About
Tŷ Newydd is the National Writing Centre of Wales. Tŷ Newydd’s residential creative writing courses, retreats and masterclasses guide and support writers at all levels of their career to achieve excellence and encourage innovation. Every week a new group of individuals come to Tŷ Newydd to spend time together under the tutelage of professional writers.
The varied programme caters for different abilities, ages and interests, and courses cover many genres, forms and styles, including poetry, fiction, non-fiction, scriptwriting, nature writing, illustrating, storytelling, yoga and more. In addition we work alongside tutors and teachers to create bespoke courses for educational groups.
Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre is run by Literature Wales, the national company for the development of literature.
VISIT website
International Priorities
Tŷ Newydd has historically worked in partnership with the Wales Literature Exchange and an European network of literature and translation centres to develop a programme of activity to promote creative translation. In the wake of Brexit, 2017 will focus on reintroducing these initiatives with a focus on translating children’s literature between the languages of Europe, especially minority languages like the Welsh.
Tŷ Newydd’s open course programme attracts a few international participants annually, including the USA, Ireland, France, the Netherlands and Australia.
Tŷ Newydd’s flagship project Y Labordy (2014-15) was a new initiative for experienced Welsh language writers of theatre, film and TV to develop their ideas alongside some of the most respected scriptwriters and producers in their industry. The objective was to create a pool of contemporary writing talent with the capability of writing high calibre scripts for different media platforms and to broaden ability for writing from an international perspective. Contributors to the initiative included Jeppe Gjervig Gram, Lisa Albert and Rebecca Lenkiewicz. We hope to run a similar scheme again soon.
Key Strengths
Our beautiful centre in rural north Wales lends itself to residential gatherings, we can accommodate and cater for up to 25 guests. It’s a perfect location for courses, workshops, retreats, and small festivals. Although a peaceful retreat between the sea and the mountains, we’re also within reasonable driving distance from Manchester and Liverpool airports (2 hours) and close to the port of Holyhead for ferries from Dublin, Ireland (1 hour).
As part of Literature Wales, we have great links with multilingual authors who would be eager to take part in translating programmes, mentoring, and networking. We also work in close partnership with the publishing houses of Wales; Universities, and other establishments that might be useful for international partnerships.
Seeking Partnerships With
Similar creative writing centres and retreats; authors and poets who are interested in translating their and others’ work; publishing houses; writers / publishers in minority languages.
Purpose of Partnerships
Introducing international literature into Welsh and English through writer translation collaborations. Experimenting with genres and art form to create new collaborations between minority languages. Retreat exchanges.
Contact Us
Head of Tŷ Newydd - Leusa Llewelyn
leusa@literaturewales.org
