Corpus Christi College

Jesus College
Pembroke College

28 March – 3 April 2009

Creative
Writing
Programme
– WRITING FICTION
– WRITING POETRY
– WRITING FOR
YOUNG READERS

www.sundaytimes-oxfordliteraryfestival.co.uk
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Corpus Christi College Library
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Welcome to the
CREATIVE WRITING
Welcome
PROGRAMME
Over the centuries the city of Oxford The workshops will be led by two
and its great university have nurtured knowledgeable tutors who are themselves
and inspired some of our finest writers well-known writers in the field covered
and scholars. Sensitive to this long and by the course, as well as being teachers
distinguished tradition, while at the same of proven ability; in addition, the series of
time living up to its own reputation for masterclasses will allow participants to
enterprise and innovation, The Sunday listen to, and to engage in discussion with,
Times Oxford Literary Festival has a wide range of other literary practitioners.
embarked on an exciting new initiative:
The courses offer a remarkable opportunity
the 2008 festival saw the introduction
to experience life as a member of a creative
of a five-day college-based residential
community. Living, dining, learning and
course offering an opportunity for aspiring
writing in one of Oxford’s historic colleges,
fiction-writers to hone their skills under
participants will be able to extend their
the guidance of eminent authors and other
understanding of their craft in the company
representatives of the literary world.
of like-minded individuals.
The extraordinary success of this course
Each course offers five full teaching days
made it clear that the programme should
and six nights of College accommodation,
be extended to give aspiring writers in
including all meals. A special feature
other genres a similar opportunity. For
for 2009 is the opportunity to sign up
2009 the festival will be offering three
for a further short period of College
separate courses: one in fiction, one in
accommodation, at a reasonable additional
poetry and one for those interested in
cost. This will allow participants to continue
writing for young readers. Future years
their writing practice beyond the time-frame
are likely to see a further expansion of
of the course itself, or to attend some of the
the courses on offer.
festival’s other events.
Each course provides a series of five
The festival’s Director of Academic
two-hour tutor-led workshops, together
Programmes, responsible for oversight
with a series of ten one-hour talks
of all courses in the Creative Writing
(masterclasses) given by eminent writers
Programme, is Jem Poster, poet, novelist
and other significant figures from the
and Professor of Creative Writing at
literary world. Each course is designed
Aberystwyth University.
to serve the needs of writers who are
interested in working in a small, dedicated We look forward to welcoming you to a
group. The working environment is very stimulating and rewarding 5 days
intentionally intimate: the course as a whole in Oxford.
will have places for a maximum of 30
Sally Dunsmore
participants, while the group will be split
Festival Director
into two sub-groups for workshops, each
containing a maximum of 15 participants.
The whole group will gather together for
each talk in the masterclass series.
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 WRITING FICTION
Oxford has helped to nurture the talents of many well-known writers of fiction:
among the University’s alumni are Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley,
William Golding, Kingsley Amis, V. S. Naipaul, Martin Amis and Julian Barnes.
The Course
This course is designed for those interested
in honing their fiction-writing skills under the
guidance of two knowledgeable tutors who are
themselves well-known writers of fiction; in
addition, the programme of masterclass talks
offers insights into the process and practice of
fiction-writing, as well as into issues related to
publication. The two tutorial groups will each
contain a maximum of 15 participants; the group
as a whole will consist of a maximum of 30.
The Tutors
Jem Poster
Jem Poster has edited a selection of
George Crabbe’s poetry and has written a study
of the poetry of the 1930s; he is also the author
of a collection of poetry, Brought to Light, and
a past winner of the Cardiff International Poetry
Competition. His two novels, Courting Shadows
and Rifling Paradise, were published in 2002
and 2006 respectively. A former Fellow of Kellogg
College, Oxford, he now holds the Chair of Creative
Writing at Aberystwyth University, where he
directs a range of creative writing programmes
from undergraduate to doctoral level.
“The tutorials, the masterclasses and the
location made for an inspirational week
and the friendships we all came away
with have made it unforgettable”
- Melanie Cantor, participant in the 2008
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival
fiction-writing course.
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Jill Dawson
Jill Dawson is the author of twelve books,
including the novels Fred and Edie (short-listed
for the Orange Prize and the Whitbread), Wild
Boy and Watch Me Disappear; her most recent
novel is The Great Lover (January 2009). She
has taught Creative Writing in many institutions
throughout the world and was Creative Writing
Fellow at the University of East Anglia, where she
also held the Royal Literary Fund Fellowship and
taught on the MA programme. She received an
Honorary Doctorate for her writing in 2006.
The Masterclass Speakers
Masterclass speakers lined up
to address the 2009 programme
include the eminent writer of
detective fiction, P D James;
award-winning novelists
Helen Dunmore and Sarah Hall;
London literary agent Luigi Bonomi,
founder-director of the LBA agency;
poet, biographer and
travel writer Grevel Lindop;
novelist Joanne Harris, author
of the bestselling Chocolat;
and critic and editor
Professor John Carey, principal
reviewer for The Sunday Times
and twice Chair of the judges
for the Booker Prize.
Corpus Christi College
Writing Fiction
Corpus Christi College was founded in 1517 by
Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester and a trusted
diplomatic and political adviser to King Henry VII.
Bishop Foxe had originally intended the College
for the training of monks; if he had followed through
with this plan, the College would probably have
been dissolved in the Reformation of the next
generation. Instead, he decided that the College
should be a place of Renaissance learning for the
education of young men in the humanities and
the sciences.
The beautiful main quad, with its tower, dining
hall, library and adjoining chapel were planned
and completed under Foxe's guidance. Queen
Catherine (of Aragon) was a friend of the College's
first President, John Claimond, and would visit him
in his College lodgings while her husband, Henry
VIII, hunted at nearby Woodstock. Another early
visitor was the great humanist scholar, Erasmus,
who wrote admiringly of the College's library.
Many significant figures have been graduates or
fellows of the College, among them the educational
reformer Thomas Arnold, the Poet Laureate
Robert Bridges, the art historian John Ruskin,
the philosopher Isaiah Berlin and the novelist
Vikram Seth.
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 WRITING POETRY Jesus College

Writing Poetry
Many famous poets have studied at Oxford University, among them Percy Bysshe Jesus College, the only Oxford college to date from the reign of Queen
Shelley, Matthew Arnold, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Edward Thomas, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth I, received its first royal charter on 27 June 1571, as ‘Jesus College in
Philip Larkin and the present Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion. the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation’. The charter stated that
it would be a ‘college of learning in the sciences of philosophy, the moral arts, and knowledge
of the Hebrew, Greek and Latin languages, with the eventual aim of professing sacred Theology’.
The Course Tiffany Atkinson
Jesus College occupies a square in the heart of Oxford, with Turl Street to the east, Market Street
to the south, Ship Street to the north, and a block of Cornmarket Street shop premises to the west.
Tiffany Atkinson is a lecturer in English and
Most of the buildings in the Front and Second Quadrangles are seventeenth-century, with some later
This course is designed for those interested Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University, and
additions and alterations. Along Turl Street, south of the east end of the chapel, the entrance front
in honing their poetry-writing skills under the she gives regular readings and poetry workshops
was rebuilt in 1855 in an adaptation of the original, homely Jacobean style, with a gate-tower, a lodge,
guidance of two knowledgeable tutors who are across England and Wales. She was winner of the
and impressively detailed chimneys, faced in golden Bath stone.
themselves acclaimed poets; in addition, the Ottakar’s and Faber National Poetry Competition
programme of masterclass talks offers insights (2000) and the Cardiff Academi International Poetry Among the significant figures associated with the college were the metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan,
into the process and practice of poetry-writing, Competition (2001). Her poems are published writer and soldier T.E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’), Prime Minister Harold Wilson, novelist
as well as into issues related to publication. The widely in journals and anthologies, and her first William Boyd and poet Dom Moraes.
two tutorial groups will each contain a maximum collection, Kink and Particle (Seren, 2006) was a
of 15 participants; the group as a whole will Poetry Book Society Recommendation and winner
consist of a maximum of 30. of the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Award
(2007). She is also editor of The Body: A Reader
(Palgrave, 2004).
The Tutors

Kelly Grovier

Poet, life-writer and literary critic, Kelly Grovier

was educated at the University of California, Los
Angeles before coming to Christ Church, Oxford
University on a British Marshall Scholarship
to study for his doctorate. His first collection
of poems, A Lens in the Palm, was published
by Carcanet Press in 2008. He has published
widely on the English Romantic poets, especially
William Wordsworth and John Keats, and is the
co-founder of the journal European Romantic
The Masterclass Speakers
Review. He is a regular contributor to The Times
Literary Supplement and The Observer, and his
biography of London’s notorious Newgate Prison, Masterclass speakers lined up
The Gaol (John Murray), was serialised as BBC to address the 2009 programme
Radio 4 Book of the Week in July 2008.
include Michael Schmidt, poet and
editor of PN Review and Carcanet
Press; Fiona Sampson, poet and
editor of Poetry Review;
Matthew Hollis, poet and poetry
editor at Faber and Faber; poet,
critic and translator
David Constantine; David Whyte,
poet; Sally Bayley, author and
fellow of Jesus College; and
poet-critics Bernard O’Donoghue
and Craig Raine.

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 WRITING FOR YOUNG READERS Pembroke College

Writing For Young Readers

Oxford has a remarkable series of connections with writers who have written From the early days of Oxford University, Broadgates Hall, now Pembroke
significantly or principally for young readers: these include Lewis Carroll, College, existed as a hostel for law students. The combined generosity of an
Kenneth Grahame, C. S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien and Philip Pullman. Abingdon merchant, Thomas Tesdale, and a Berkshire clergyman, Richard Wightwick,
provided the necessary endowment for the transformation of this Hall into Pembroke College, originally
intended to supply places at Oxford for boys from Abingdon School. In 1624 King James I signed
The Course Julie Hearn the letters patent to create the present college, which was named after the third Earl of Pembroke,
Lord Chamberlain and Chancellor of the University, who had done much to promote the foundation.
Julie Hearn is the author of five novels for
This course is designed for those interested in older children – Follow Me Down (2003), The The College is concentrated in its traditional site in the centre of Oxford, has graduate facilities in
writing for young readers, and will take place Merrybegot (2005), Ivy (2006), Hazel (2007) and Brewer Street, just behind the College, and a fine new building on the Thames a few minutes’ walk
under the guidance of two knowledgeable tutors Rowan the Strange (2009). Three of her books away. The main site is particularly attractive, with buildings from the sixteenth to the twentieth
who are themselves acclaimed writers in this have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal and centuries. The Chapel Quad, regarded by many as one of Oxford’s best kept secrets, harmoniously
field; in addition, the programme of masterclass The Merrybegot was shortlisted for the Guardian integrates architectural styles across five centuries.
talks offers insights into the process and practice Children’s Fiction Award. A former journalist, she Among the significant figures associated with the College were philosopher Sir Thomas Browne,
of writing, as well as into issues related to received an M.St. in women’s studies from Oxford essayist and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, poets William Shenstone and Thomas Lovell Beddoes,
publication. The main focus will be fiction, but University in 1999. She is a tutor in creative James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institution, politician Michael Heseltine and scholar
there will be some scope for discussion of poetry. writing for the University of Oxford Department and author of Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien.
The two tutorial groups will each contain a for Continuing Education and has contributed
maximum of 15 participants; the group as a whole essays on Robert Browning, Radclyffe Hall and
will consist of a maximum of 30. Barbara Comyns to the British Writers series
published in the U.S.A. by Charles Scribner’s Sons.

The Tutors

Philip Gross

Philip Gross is a writer of many parts, from

prizewinning adult poet to author of ten teenage
novels - most recently Going for Stone, The
Lastling and The Storm Garden, all from OUP,
and the younger Marginaliens. Earlier books
included The Song of Gail and Fludd (Faber),
titles in the Point Horror Unleashed series,
and the teenage cyberfiction Psylicon Beach
(Scholastic). His three collections of children’s The Masterclass Speakers
poetry include Manifold Manor and The All-Nite
Café which won the Signal Award. Since 2004 has
been Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan Masterclass speakers lined up
University, developing their Writing For Children to address the 2009 programme
programme up to postgraduate level.
include authors Philip Pullman,
David Almond, Lee Weatherly,
Katherine Langrish and
Mary Hoffman; literary agent
Catherine Clark; and publisher
David Fickling.

Course Administrator for all three courses:

Brenda Stevens, former Commercial Director BAFTA and Commerical Development Director at RADA

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 BOOKING FORM
NAME ADDRESS

TELEPHONE

EMAIL POSTCODE

Sunday 29 March – Sunday 5 April 2009

At Christ Church, Oxford SPECIAL DIETARY REQUIREMENTS, ACCOMMODATION OR ACCESS NEEDS.

AGE GROUP (PLEASE CIRCLE)

18-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80+

WHERE DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE COURSE?

Featuring
Joan Bakewell PREVIOUS WRITING EXPERIENCE/HOPES
(please send us a brief summary of any previous writing experience, along with what you hope to gain from this course)
Vince Cable
Joanne Harris
PD James
Mario Vargas Llosa
Ian McEwan PLEASE BOOK MY PLACE ON (PLEASE TICK)

Philip Pullman WRITING FICTION WRITING POETRY WRITING FOR YOUNG READERS
CJ Sansom
Simon Schama SIGNED DATE
John Sentamu
David Starkey I CERTIFY THAT I AM AUTHORISED TO MAKE THIS BOOKING
COURSE FEES INCLUDE ALL TUITION AND MASTERCLASSES,
ACCOMMODATION IN COLLEGE FOR 6 NIGHTS – FULL BOARD
ON BEHALF OF THE PERSON(S) NAMED ABOVE
(ALL MEALS).

HOW TO BOOK
For further information please contact Alex Simmons on 01865 276152 Inclusive charge per person: £1260 (includes accommodation at course
Or email: info@sundaytimes-oxfordliteraryfestival.co.uk college and full board). Ensuite supplement (per room) £150
To confirm your booking, please fill in the attached booking form
and return by post, enclosing a cheque for £1260 or £1410 CANCELLATION POLICY
(for ensuite accommodation) made out to If you cancel and we are able to fill your place on the course, you will
“The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival”. be refunded the full fee. If we are unable to do so due to limited time
before the course begins, the organisers reserve the right to retain
Return booking form and cheque to:
your fee in full.
The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival
c/o 7 Threshers Yard | Kingham | Oxon | OX7 6YF Times Newspapers Ltd (TNL), Cox & Kings, Blackwell and The Sunday
Times Oxford Literary Festival (STOLF) directly or via their agents may
To book online contact
mail, email, SMS or telephone you with future offers reflecting your
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(Mastercard/Visa/American Express accepted).
Tick if you do NOT want offers from:
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CONFERENCE All venue and accommodation Conference Oxford | The Painted Room
arrangements for the Creative Writing 118 High Street | Oxford | OX1 4BX
OXFORD Programme at three Oxford Colleges
Telephone 01865 276190
Box Office 0870 343 1001 made by Conference Oxford. For details
on how Conference Oxford can help you
Website www.conference-oxford.co.uk
Email conference.oxford@univ.ox.ac.uk
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