at The Centre are housed in a well-built Victorian stone structure, and include an inviting area for dining, a large common room, comfortable lounge, small library and Chapel. There are ten single rooms and two large doubles. Additional housing may be booked in nearby St. David's.
Meals are vegetarian with some fish and chicken; Continental breakfasts; lunches of soups, salad, cheese, fruit (which can also be packed for adventurers); and full dinners with lovely desserts. Fresh fruit, biscuits, tea and coffee are always available.
Things to do. Pembrokeshire and the southwest coast of Wales are rich in opportunities for visitors wishing to experience their magic: excellent walking along the 185 mile-long Coastal Path, which runs directly in front of the Retreat Centre; kayaking in the bay; bicycling along the coast and into the dramatically beautiful surrounding hills with their ancient standing stones; abundant opportunities to watch a wide variety of birds, which migrate through this environmentally-rich region; gorse, broom, sea pinks blooming everywhere; and breathtaking views.
History. The small city of St. David's is an easy a ten-minute walk from St. Non's. For centuries, St. David's was pre-eminent as a center of pilgrimage. St. David, the Patron Saint of Wales, founded a religions community here, and his cathedral was to become one of Christendom's great historic shrines. For centuries before that, Celtic tribes with their rich pagan traditions flourished throughout Wales.
For details on ancient sacred sites of Wales and the history of religious pilgrimage, click here for Patricia's article "A Pilgrim in Wales"
See Patricia's article and photographs on sacred sites in Wales as published in Hampshire Life
ABOUT THE STAFF
Patricia Lee Lewis lives and works at Patchwork Farm Retreat in western Massachusetts. She shares the world with trees and stones, chickadees, writers and bears, and leads weekend writing retreats and weekly workshops in her mountain cottage at Patchwork Farm, throughout the United States, and yoga and writing retreats at sacred sites around the world - Guatemala, Mexico, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Costa Rica.
Patricia holds an MFA degree in Creative Writing from Vermont College, and completed her undergraduate degree at Smith College, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1970. She is affiliated with Amherst Writers & Artists, and leads national training workshops in the AWA method for workshop leaders on the east and west coasts. Patricia's poetry, fiction and feature articles have appeared in journals & anthologies, The Los Angeles Times, Hampshire Life, and The Boston Sunday Globe. Her poems have most recently appeared in The Berkshire Review, Vol. 11, and Crossing Paths: An Anthology of Poems by Women, Mad River Press. She was supported by a grant from the Chester Cultural Council under the auspices of the Massachusetts Cultural Council to perform her poems to a full house to benefit the Miniature Theatre of Chester. Her poem "Two Hundred Wings" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Poetry, and her book of poems, A Kind of Yellow, won first prize in Writer's Digest's International Self-Published Book Competition in 2005. Copies of the book are available at the shop.
Patricia has spent much of her life as an advocate: for women, for civil rights, for peace, for a healthy environment, for small farms and rural communities, for the arts. Born and raised in Texas, she moved north years ago with her children. She has been a business owner, tree farmer, director of several organizations, including women's centers, community economic development corporations, district congressional offices, and served as an elected county commissioner for four years. In 1985, when she joined Pat Schneider's Amherst Writers & Artists writing workshop, she finally found the courage to write for others to read
Patricia is responsible for the writing program at all retreats and serves as retreat coordinator.
Jacqueline Sheehan, Ph.D. is a writer and a
therapist. She is primarily a novelist, but has
also written short stories, essays, travel pieces,
and radio shorts. Her second novel, Lost &
Found, was published by Avon/Harper Collins
in 2007. Lost & Found has been optioned
for a film by Katherine Heigl (of TV’s Grey’s
Anatomy) and spent three weeks on the New York
Times bestseller list. Her first novel, Truth,
was based on the life of Sojourner Truth, the
19th Century abolitionist. Jacqueline was the
editor for Women Writing in Prison, a
compilation of 7 years of writing workshops with
incarcerated women. She currently teaches writing
workshops through Patchwork Farm, Writers in Progress,
and Grub Street in Boston. She is working on her
third novel.
Besides her work as a writer and
therapist, the practice of yoga has been a sustaining
and inspiring part of Jacqueline's life for 20
years. She has taught Yoga at Patricia's writing
retreats in the British Isles since 2001. Jacqueline
teaches a restorative style of yoga based on Hatha
and Anusara Yoga that is accessible to beginners
as well as those who want more challenging poses.
Writers can start and end their day by revitalizing,
relaxing, and strengthening the body, mind, and
spirit.
David Clemson
A gifted writer and painter, born and raised in England, David Clemson has Masters Degrees in Research and Statistics, and in Writing Studies. David began his creative writing life at Patchwork's first retreat in Scotland in 2000, but over the years he has writen more than 100 mathematics textbooks for youngsters, their teacher and parents, the newest of which will be published later this year.
He currently leads a writing group
in Wiltshire, England and has produced a collection
of the group's work to be published this Spring.
A journalist published widely in the U.K., including
in the Guardian, he has appeared in Television
and radio, is a published poet and is completing
his first novel and a collection of stories for
a memoir. David will lead a craft of writting
workshop during our Wales retreat in 2009, and
consult with individual writers on their manuscripts.
TESTIMONIALS
Adult summer camp! Plenty of time to socialize, do outdoor activities with like-minded people combined with just the right place for inspiration and creativity. The good sisters pampered us and fed us with fresh local foods. Paradise! Jeanne Borfitz
Location, leadership, participants…all combine to create and permit an experience of writing and reflection that challenges, renews, and validates oneself as a writer. Each person seems to discover new ways of creativity and self expression. The daily yoga stretches the body as well as the spirit. Kathleen S. Henry
Time slower and the tenacious talent shower. Breathtaking writing, time after time after time. The yummiest chocolate for the writing brain and heart. David William Clemson
Patricia and Jacqueline provided guidance that I feel significantly increased my appreciation of my own talents and opened myriad new paths for exploration. They are first-rate writers and compassionate, down-to-earth people. Frank Mathias
An exquisitely beautiful sacred setting which made it so easy to focus on the sacredness of our body and our writing, free from all distraction. Marcia Denius
The positive guidance leads and nurtures developing skills in writing. Daily yoga adds strength to body and mind. Very helpful! Doris McKethan
On this retreat Patricia and Jacqueline created a safe, nurturing space where a group of individuals could- and did- grow into a community of writers and friends. This experience has given me the courage to keep writing and new tools to improve my craft. Jill Molloy
If you are ready to write, then you are ready for one of Patricia's retreats. Sue Nicholson
"Your careful and loving planning and leadership created a wonderful time to explore both Iona and the writing process. Well done!" Deborah D., Massachusetts, USA
"It has been an unforgettable experience - wonderful in all aspects. Especially the people." Jill J., Cumbria, England
"The startling beauty of the outside world and the guided crafting of our inner world made life perfect." Bonnie S., New York, NY
"It was one of the few experiences that I got more than what I bargained for in more ways than one." Katia A., Cyprus, Greece
"Angela and Patricia created a truly supportive and creative sacred space within which I could continue my search for self-expression. I was inspired and aided by the care and committment that they both generously provided in helping me to find a more authentic 'voice' and in such a wonderful setting. Their guided meditations 'connected' me with both the energy of this island and my own inner promptings." David M., Moray, Scotland
"I have come to see the craft of a writing life as a form of meditation - and greatly important in my life. Thanks for the opportunity of connecting to my writing in the context of a respectful group." Nancy S., Michigan, USA
POETRY
Poetry is an ancient and popular art in Wales. Gillian Clarke is one of Wales' best-loved poets. Here's a sample of her work: For Meic Watts, who sculpted the limestone hare.
The Stone Hare Think of it waiting three hundred million years, not a hare hiding in the last stand of wheat, but a premonition of stone, a moonlit reef where corals reach for the light through clear waters of warm Palaeozoic seas. In its limbs lies the story of the earth, the living ocean, then the slow birth of limestone from the long trajectories of starfish, feather stars, crinoids and crushed shells that fill with calcite, harden, wait for the quarryman, the timed explosion and the sculptor's hand. Then the hare, its eye a planet, springs from the chisel to stand in the grass, moonlight's muscle and bone, the stems of sea lilies slowly turned to stone.
Many Welsh poets write only in Welsh. To hear the language is to hear the music. Myrddin ap Dafydd is a strict metre poet and winner of the Chair at the National Eisteddfod in Cwm Rhymni in 1990 for his poem "Gwythiennau" ("Veins"). Founder of Gwasg Carreg Gwalch Press, Llanrwst and editor of the popular series of poetry anthologies Cywyddau Cyhoeddus. Here is one of his poems:
Bae Caerdydd Mae'n edrych yn wych; maen nhw yn llawn o heip penllanw - llun swel ydi'r hoff ddelwedd, a'r gamp, meddant, yw creu gwedd calendr glòs: cael un dwr glas haeddiannol o brifddinas dros hafren y beipen bòg a lleuadau'r gwlâu lleidiog.
Ac yn siwr, mae dwr Caerdydd gystal â llun: llun llonydd, heb ordd yn nhonnau'i bae hi na halen yn ei heli.
Pa wefr cael wyneb hyfryd a'r dwr rhydd ar drai o hyd? Rhowch le i fwy na drych o wlad, rhowch im fwy nag edrychiad - rhowch im ddydd y bydd y bae'n llyn drwg ac yn llawn dreigiau.
Links:
Gillian Clarke is the best known living Welsh poet. She co-founded Ty Newydd, a retreat center in Criccieth for creative writing.
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