Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 21st Apr - Sat 26th Apr, 2025
All Day
Location
Moniack Mhor, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire , IV4 7HT
Exposing the Heart of Your Story
Are you keen on short fiction or novel-writing? Often, we push out from the shore with our writing, then become unsure of where we’re going – or why! This course will enable you to find the heart of the story you’re currently writing, and get a sharper focus on where you’re going to take it.
Together, we’ll explore techniques and approaches in character creation and development, effective dialogue; ways of strengthening your storylines, as well as new approaches through short writing tasks designed to improve your skills.
Above all, Karen and Jacob will help you to dive in, and breathe fresh life into your writing.
Tutors
Jacob Ross is a novelist, short story writer, editor and creative writing tutor. His crime fiction novel, The Bone Readers won the inaugural Jhalak Prize in 2017. His literary novel Pynter Bender was published to much critical literary acclaim and was shortlisted for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Regional Prize and chosen as one of the British Authors Club’s top three Best First Novels. His latest book is Tell No-One About This, a collection of stories written over a span of 40 years, including from Song for Simone (1986) and A Way to Catch the Dust (1999) and more than a dozen new ones. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a judge of the V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, the Olive Cook, Scott Moncrieff and Tom-Gallon Literary Awards. Jacob is Associate Fiction Editor at Peepal Tree Press, and the editor of Closure, Contemporary Black British short stories.
Karen Campbell is a fiction writer. Author of nine novels and many short stories, she’s originally from Glasgow, and now lives in Galloway, where she was Writer in Residence at Dumfries and Galloway Council during the COVID pandemic. Karen graduated with distinction from Glasgow University’s Creative Writing Masters, and is the recipient of an SAC New Writer’s Award and a Creative Scotland Artist’s Bursary.
Before turning to writing, she was a police officer in Glasgow, then a press officer with Glasgow City Council. Her novels range from writing about the police, to refugees and asylum seekers, social issues, homelessness, politics and Italy in World War Two. Her ninth novel This Bright Life will be published by Canongate in March 2025.
Karen has tutored and mentored for Moniack Mhor, Scottish Refugee Council, Amnesty, EIBF, Wigtown Festival and Scottish PEN, as well as in prisons, hospitals and local authorities across Scotland. She’s also appeared on Radio 4, Radio 3, Radio Scotland and BBC television’s Big Scottish Book Club.
Guest Reader
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (b. 1980) is a writer from Trinidad and Tobago. Her debut novel When We Were Birds was the 2023 winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award, the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, and the American Book Award. It was also shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize, the Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award, the McKitterick Prize and named one of the UK Observer’s Best Debuts and The Economist’s Best Books of 2022. Her short fiction and non-fiction have been published in Moko Magazine, Small Axe and PREE, among others and shortlisted for the Small Axe Literary Competition and the Wasafiri New Writing Prize. She is the 2023 winner of the Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer’s Award and is at work on her second novel. She currently lives in Norwich.
Fees
The full fee for this course is £725. 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, which can be booked in advance for a £50 surcharge. We will also reserve an en-suite room for anyone who may need it due to a medical condition. This will be offered out as an upgrade nearer the course start date if it is not needed.
A limited number of Twin Room places are available at a discounted price of £675 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 small single room with a skylight is available at a discounted price of £700. Please note this room does not have an ordinary window, only a small skylight.
A deposit is required to secure your place, which is non-refundable after a 14-day cooling-off period. The balance payment of £475 is due six weeks before the course begins. Refunds are not always available – please read our Terms & Conditions for full details about our cancellation policy. If you would like to pay the full amount in advance, please call our booking office on 01463 592 828 or email info@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Bursaries are always available, and you also have the option to pay in instalments. If you have any problems paying online, or wish to discuss paying in instalments or applying for financial help, or would simply like assistance, please contact us by emailing info@moniackmhor.org.uk or phoning us on 01463 592828.
Access
Please let us know in your booking form if you have any access requirements, for example a ground floor bedroom and / or access to a step-free accessible shower room. We also reserve one en-suite bedroom per course for anyone who may need this due to a medical condition. For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.
Terms and Conditions
Please read our Terms & Conditions before booking.