Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath in Benidorm:
A Study Week
a residential course with Terry Gifford and Lorraine Kerslake
At Almàssera Vella: October 3rd – 10th 2015
"Spain
Where I felt at home. The blood-raw light,
The oiled anchovy faces, the African
Black edges to everything." --Ted Hughes
"...but I am, in my deep soul, happiest on the moors – my deepest soul-scape, in the hills by the Spanish Mediterranean." --Sylvia Plath
A RESIDENTIAL STUDY WEEK. Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes wrote some 35,000 words about their experiences in Benidorm whilst on honeymoon there in 1956. During this week we will be visiting the house they shared in 1956 and the quay at Alicante where Ted Hughes described his new wife as:
"… in moonlight, / Walking the empty wharf at Alicante / Like a soul waiting for the ferry,"
We will be discussing aspects of their work, including poetry, prose essays, fiction and letters. The course is designed to suit interested readers of Plath and Hughes, postgraduate students, teachers and poets at all levels.
TERRY GIFFORD is the author of Ted Hughes (2009), Reconnecting With John Muir: Essays in Post-Pastoral Practice (2006), Pastoral (1999) and Green Voices: Understanding Contemporary Nature Poetry (1995; 2nd edn. 2011), together with six chapters in books on Ted Hughes. He recently edited The Cambridge Companion to Ted Hughes (2011). His seventh collection of poems (with Christopher North) is Al Otro Lado del Aguilar (Oversteps Books, 2011). Terry Gifford is Visiting Scholar at Bath Spa University’s Centre for Writing and Environment, UK, and Senior Research Fellow and Profesor Honorifico at the University of Alicante, Spain.
LORRAINE KERSLAKE holds a BA in English and French studies and an MA in Translation and Interpreting from Alicante University, Spain, where she teaches English Language and Literature. She has worked as a translator of literary criticism, poetry and art and published articles and reviews on children’s literature and ecocriticism. Her current research interests include children’s literature, the representation of animals and nature in literature and art, ecocriticism and ecofeminism.
ALMASSERA VELLA is Relleu’s original olive press opened in 2002 by Christopher and Marisa North as a Literature and Arts Centre. Comfortable bedrooms, private bathrooms, day-room, loggia, 3000 book library, Free wi/fi, a refectory and a meeting place with log fire. Extensive rear terrace, pool and almond orchard and nearby olive and citrus groves. Relleu is an ancient mountain village with modern pharmacy, general store and bars. Alicante airport is 50 minutes away.
Cost of the week ₤750 all inclusive (7 nights) save flight/travel and insurance.
FURTHER DETAILS
Christopher and Marisa North | web | Facebook | Twitter @oldolivepress
A Study Week
a residential course with Terry Gifford and Lorraine Kerslake
At Almàssera Vella: October 3rd – 10th 2015
"Spain
Where I felt at home. The blood-raw light,
The oiled anchovy faces, the African
Black edges to everything." --Ted Hughes
"...but I am, in my deep soul, happiest on the moors – my deepest soul-scape, in the hills by the Spanish Mediterranean." --Sylvia Plath
A RESIDENTIAL STUDY WEEK. Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes wrote some 35,000 words about their experiences in Benidorm whilst on honeymoon there in 1956. During this week we will be visiting the house they shared in 1956 and the quay at Alicante where Ted Hughes described his new wife as:
"… in moonlight, / Walking the empty wharf at Alicante / Like a soul waiting for the ferry,"
We will be discussing aspects of their work, including poetry, prose essays, fiction and letters. The course is designed to suit interested readers of Plath and Hughes, postgraduate students, teachers and poets at all levels.
TERRY GIFFORD is the author of Ted Hughes (2009), Reconnecting With John Muir: Essays in Post-Pastoral Practice (2006), Pastoral (1999) and Green Voices: Understanding Contemporary Nature Poetry (1995; 2nd edn. 2011), together with six chapters in books on Ted Hughes. He recently edited The Cambridge Companion to Ted Hughes (2011). His seventh collection of poems (with Christopher North) is Al Otro Lado del Aguilar (Oversteps Books, 2011). Terry Gifford is Visiting Scholar at Bath Spa University’s Centre for Writing and Environment, UK, and Senior Research Fellow and Profesor Honorifico at the University of Alicante, Spain.
LORRAINE KERSLAKE holds a BA in English and French studies and an MA in Translation and Interpreting from Alicante University, Spain, where she teaches English Language and Literature. She has worked as a translator of literary criticism, poetry and art and published articles and reviews on children’s literature and ecocriticism. Her current research interests include children’s literature, the representation of animals and nature in literature and art, ecocriticism and ecofeminism.
ALMASSERA VELLA is Relleu’s original olive press opened in 2002 by Christopher and Marisa North as a Literature and Arts Centre. Comfortable bedrooms, private bathrooms, day-room, loggia, 3000 book library, Free wi/fi, a refectory and a meeting place with log fire. Extensive rear terrace, pool and almond orchard and nearby olive and citrus groves. Relleu is an ancient mountain village with modern pharmacy, general store and bars. Alicante airport is 50 minutes away.
Cost of the week ₤750 all inclusive (7 nights) save flight/travel and insurance.
FURTHER DETAILS
Christopher and Marisa North | web | Facebook | Twitter @oldolivepress
