Creative Writing Course “Write Now! in Portugal!”

If you enjoy writing and are looking for a ‘creative’ weekend away in a beautiful location, why not check out Anne Ayler’s creative writing course? Read more about my personal experience of last year’s course here.

In October 2013 the third “Write Now! in Portugal!” creative writing course will be held at the Holiday Inn Algarve. Due to the success of previous Armação de Pêra workshops, award-winning author Anne Aylor will be returning to lead a weekend course from 25 – 27 October. The course will include techniques to start writing or develop work-in-progress. There will be an opportunity to have writing created in the workshop read and discussed.

This course is suitable for all levels of writers, from beginners to seasoned professionals. Novelists, short story writers, memoirists, poets and playwrights are all welcome to this workshop which can be residential or non-residential.

Anne has been teaching creative writing for many years and runs year-round courses in London, as well as leading retreats in Spain, France, Ireland, Croatia, Portugal and the US. Novels that her students have workshopped in her courses have been published by Random House, Orion and St Martin’s Press.

Anne has published two novels, No Angel Hotel and The Double Happiness Company, both of which are available in paperback or as eBooks. Her short stories and poems have been published by the Arts Council of Great Britain, The Literary Review, London Magazine and a number of her stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio.

In 2008 she was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, one of the world’s largest short story competitions, and in 2011 for the Fish Short Story Prize.

In 2007 she was a shortlist judge for the Wimbledon Book Fest and in 2011 was the judge in the Peter Barry Short Story Competition.

Her stage play, Children of the Dust, won a playwrighting competition and was co-produced by the Soho Theatre and Theatre Warehouse, Croydon.

Guardian journalist Trevor Baker* attended last year’s course and wrote about his experience in Writing Magazine. “As a professional freelance writer . . . I’m used to writing every day but I’d forgotten the satisfaction of creating a story for it’s own sake. By the end of the course, with thirty scribbled pages and twelve different stories or story-fragments, I’ve come up with more characters and plots than in the last thirteen years.”

Expat Algarve resident, Emma Shaw said, “A first-time experience for me and I never regretted a moment.” Another ex-pat, Mary Jezzard said, “An inspirational two days. I moved on, I laughed, I ached, but mostly I wrote. Just brilliant.”

To find out more, go to www.anneaylor.co.uk/ > Course Dates > Write Now! in Portugal. On the website are videos of the 2011 and 2012 workshops and interviews with Anne about her work. If you want to speak to the local co-ordinator for the course, ring Ivan Ellison in Lagos on _969 028 130

Writing Magazine’s review of the course is at www.anneaylor.co.uk/documents/writing-mag-review.pdf