We’re almost booked up for this terrific Writers Workshop in Spain!
From Wanderland Writers Workshops:
Wandering in Andalusia: Seville and The Alhambra—March 11-March 18, 2016
“Near the walls of Seville/ At my friend’s house, Lillas Pastia/ I will dance the Séguedille/
And drink Manzanilla.” From Carmen, by Georges Bizet.
Well-known writers and instructors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar are off on another adventure and invite you to join them in Andalusia. In this legendary region of Southern Spain many worlds meet: classical (Hercules was the supposed founder of Seville) and medieval; Jewish, Christian and Moorish; colonial, imperial, and modern. From our hotel in central Seville, with its graceful Moorish-style tiled decor, its fountains and secluded courtyards, we will explore them all through art (Murillo and Velásquez were native sons), architecture, music and food.
Adapting our curriculum to the locale—and our schedule to the land of the siesta—we will give several workshops and private consultations while offering many ways to discover the city, including: a walking tour; visits to the Cathedral, with its splendid altar, its tomb of Columbus, and its towering minaret, the Giralda, next door, and the royal palace of the Alcázar; a trip to the Flamenco Museum and a night of flamenco; an afternoon of soaking and tea at the Baños Arabes; an evening across the river in the Tirana District, once famous for the factories which attracted gypsies like Carmen, now famous for bars and clubbing. We will savor tapas and sherry, wine and guitar music.
There will also be time to write and discover on one’s own, from high-end shopping, to cycling, to a choice of museums, to bullfighting. And, of course, there is Seville’s
literary history to explore: from Cervantes, to Nobel-Prize winning poet Vincente Aleixandra, to beloved native sons Antonio Machado and Luis Cernuda.
Fees include accommodations, all breakfasts, four dinners and four lunches, workshops, entrance fees to all excursions AND a trip to the magnificent World Heritage Site, The Alhambra. Of course, work produced on this trip may be included in our next splendid Wanderland anthology.
For more information, please contact: Linda Watanabe McFerrin lindawatanabemcferrin
About the Instructors:
Linda Watanabe McFerrin (www.lwmcferrin.com) is a poet, travel writer, novelist and contributor to numerous newspapers, magazines and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry collections, past editor of a popular Northern California guidebook and a winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. Her novel, Namako: Sea Cucumber, was named Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York Public Library. In addition to authoring an award-winning short story collection, The Hand of Buddha, she has co-edited twelve anthologies, including the Hot Flashes: sexy little stories & poems series. Her latest novel, Dead Love (Stone Bridge Press, 2009), was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Novel.
Linda has judged the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, served as a visiting mentor for the Loft Mentor Series and been guest faculty at the Oklahoma Arts Institute. A past NEA Panelist and juror for the Marin Literary Arts Council and the founder of Left Coast Writers®, she has led workshops in Greece, France, Italy, England, Ireland, Central America, Indonesia, Spain and the United States and has mentored a long list of accomplished writers and best-selling authors toward publication.
Joanna Biggar is a teacher, writer and traveler whose special places of the heart include the California coast and the South of France. She has degrees in Chinese and French and, as a professional writer for twenty-five years, has written poetry, fiction, personal essays, features, news and travel articles for hundreds of publications including The Washington Post Magazine, Psychology Today, The International Herald Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal. Her book Travels and Other Poems was published in 1996, and her most recent travel essays have appeared in the Venturing series, whose anthologies include books on France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Costa Rica. A novel, That Paris Year, was published by Alan Squire Publishing in 2010. She has taught journalism, creative writing, personal essay and travel writing since 1984 in many venues. She has also taught reading and writing at St. Martin de Porres Middle School and Emiliano Zapata Street Academy in Oakland, California, where she makes her home. For the last year she has been writing and doing research for upcoming work in Aix-en-Provence, France. Contact her through email (jobiggar@gmail.com), Facebook at That Paris Year, or her blog,www.joannabiggar.org.