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OCA at Arvon’s Lumb Bank in the snow - The Open College of the Arts

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OCA at Arvon’s Lumb Bank in the snow thumb

OCA at Arvon’s Lumb Bank in the snow

This is a post from the weareoca.com archive. Information contained within it may now be out of date.
 
In the last week of March, six creative writing students swapped OCA’s usual distance-learning approach for an intensive residential course at Lumb Bank in West Yorkshire, one of the Arvon Foundation’s writing centres.  Braving snowy conditions – Lumb Bank staff at one point had to ferry in provisions to the house by sledge – and travelling from as far away as Zurich and Brussels, the group soon found themselves enveloped in the supportive friendliness and warmth that characterizes the Arvon experience. Their writing flourished. The course was tutored by essayist Chris Arthur, OCA’s curriculum leader for creative writing, and Nicky Browne, whose teen fantasy novels include Shadow Web, Warriors of Alavna and Wolf Blood.  Antony Dunn was the mid-week guest writer.  He read a selection of poems from work in progress and from his most recently published book, Bugs (Carcanet Oxford Poets, 2009).  Mornings were given over to workshop sessions, afternoons allowed students time to focus on their own writing and to have individual tutorials.  Evenings were devoted to readings and conversation – culminating, on the final day of the course, with students reading from their own work.

Originally an eighteenth-century mill owner’s house, Lumb Bank used to belong to the poet Ted Hughes.  It was acquired by the Arvon Foundation in 1989 and provides a tranquil and inspiring setting in which to write.  As well as focusing on their own individual projects, students were introduced to a range of writing genres, strategies and styles, including haiku poetry and the essay.  A session on writing about objects – after a walk taken in the woods around Lumb Bank to select the objects in question – proved particularly successful.

Not only does Lumb Bank provide an undisturbed writing environment with surroundings rich in natural beauty, there’s also a strong sense of literary history about the place.  Tutorial sessions were held in the Library – the same room in which Ted Hughes, Charles Causley, Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney sat together to read through each of the 30,000 entries for the first Arvon International Poetry Competition (won by Andrew Motion, who succeeded Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate).  Sylvia Plath is buried in the churchyard in the nearby village of Heptonstall.  Several students made the pilgrimage to visit her grave.
The OCA/Arvon course provides an opportunity for students to meet face to face and to concentrate single-mindedly on their writing, undisturbed by life’s routine demands and distractions (quite deliberately, Lumb Bank – like other Arvon Centres – has no TV or internet).  Everyone in the group felt that their work benefited enormously from time spent among fellow writers at this literary haven.  OCA plans to run similar courses in the future.  Hopefully in years to come the steep track from the main road to the house will be clear of snow well before the end of March!
Links
Lumb Bank: http://www.arvonfoundation.org/8414/Lumb-Bank
Arvon Foundation: http://www.arvonfoundation.org/1/Home
Chris Arthur: http://www.chrisarthur.org/
Nicky Browne (who writes as N.M. Browne): http://www.nmbrowne.com/
AntonyDunn: http://www.antonydunn.org/


Posted by author: Chris Arthur

2 thoughts on “OCA at Arvon’s Lumb Bank in the snow

  • A vivid depiction of a creative and productive week. It’s good to hear that it reaped rewards for all of you who were there. I’m sure it will carry on doing so. Here’s to more OCA writers’ residentials.

  • What a lovely week you must have all had. Perhaps you will find images of snow creeping into your work in the near future…

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