Poetry & Place, 2026

Monday 22nd June - Saturday 27th June

5-Day poetry writing course with Jonathan Edwards

Open to locals and those who want to stay with us. Max 12 participants. 8 residential spaces. £299 non-residential/camping. Includes lunch and evening workshop. Budget/dorm accommodation £350. Private room, shared bathroom: £499. Large private room, ensuite £599. Vegetarian meals. Morning yoga, if desired.

Horses grazing on a grassy hillside with rolling hills and a bright blue sky in the background.
A man with curly brown hair and a beard, wearing a plaid shirt, standing outdoors in front of green leafy plants and a wire fence.
A close-up of a woman with brown hair looking to her right, smiling, showing her teeth, and wearing pearl earrings against a wooden background.

Jonathan Edwards was born and brought up in Crosskeys, South Wales. He has an MA in Writing from the University of Warwick, has written speeches for the Welsh Assembly Government and journalism for The Big Issue Cymru, and currently works as an English teacher. He won the Terry Hetherington Award in 2010, was awarded a Literature Wales new writer’s bursary in 2011, and in 2012 won prizes in the Cardiff International Poetry Competition and the Basil Bunting Award. His work has appeared in a wide range of magazines, including Poetry Review, The North, Poetry Wales and the  New Welsh Review. His poetry collection, My Family and Other Superheroes, was published in 2014 and was the winner of that year’s Costa Poetry Award. Gen is his most recent collection, which was  awarded Winner of the People’s Choice Award, Wales Book of the Year 2019.

Fiona Benson lives in mid Devon with her husband and their two daughters. She has published three previous collections of poetry, all of which were shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize: Bright Travellers, which won the 2015 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry's Prize for First Full Collection, Vertigo & Ghost, which was shortlisted for the 2019 Rathbones Folio Prize and won both the Roehampton Poetry Prize and the Forward Prize for Best Collection, and Ephemeron, which was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the London Hellenic Prize. is the author of four poetry collections: Bright Travellers, Vertigo & Ghost, Ephemeron and, most recently, Midden Witch. All three of her first published collections were shortlisted for the T S Eliot prize, and her books have won the Forward Prize, the Seamus Heaney Prize, the Roehampton Poetry Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her script Infamous Offspring written for the Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus / Ultima Vez has been performed across Europe and in the US. She has also edited two books of Ukrainian war poetry in translation – We Were Here by Artur Dron (2024) and Dasein: In Defence of Presence by Yaryna Chornohuz (2025).

What to Expect

Morning and evening workshops in poetry writing with Jonathan. A 30 mins 1-2-1 tutorial on work in progress.
45 acres of woodland and pasture to roam.
Connection, conversation, energy from other writers.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner provided. Vegetarian food made using local, in-season produce.
We welcome writers of all description, with previous poetry writing experience or none.
Field trips to Posbury volcano and Dartmoor National Park.
Time to switch off from the world and ‘tune in’….

Quiet.

A garden with purple wildflowers, surrounded by green trees and foliage, under a partly cloudy sky.

Sample Schedule

Where to Find Us

We are 20 min drive north east from Exeter and a 10 mins drive (or two hour walk) from the ancient market town of Crediton.

Crediton has a branch-line rail station that will connect you to the mainline stations at Exeter St David’s. We can collect you from Crediton and drop you off again after your retreat.

Closest airports are Exeter, Bristol, London Heathrow. We can collect you from Exeter airport (£45) and there are trains and coaches from Bristol and London Heathrow to Exeter.

If coming by car please use Googlemaps or What3Words with information provided on booking. Please do not use Satnav in this postcode.

How to Book?

Payment of £100 deposit by bank transfer, Paypal or cheque will secure your place. Please email direct or fill in the contact form, Balance to be paid 30 days before the course. Terms and Conditions.

Map showing locations in southern Devon, England, including Exeter, Crediton, and areas near Dartmoor National Park, with roads, towns, and natural features labeled.