Writing and Society Research Centre

A Postgraduate Retreat in Creative Arts Scholarship

22-26 September 2013, Old Leura Dairy, NSW 

with presentations and workshops by: Prof Ivor Indyk, Prof Gail Jones, Prof Hazel Smith, Prof Donna Lee Brien, Prof Jen Webb, Assoc Prof Sara Knox, Assoc Prof Hart Cohen, Assoc Prof Marion May Campbell, Dr Antonia Pont, Dr Keri Glastonbury, Dr Rachel Morley, Dr Matthew McGuire, Dr Belinda Castles, and Dr Martin Edmond.

The Writing and Society Research Centre is now calling for applications for a four-day residential master class/workshop program for Australian university postgraduate students currently engaged in research that incorporates a creative writing component and exegesis. The retreat will be held at a multi-award winning, 4-star eco-friendly property in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney and will be convened by Centre member, Dr Rachel Morley. The event is aimed at students currently enrolled in a postgraduate creative writing degree (MA by research, DCA and PhD) at an Australian university who have completed at least one year of their candidacy (either full-time or part-time). To benefit from the event applicants should have commenced work on both their creative project and their exegesis.

The participants in Creative Ecologies 2013 have now been confirmed. If you have been offered a place and are not a UWS student please use this link to make your payment-

Payment Link For Non-UWS students

This is the second year the Centre has held the Creative Ecologies Retreat.

Feedback From Creative Ecologies 2011

“This retreat far exceeded my expectations. Prior to the retreat I did not know what I did not know. I feel my knowledge and skill and confidence in relation to writing my exegesis has been GREATLY enhanced and feel sorry for all of those people who did not get the chance to attend.”
 
“I feel I am no longer stuck and have all the answers to the questions I came with.”
 
“All I wanted was some concrete answers to, ‘what is my exegesis meant to look like?’. I got that from so many angles; it’s inspiring. And I got more: 3 days of eloquent talk with passionate people about the possibility of literature. Everyone had so much to say and were so keen to forge connections with others. It made it easy.”
“To date the most useful and interesting thing I’ve done since starting my DCA. Congrats on an outstanding event. It felt essential to me.”
 
“This was perhaps the most important and definitely the most useful course/retreat we have had. The breadth and depth and knowledge of the presenters was extraordinary and their generosity in giving feedback invaluable. It was a profound retreat, using language that creative practitioners could access and make their own.”
 
“I was expecting this retreat to save my project from oblivion and it did.”

Contact

For information about the Retreat or to discuss your application, please contact Dr Melinda Jewell, Postgraduate Officer, Writing and Society Research Centre, University of Western Sydney.