Creative Spirit

When the weather turns cold and winter fires start to crackle, it is a perfect time for igniting your creativity. This chilly season three artists bring their creative skills together at Namgyalgar South Retreat Centre, nestled on the southern slopes of Mt Gulaga near Central Tilba.

Painter Glenda Morgan, writer Jan Cornall and movement artist Suze Smith, will add meditation to the creative mix when they lead their weekend retreats for residential or daily participants. In between delicious food, warm fires, envigorating walks, meditation and movement sessions, there will be a chance to play with colour and line, movement and dance, poetry and sensual story telling. 

 Evenings will be filled with stimulating discussions, performance soirees, video talks, laughter and hot-water bottle dreaming. It’s a mid winter opportunity to spend a long weekend with like-minded spirits in a winter green mountain hermitage and to keep the creative conversation going long after you return home.

Two weekends are planned: Creative Spirit, on June 26,27,28, a long weekend exploring writing, painting and meditation, and Mind Body Movement, on July 17,18,19, a weekend opportunity to uncover organic pathways of movement through improvisation, directed touch and embodied anatomy.

 Your workshop leaders, all members of the Dzogchen Community (following the teachings of Tibetan Master Chogyal Namkai Norbu) have been practicing meditation for many years and are well established in their own artistic practice.

Chogyal Namkhai Norbu in a playful mood at Namg South, 1990s. 

 Your Tutors

Glenda Morgan has been painting and exhibiting for 25 years and has taught drawing, printmaking and design at Universities and art schools in Sydney She is a certified instructor in Qigong and Tai Chi.

Jan Cornall is a published writer who has written plays, screenplays, musicals, a novel, short stories, travel articles and songs.  She has an MA in Cultural and Creative Practice, has taught writing at universities in Australia and Indonesia and leads international writing and creativity retreats. 

Suze Smith is a contemporary theatre maker and somatic movement teacher. She is a dance artist, writer, director and lighting designer. Her theatre making practice is informed by her ongoing study of post modern dance and improvisation, embodied anatomy and Body-Mind Centering®.

Retreat details

3 Day Residential Retreat

Cost: $300 (Friday 2pm to Sun 4pm)
2 nights accom + all meals
Accom in private caravan, dormitory, camping. (B&B accom off land can be arranged at extra expense)

Or Attend 1 Day workshop
Cost: $90 (9.30am to 5 pm+lunch)

Bookings:
E: glenda.energyarts@gmail.com
P: (02)6493 4417


Make plans for warming up your winter now!
  

 

First Page to First Draft

Semester One, First Page to First Draft, began this week in the book cave at Ampersand Cafe and Bookstore in Paddington.

I arrived a bit early, around 10 am, and there was a man reading a blue book in the winged arm chair at the end of the room. (Did I mention he was handsome? I thought at first it was Rupert Arrowsmith who I had met only weeks before at the Irrawaddy Literary Festival in Burma. But how could that be, he was now in New York). Next time I turned around he was sleeping, head resting on the wing of the chair, book on his tummy, an absolute picture of peace.

I hoped he might stay that way well into our workshop, then wake up and join us, but sadly after twenty minutes or so a waiter touched him on the shoulder to ask if he would like something else to drink. I guess they have a no-sleep-while-reading policy. But it got me thinking, what a good idea! Like the hammock cafes in Vietnam only you get a book as well as your hammock and fresh coconut!

I invited him to stay but he said he had to be somewhere and that it had been a perfect nap. I took it as an auspicious beginning to our workshop series.

Soon the writers arrived and after hearing about their writing projects we got down to some serious writing. Three memoirists, two poets et moi. (I'm not sure what I'm writing next but it will probably be memoir based). Oh, and Roscoe the seeing eye dog, who was under the table. I will get a pic of him next week!  Samantha, one of my ex students from UWS (left below), is vision impaired and Roscoe comes along to help her find her way. He sat on my feet most of the workshop and I have to say I did enjoy it. Lets add dog foot warmers to the hammock cafe idea!

Then I invited people to read and we had a tantalising taste of what's to come over the next five weeks. People's stories are just so fascinating. I can't wait to hear more!


First Page to First Draft is run in three modules over nine months, designed to give you the opportunity to finish your draft by October. You can join any time. Read more here.

Writing Among the Ruins - Angkor Wat

In March 2015 our group of writers met in Siem Reap for our Temple Dreaming Retreat.

Our base was Villa Loti, a traditional guest house by the river, five mins by tuk tuk from the heart of town.

Mornings were spent in the ruins exploring some of the lesser known sites out of town.

Halfway through the week we had a workshop with guest tutor, comic artist and illustrator Louie Joyce on the art of visual story telling.

Walter Mason flew in from Vietnam and artist Chhai Kakkada from Battambang arrived in time for happy hour evening readings at Raffles and the Hyatt.

Our preferred mode of travel was by tuk tuk of course!

Though it looks like we were on holiday, lots of work was acheived, with breakthroughs a plenty!

Merci beaucoup to our Villa Loti hostesses, Jade and Anne who so charmingly looked after all our needs.


Read blog posts by some of our participants:

Rob Schneider

Why You Should Attend an Expat Writers Workshop

A Holiday In Siem Reap

Diana Plater

Sounds of Silence

Coming up next with Writers Journey 

Backstage Bali, July 11-18
Creative In Bhutan, Aug 29-Sept 7
Moroccan Caravan, Feb 20 - March

The Third Irrawaddy Literary Festival

The third Irrawaddy Literary Festival (March 28-30) in Mandalay, Burma, may have drawn smaller crowds than the first two, but as the saying goes, it was quality not quantity. If you were lucky enough to be there as I was, you would have been party to one of the most intimate festival experiences possible. Like the early days of the Ubud Writer's and Reader's Festival, it felt as if you had portalled into the heart of a warm and friendly literary family as you rubbed shoulders with Booker Prize Winner, Anne Enright, had a drink in the bar with best selling author, Louis de Bernieres and got to know some of Burma's top poets, short story writers, novelists and journalists.

Rupert Arrowsmith adresses the crowd at the opening ceremony.

Sadly festival patron Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, on doctor's orders, wasn’t able to join this year, but her well wishes and presence were keenly felt. Despite her absence, in the setting of the Mandalay Hills Resort at the foot of the famous Kuthodaw Pagoda, there was an air of relaxation and friendship, as the crowd moved between simultaneous sessions running throughout the day. With around 100 Burmese writers present including both Yangon and Mandalay groups (Mandalay writers boycotted the festival last year), and a line up of 30 or so western writers, it wasn’t possible to catch everyone though we did our best.

Traditional dance at the opening ceremony.

Here are some highlights...

Rupert Arrowsmith's talk on The Face of The Buddha gave a big ‘aha’ moment as he described the work of William Empson in uncovering asymmetry in Buddhist iconography. Poet Joseph Wood’s presentation on fellow Irishman Maurice Collis and his writings about Burma in the 20s and 30s and Barnaby Phillips talk on his book, Another Man’s War were similarly fascinating. An hour with Burmese women writers, Phyu Mon, Lae Win Kyi Cho, Hnin Wai Nyein on the Sound Of A Poem,  was insightful and emotionally powerful, particularly the poem read by Kyi Mwe Eain dedicated to the young people injured and imprisoned in the most recent student demonstrations at Letpadan.

Burmese women writers discuss The Sound of A Poem.

An enthusiastic band of young student volunteers were manning all sessions and providing translations via ear piece, Burmese to English, English to Burmese. Burmese writers were discussing such topics as Worlding Burmese Literature, Narcotics in Literature, Myanmar Literature and Media Freedom. In the session before mine, Kyaw Saw Min (journalist and vet) was giving a talk on the Poems of Min Thuon. His audience, a group of Burmese women writers promised to hurry back from lunch to hear me perform my Love Songs to Indonesia. What kind of translation they heard in their ear pieces, I will never know, but when I tried out a love poem written during my last visit to Yangon they seemed to approve.

Some of the fabulous volunteers.

In the non-Burmese corner, a good number of countries were represented: Ratna Vira ( India) spoke with Anne Enright (Ireland) about her best selling debut novel, Daughter By Court Order. Siddarth Dasgupta (India) discussed his novel Letters from an Indian Summer alongside Sweden’s Helena Thorfinn (Sisters by the River) and UK’s Rosalind Russell (Burma’s Spring). At the writer’s dinner on the lawns of the Jefferson Centre Library, I had the pleasure of meeting Japanese historian Natsuo Miyashita who went to University in the UK with Daw Suu and has remained close friends ever since, and Bathandwa Mcuba, a cultural activist from South Africa whose book, Creative Culture, presents a positive take on the tribal and cultural groups of her country. I also met non fiction writer Carolyn Kraus from the USA, (nursing a broken arm from a fall on the streetd of Yangon) who was to give a talk on the role of documents in personal stories. A contingent from Melbourne University led by Jacqueline Dutton included journalist and author Margaret Simon, Burmese born Australian author Michelle Aung Thint, researcher Ruth Constantine, as well as small a volunteer support team.

Australian writers discuss writing difficult stories.

Jacqueline Dutton was busy skillfully moderating a number of sessions including a spontaneous line up called One For The Road, Books You Take Travelling, with Colin Falconer, Rupert Arrowsmith and myself, and a most thought provoking panel on Borders and Crossings with Michelle Aung Thint and Ruth Constantine.

One For The Road, books you take travelling.

On the last morning poet Nyein Way and I gave our talk on collaboration, The Poetics of Possibility. Again it was a mostly Burmese audience who listened intently as we tossed our ideas back and forth. I first met Nyein Way, a respected experimental poet, critic and performance artist, when I brought a group of writers to Yangon for the inaugural Irrawaddy Literary Festival in 2013. That year in a spontaneous collaboration, I sang one of his poems, Smile of A Leaf, at the lakeside Festival's Poet's Corner.

Myself and poet Nyein Way after our session.

I am so glad I got to the session on Yangon Echoes, a new book of photos and stories of heritage houses just released by Tim Webster and New Zealander Virginia Henderson. I broke my no big book buying while travelling rule to get the first signed copy!

Yangon Echoes, heritage stories, you must get a copy!

  I only managed to catch the tail end of both Louis de Berniere’s sessions, but I did enjoy a couple of chatty meals with him where he admitted to liking writing poetry more than writing novels. It’s these relaxed and informal chats with other writers, like the ones I had with Rupert Arrowsmith, Joe Woods, Bathandwa Mcuba, Ros Russell, Ratna Vira, Siddarth Dasgupta, Nyein Way, Kyi Min, Phyu Mon and Shwegu May Hnin, that make a festival like this so meaningful and enjoyable.

Breakfast with Louis de B, Rupert, Bathandwa. (Louis jotting an idea down).

While it was clear that the organising committee were low on resources this year, Jane Heyn (festival director), right hand man Andrew Heyn (former British Ambassador to Burma) and committee member Giles Fitzherbert remain positive about the future.  With an election looming later in the year who knows what will happen, but there is a sense in Burma that there is no going back.

The fabulous Shwegu May Hnin, author of over 60 works.

The joint festival crown must go to seventy-six year old short story writer, translator and elected-but-not-permitted-to-sit MP, Shwegu May Hnin. Imprisoned for three years and banned from publicly speaking or writing for twenty, she retains a lively spirit of resilience and wicked sense of humour. I remember her joking at the first festival that since censorhip was lifted her writing felt bland and under censorship she was much more creative.

And to Anne Enright, whose insights into the art of living and writing provide an example of the kind of writer we can all aspire to be. Her readings from The Gathering and her new novel The Green Road reminded us that as an author she is in a league of her own.

Anne Enright in her session with Louis de Bernieres, moderated by Colin Falconer.

Jan Cornall is an Australian writer and performer based in Sydney who travels often in the Asia Pacific region to take part in festivals and to lead Writer’s Journey Workshops and Retreats.
Jan’s participation in the Irrawaddy Literary Festival was sponsored by Writer’s Journey.

For another take on the festival by Margaret Simon go to The Guardian

Read Jan's article on the first Irrawaddy Literary Festival here. 

Find out more about Irrawaddy Literary Festival (due to time constraints and lack of manpower leading up to the festival not all writers who attended are listed).

The Art of Storytelling in Siem Reap

Calling Siem Reap writers and artists of all modalities! Join a series of creativity workshops with creative writing tutor Jan Cornall at 1961 Co working and Artspace, March 10 -15, 5-7pm. Develop a new work or get valuable feedback on a current project.Recharge your creativity,  re-energise your creative practice and set goals for project completion. Free or by affordable donation. See in particular on March 12, 5-7 pm : The Visual Art Of Story Telling with guest tutor Illustrator and comic artist Louie Joyce. 

Jan has been teaching writing and creativity in the Asia Pacific region for the last decade. She holds an MA in Cultural and Creative Practice (UWS) and leads writing and creativity retreats and workshops in Bali, Fiji, Laos, Burma, Vietnam, Morocco, Bhutan. Jan was last in Siem Reap running workshops in 2102. For bookings and more info contact Jan Cornall: jnana@ozemail.com.au
www.writersjourney.com.au

Louie's workshop will take place from 5-7 pm at 1961 Co working and Artspace, 211 Osaphear St, Upper West Riverside, Siem Reap.

 Louie has been drawing since he was a kid, and at the age of fifteen taught himself Photoshop and joined the online artist community Deviant Art,  where he learned many other useful techniques. He went on to complete a Diploma of Animation at an arts college in Sydney, worked as a graphic designer for a few years,  then finely honed his skills while studying Design and Illustration at the renowned Design School in Enmore, Sydney. Since then he has worked on commissions, comics, indie publishing, film and in the corporate sector.

Louie's work focuses strongly on narratives and experimenting with different techniques of graphic storytelling. His short comic The Corner Store nominated for a 2014 Ledger Award and won the Ace Comics & Games 2013 Best Short Australian Comic prize.

The workshop will include:
- a brief history of the evolution of comics.
- the relationship between characters and images and the use of storyboarding as a story telling device.
- how to think visually and compose images and narratives.
- the power of comic books/graphic novels and why they are such an effective storytelling medium.
- the collaborative nature of comic book creation, the relationship between writer and artist.
-  a look at what the future holds, new formats and new ways to tell stories.

Check out his work process videos here
Louie is available for illustration work, book covers and more. louiejoyce.art@gmail.com 

Writing in Cambodia, land of tuk tuks

I once wrote an article for an online arts journal about the writer's retreats I run, and instead of using my title, Holidays That Inspire, the editor changed it to something like How Rich Writers Travel.  Horrified, I asked her to change it back, which she did, not before remarking - but it got lots of hits!

Temple Writing in Burma 2013

The inference that you had to be rich to join an international writers retreat; that it is somehow a luxury, even an indulgence to spend your time in such a pursuit, disturbed me. Nothing could be further than the truth. Some people who come do have what I call 'spare money' it's true, usually well earned super or savings, and most who come have more money than me. Although I do remember one person getting a Centrelink loan to come to Morocco which I thought was brilliant.

Part of the inference too is that - as only the rich can afford to travel, we would stay in luxury villas and view our surroundings from afar, taking what we need for our writing and leaving nothing in return. This idea is also abhorrent for as much as possible I always try find a way to not only meet local writers and artists but invite them to join our workshops and events.

Bayon Temple

In March this year Writer's Journey heads to Angkor Wat for seven days temple wandering,  writing, jotting, sketching, painting, meditating, brainstorming, photographing, filming, while learning how to tell a good story.

Open to creative artists of all modalities: painters, poets, photographers,filmsters, performers, writers, doodlers, journalers, we travel into the heart and spirit of our creativity as we explore the ancient temples of Angkor Wat and its surrounds for the purpose making a creative work — collection of poems, sketches, paintings, a creative journal, a short story, notes for a novel, exhibition of photos, short film to be presented at a showing/presentation on our final evening.

Filipino and Cambodian poets at Angkor Wat for Northern Kingdoms Festival

Already the word has gone out to expats and Cambodian nationals that there are sponsored and semi sponsored positions available if they would like to join. Last time I ran workshops in Cambodia we had a great turn out in Sihanoukville, Battambang, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. Money raised from the workshops was donated to the Ponheary Ly Foundation to buy bicycles for children living in villages around Angkor Wat, who can't afford to get to school.

On that visit I invited Ponheary (I think she is in her sixties now) to our Siem Reap workshop. She said she wasn't much of a writer but she had many stories to tell.

Ponheary Ly, teacher, tour guide, social activist.

During the Khmer Rouge genocide Ponheary's father, a teacher, was killed along with thirteen family members. Those remaining suffered extreme poverty, but knowing the value of education, when Khmer Rouge were deposed, Ponheary became a teacher. She began by supporting one student  from her own earnings, then another and another. After she became a tour guide, tourists would donate to her cause until she met a woman from Austin, Texas, who was so moved by her work she set up a foundation to help. Together with the hard work of numerous volunteers they look after 2500 students. Knowing herself what it means to live only on leaves and sticks for months on end, Ponheary says she can tell just from one look, what level of poverty children are suffering: extreme, moderate, low level.

I'm hoping Ponheary will be our guide on our first day in the temples of Angkor Wat and that some of her staff will attend our workshops as they did before. There is no better way to get to know a country than through the stories of its people. You can read all the tourist books, brochures and blogs about a place, but meet one person and hear their story and your life is changed forever.

Workshop with local writers at Mata Air Festival, Salatiga.

The reverse is also true: we share the stories we are working on, our hosts also get to know us; our strengths, our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities. In this exchange we have chance to reflect not only on our commonalites and our differences but what kind of future we can write together.

I wonder if this was the richness that editor had in mind.

Read more about the artists, writers and communities Writer's Journey supports.

Book now for Temple Dreaming in Angkor Wat, March 9 - 16.

A Moroccan seaside residency

At the end of our Moroccan Caravan adventure, I headed to Essaouira, a coastal town three hours west of Marrakech for my own weeklong writers retreat. This charming fort town is heritage listed by Unesco and you can easily see why.

 From its fortified battlements, its old medina buildings and romantic fishing port, the lick of salt is all over as the sound of the Altantic Ocean follows you wherever you go. It is a windy town in summer I'm told, a factor that brings many visitors here to escape the inland heat. It was autumn when I visited with sunny days struggling to break through the uncharacteristic rain clouds, perfect for writing.

My writer's garrett was a rooftop airbnb room close to the daily market and not far from the port and Scala, the old Portugese fort. My Swedish host Martin was most hospitable and he and his friend Youssef showed me around on my first day and provided plenty of entertainment and diversion at the end of my writing day.

To the south of the town is village called Diabat where Jimi Hendrix once visited in 1969. You can walk there along the beach only you have to find a way to cross the river.

There's an old ruined castle which is said to have given Jimi inspiration for the song Castles Made of Sand, (except for the fact he wrote it two years earlier).

The chorus line goes "And so castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually." Seems it was rather prophetic as Jimi himself may have noticed when he walked the beach near the old Portugese battlement which is typically surrounded by waves at high tide.

If you get thirsty after your walk, Diabat village boasts five Jimi Hendrix cafes which seemed pretty much deserted but must get a good run when the local Gnawa Music Festival is on.

 After a few days of solid writing when Sunday came around I decided to take the day off and head to the second hand souk. I had a wonderful time fossicking around rows and rows of Steptoe and Son shacks manned by old men who looked like they slept on fabulous old carpets and armchairs they were selling for a song.

I've decided fossicking is good for writing.. ferreting around in junk and seeing what turns up is a lot like what we do each day at our desks. Picking things up, turning them over this way and that, rummaging through a pile of stuff that looks like garbage but yields a fabulous find at the bottom of the pile. So familiar! Taking yourself away from your desk for a bit and physically rummaging is a lot like the ruminating benefits of cleaning. Scrubbing the floors or the bath, having a big clean out in your office or garage is all good for ordering the mind. A lot of writers fear they may be procrastinating (and they may well be if they keep it up day after day) but I find after such a break, I bounce back to my desk with renewed energy as if I had been at the same time putting the broom through my writing.

Later in the day, sticking to my day off rule, I was randomly googling and came across a residency in Turkey, which is next on my list of countries to visit. I filled out an online application for mau mau residency program and within a few days had my acceptance letter.  You see what a day of fossicking  can turn up. Oh, and I finished my draft of My Mother Duras. Now for the rewrites!


Before Turkey I plan to be back in Essaouira for our Sacred Song Sacred Story retreat in May. I hope you can join us!

Check out this year's creative adventures: Angkor Wat, Bali, Bhutan at www.writersjourney.com.au