2313 Poetry with Dean Atta and Nadine Aisha Jassat, Guest Reader Alycia Pirmohamed

Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 27th Mar - Sat 1st Apr, 2023
All Day

Location
Moniack Mhor, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire , IV4 7HT

When My Heart Speaks 

 Join Dean Atta and Nadine Aisha Jassat to explore poetry that comes straight from the heart: poetry of longing and belonging, poetry of self and story. In this immersive week of poetry, the course tutors will guide you through a series of prompts designed to help you connect to your voice, and explore the stories you want to tell, while keeping in mind the questions that drive so many of us to the page: What does your heart yearn for? Is home a place, a person, a people, or a memory? Where do you belong, and what belongs to you? What are my words, and how do I begin shaping and owning them? At the heart and hearth of Moniack Mhor we will explore and grow our voices, in a warm and welcoming environment filled with laughter, new ideas and activities and – above all – poetry.  

Dean Atta is a British author from London. He is a Malika’s Poetry Kitchen member, National Poetry Day ambassador and LGBT+ History Month patron. Dean’s poems have been highly commended by the Forward Prizes for Poetry and shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize and Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition. His books have been praised by the likes of Bernardine Evaristo, Benjamin Zephaniah and Malorie Blackman.    

Dean’s debut poetry collection was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize and his novel in verse, The Black Flamingo (Hodder Children’s Books, 2019), won the Stonewall Book Award and was shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, Jhalak Prize, Los Angeles Times Book Prize and Waterstones Children’s Book Award. His second novel, Only on the Weekends (Hodder Children’s Books), came out in spring 2022. His second poetry collection, There is (still) love here, is out now with Nine Arches Press.

Nadine Aisha Jassat is the author of acclaimed poetry collection Let Me Tell You This, and her work has been published widely in popular anthologies such as Picador’s It’s Not About the Burqa (Shortlisted for Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year) and Bloodaxe’s Staying Human, as well as drawing significant acclaim including being shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, and winning a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. Nadine has performed her work internationally, most recently as part of Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Outriders Africa, and has appeared across media, including BBC’s The Big Scottish Book Club. She has taught creative writing across the UK and internationally, for the likes of BBC Words First and The Arvon Foundation. Her debut novel for children, The Stories Grandma Forgot (And How I Found Them), is a gripping verse mystery that shines a light on Alzheimer’s and identity, forthcoming with Hachette Children’s Group in May 2023.

Alycia Pirmohamed is the author of Another Way to Split Water. Her chapbooks include Hinge, Faces that Fled the Wind, and the collaborative essay Second Memory, co-authored by Pratyusha. Alycia currently teaches on the MSt Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge, and she previously studied creative writing at the University of Oregon and the University of Edinburgh. Her awards include the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, the CBC Poetry Prize, a Pushcart Prize, the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, and others

 

Fees

The full fee for this course is £650. This includes your accommodation in a single room with shared bathroom, all meals, hot drinks and snacks from Monday afternoon until Saturday morning, and your tuition. For more information about the practicalities of our courses and retreats, please visit our About the Courses page.

A limited number of en-suite rooms are available for a £50 surcharge, and a limited number of Twin Room places are available at a discounted price of £600 per person. When booking a Twin Room place, please tell us in the comments box which gender you are and which gender(s) you are comfortable sharing a room with. This information will remain confidential.

A deposit is required to secure your place, which is non-refundable after a 14-day cooling-off period. The balance payment of £500 is due six weeks before the course begins. If you would like to pay the full amount earlier than this or at the point of booking, please call our booking office on 01463 592 828 or email info@moniackmhor.org.uk.

 

Please let us know if you have any access requirements, for example a ground floor bedroom and / or access to a wheelchair-accessible shower room. For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.

Bookings