Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 28th Apr - Sat 3rd May, 2025
All Day
Location
Moniack Mhor, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire , IV4 7HT
Animals, Beasts and Monsters
Animals, mythical or otherwise, have been a central thread in literature, through Greek mythology to Franz Kafka, medieval bestiaries to indigenous cultures of Amazonia and North America, the fables of Aesop and La Fontaine, to Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky and modern eco writing. This course will use readings in poetry and non-fiction and plenty of inspiring images to prompt exercises, stressing the animal as a way of approaching the other both in nature and ourselves, exploring how to convey the creatureliness of existence as both a subject and a creative form.
Animal poetry can describe ourselves and our fellow creatures in our literal bodies or can be used to explore our humanity or lack thereof. What is it that makes animals better or worse than us? When do we become beasts? How can we use the imagination to encounter our inner monsters and those which populate our myths?
Join Gwyneth and Pascale in writing as deeply as you dare into imagination’s bestiaries, during group workshops and bespoke individual sessions with award-winning poets who are pioneers of their own creaturely wilds.
Tutors
Pascale Petit was born in Paris and lives in Cornwall, she is of French, Welsh and Indian heritage. her ninth collection, Beast, is published by Bloodaxe in 2025 and won an Arthur Welton Award while in progress. Her debut novel, My Hummingbird Father, is published by Salt in 2024. She has published eight previous poetry collections, four of which were shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. Her seventh, Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe, 2017), won the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the inaugural Laurel Prize. Her eighth, Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe, 2020), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and for Wales Book of the Year.
Gwyneth Lewis was Wales’s first National Poet 2005–06 and wrote the six-foot-high words on the front of the Wales Millennium Centre. She’s an award-winning poet in both Welsh and English and was awarded an MBE for services to literature and mental health, which she has written about extensively. Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book about Depression appeared in 2002; Nightshade Mother: A Disentangling, about maternal emotional abuse was published in 2024. First Rain in Paradise is her most recent poetry collection. Gwyneth teaches at the US’s Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English and has been Artist in Residence at Balliol College, Oxford for the last three years.
Guest Reader
Jay Griffiths is the author of many books including Wild: An Elemental Journey; Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape; Tristimania; Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time and Why Rebel. She won the Discover award for the best first-time author in the USA and the inaugural Orion award, and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. She has held the Hay International Fellowship and has broadcast and written widely, including for Radiohead and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her work has received widespread accolades including from Gary Snyder, Barry Lopez, Don Paterson, John Berger, Philip Pullman, KT Tunstall and Nikolai Fraiture. She wrote the script for ‘Almost Invisible Angels’, and her words were voiced by Mark Rylance. Her most recent book is titled Nemesis, My Friend: Journeys Through the Turning Times. She is a wild skater, whenever the Welsh lakes freeze.
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.