Inspiration by the sea

The Writers’ Lab on the Greek island of Skyros will be facilitated this year by an excellent team of distinguished, prize-winning authors including Andrew Miller, James Kelman, Rachel Cusk and Michèle Roberts.

Writers, thinkers and dabblers are offered here a fantastic opportunity to learn from the very best, share the joys and struggles of the creative process, discover strengths and polish skills. Far away from the demands and routines dictated by a busy life, one can navigate beyond old boundaries and emerge with pieces of writing to be proud of.

Indeed, past course participants have gone on to publish books or to stage plays started, developed or completed in Skyros. See Skyros.com for more details.

The 2008 Skyros Writers’ team includes:

Romesh Gunesekera: Fiction Writing (3 to 10 May)
This course is ideal for aspiring and also experienced (but unpublished) writers, who want to know the essential elements of good fiction and do lots of enjoyable writing. Romesh’s first novel, Reef (1994), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and his second one, Sandglass (1998), was awarded the BBC Asia Award. His Heaven’s Edge was published in 2002 and The Match in 2006.

Andrew Miller: Imagination & Voice (10 to 23 May)
This is a broad-based fiction course for committed writers of all levels of experience. It offers a mixture of workshops and tutorials aimed at freeing the imagination while staying rooted in the craft. Andrew Miller is the author of five novels including Ingenious Pain (a winner of many awards) and Oxygen which was shortlisted for the Booker and the Whitbread Best Novel. His work is published in over twenty languages. His latest novel will be published later this year.

Alan Jenkins: The Inner Places of Poetry (24 to 31 May)
On this informal course, reading some well-known poems will be the starting point for the adventure of writing poems; both reading and writing will also enrich the experience of the beautiful island setting. Alan has won many awards and prizes for his poetry – collections include The Drift (2000) and A Shorter Life (2005). He is an editor of The Times Literary Supplement and has taught Creative Writing in England, France and the USA.

James Kelman: The Blank Page & Other Myths (31 May to 13 June)
What can we do if we want to be writers? Things cannot just happen. How do we start? Are concepts such as inspiration, genius, talent etc useful? We will assume that participants are either inexperienced or feel that it is time for a different approach. James’ novels include How Late it was, How Late (1994), which won the Booker prize for Fiction, Translated Accounts (2001) and You have to be careful in the Land of the Free (2004). He has tutored Creative Writing courses in the UK & the USA.

Crysse Morrison: Your Writer’s Voice (14 to 27 June)
Going through shared exercises and from memories to wild imagination, Crysse’s course will focus on aspects of style and narrative including creating characters, storylines, settings and dialogue.Techniques are adaptable to all aspects of writing from poetry to novels. Crysse’s first novel, Frozen Summer, was published in 1999 and was followed by her second one, Sleeping in Sand. She also writes short fiction and poetry and has a regular column in Writing Magazine.

Christopher Hope: The Art of the Story (28 June to 11 July)
The form, the magic, and the difficulty of getting a story right is entirely beguiling. We’ll be looking at stories by writers whom we’ve been reading forever, and seeing how it is that they get their story to work so well that it flies right off the page. Christopher was born in Johannesburg and is the author of nine novels including the award-winning A Separate Development and Kruger’s Alp and also Serenity House which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His most recent novel is My Mother’s Lovers (2007).

Julia Bell: The Novel Under the Bed (12 to 25 July)
Novelist Julia Bell invites you to bring ideas gathering dust in order to write, rewrite, edit and extend. She is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, and formerly at UEA, and co-editor of The Creative Writing Course Book (2001). She has published two novels, Massive (2002) and Dirty Work (to be released this year). Currently she is working on a longer work of adult fiction.

Monique Roffey: The Fundamentals of Writing Fiction (26 July to 8 August)
Always wanted to write a novel or short fiction – don’t know how or where to start? Help is at hand. This course is a practical beginner’s guide to the basic narrative elements of writing fiction. Through tutorial-lead presentations and exercises, we will examine the components of story-telling: showing and telling, making vivid but credible characters, place, dialogue, choosing your point-of-view and ideas around capturing the first draft of a novel.

Monique’s first novel, Sun Dog, was published in 2002. Her second one, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, will be published next year. She has worked as a journalist and for Amnesty International, and was a Centre Director for the Arvon Foundation. She is currently RLF Fellow at Sussex University.

Nicholas Blincoe: Starting to Write (9 to 22 August)
Nicholas Blincoe will offer practical courses on writing both drama and fiction, focussing on story-telling and heart-stopping dramatic narratives. The course will draw upon television, contemporary novels and genre fiction, including detective stories, thriller, spy fiction and romances. We will look at ways of avoiding problems in story-telling such as predictability or outlandishness, and how to use research material to convince the reader or audience of the reality of the world in which the tale is set.

Nicholas Blincoe is the author of six novels, and a winner of the Crime Writer's Silver Dagger for his thriller, Manchester Slingback. He has written for the BBC TV crime drama, Waking the Dead, among other television series and has had an award-winning play produced at London's Riverside Studios. He is a columnist and critic for the Daily Telegraph and was a founder member of the short story writers, the New Puritans.

Rachel Cusk: Life Writing (23 August to 5 September)
Life Writing aims to create a new form for the narration of personal experiences. In this course we will study some of its techniques and examine some of the pitfalls and pleasures of memoir and autobiography. Rachel’s first novel, Saving Agnes, won the Whitbread First Novel Award. Her most recent, Arlington Park, was shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize. Rachel teaches Creative Writing at Kingston University.

Charles Palliser: Seduce Your Reader (6 to 19 September)
The art of narrative is about enticement. And so we will look at the many ways to catch the attention and keep the reader intrigued in a novel or drama. You will be helped to write fiction full of mystery and suspense. Charles has taught literature and creative writing in universities in the UK and the USA. Among his four novels are The Quincunx and The Unburied. His fiction has been translated into a dozen languages.

Michèle Roberts: Get Going (20 to 27 September)
Michèle uses exercises and games to guide you through writer’s blocks, exploring a variety of forms and techniques. She is the author of many novels including the acclaimed Daughters of the House (1992) that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Other novels include A Piece of the Night (1978) and The Looking Glass (2000). The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene was published last year. Michèle is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

See Skyros.co.uk/writers.3.html for more details.