Life Writing is an expansive genre that defies definition – a mysterious coming together of lived experience and the concept of the Self as it arises in writing. We are storytelling organisms who, in our continual interpretation of life-events, make ourselves in the stories we tell.
This deliberate process of interpreting the events of our lives in our particularly worldly context and integrating them into our sense-of-Self, is about ‘being’ and ‘knowing’. And so, as both an ontological and an epistemological inquiry, self-making in writing is always a promise-of-change for both the writer and the reader.
“Narrative and life go together and so the principal attraction of narrative-as-method is its capacity to render life experiences, both personal and social, in relevant and meaningful ways.”
Connelly and Clandinin, Educational Researcher, 1990
If you have a tale to tell about your lived experiences, your work-in-the-world, your insights about being and knowing, your ideas about life, itself, we invite you to join us on one of our Life-Writing programmes. Whether you are writing in poetry or prose. Whether you are writing for yourself, your family and friends, your colleagues, or for publication. And whatever your chosen narrative form may be (a personal essay, an article, a book, a blog, a short story, a poem, a letter, a diary-entry, a play etc).
“Telling stories is our usual means of presenting to thought and attempting to make sense of the processes of lived experience, actual or imaginable…The framing of stories seems to be fundamental to human self-understanding; without it we would probably have little sense of identity, individual or collective. (‘We are the ones who did this and to whom this happened’)… We tell stories about our lives in order to find meaning in what we have done and undergone, and one could hardly wish it were otherwise."
Nick Davis in Brewer and Gibson (eds.), 2007
A Craft not an Art. A Practice not a Discipline. Life Writing is for Everyone!
“No-one has a life worthy of consideration about which a story cannot be told.”
Hannah Arendt on Karen Blixen (Daguerreotypes and Other Essays)
This five-day programme offered at La Garriga de Castelladral, a medieval farmhouse restored as a charming eco-hotel in the majestic Catalan Mountains of Spain, is for those who want to learn the craft of writing a life - a conversation-in-writing with our past and present selves in which we re-examine, redefine, rearrange and retell our life stories. This, our flagship programme, is a blend of optional and community sessions with extended periods to ‘Go Write!’ during the day, focuses on the ‘doing’ of the writing process. The staff take a supportive role: they invite morning ‘check-ins’; offer short workshops on subjects for life-writers of all narrative forms; are available for individual ‘Tea and Talk’ consultations in the late afternoon; and convene manuscript readings in small groups on the candlelit terrace in the evenings.
New for 2027, one theme we will explore is Place, Self and Collective Identity
And when we are not writing or discussing our writing? We might gaze at the mountain-views, swim in the pool, take a meditative walk along the spiral pathway in the grounds, enjoy forest-bathing, or simply busy ourselves, doing nothing, in this beautiful, quiet, restful place in the warmth of Catalonia’s Summer sun.
Group Size: 12 with four faculty who are experienced in the craft of making meaning of lived experience in writing, and who are also published in a variety of articles, chapters, books and other contemporary forms of life-writing.
Dates: Monday 5th of July 2027 at 10.30 until 15.30 on Friday 9th July 2027.
An untaught Retreat for those who wish to get away and get it done in late Autumn days at La Garriga in the Catalan Mountains, when there may still be enough warmth in the sun to write on your private balcony or on your garden terrace overlooking the majestic Montserrat. The staff will welcome you, help you to settle into your writing project, and convene optional evening manuscript readings after dinner around a log fire.
And for inspiration and relaxation? The spiral pathway in the grounds for meditative walks; the spa pool, sauna and steam room for exclusive private-use; and forest-bathing in the fragrant pine woods that surround our charming, luxury eco-hotel.
Group Size: 6 (maximum)
Dates: 8th – 12th November 2027
This two-day residential programme – a blend of community sessions, workshops, extended periods for personal writing and manuscript readings - will provide you with the opportunity to:
Discover the story in you and the ‘unity of the figure’ for your writing.
Explore a single moment of your life-experience as a promise-of-change.
Understand your own writing process.
Develop your writing skills.
Affirm the writer in you.
Choose a comfortable space where you can sit undisturbed, and you will leave on Sunday with a piece of short-form text (a poem, a diary-entry, a blog, a personal essay, a letter, a story, the scene of a play, the beginnings of a book etc), and the confidence to continue the important work of writing-your-life.
Group Size: 3 – 6 (maximum)
A leadership story – one well told – reflects, refracts and makes sense of things. On the 7 th of October 2026, we will be offering an introduction to working with story in organisations at the Academy.