All Workshops
Online & in Devon
Writing is one of the most powerful ways we have of paying attention — to the world around us, to the more-than-human, to ourselves. Our online workshops and residency opportunities invite you to slow down, look out at the natural world, and find your way back to the page so you can re-wild your attention and find your voice.
Our workshops explore what it means to write from a non-human centred point of view — to let the biosphere in, and to see what happens to our language and our thinking when we do.
Whether you come to us for a single online workshop or a full residency on our rewilding land in South Devon, the spirit is the same: curiosity over perfection, presence over pressure, play over performance. Writers of all levels are welcome.
So if you are looking for time to step outside, breathe more slowly, and discover — or rediscover — your creative voice, we would love to connect.
ONLINE WORKSHOPS | ONE-TO-ONE | RESIDENCIES
Online Writing Workshops
We run both one-off workshops and extended courses online. We work with small groups to ensure an intimate space with room for all participants. Keep an eye on this page for upcoming online writing classes. And sign up for our newsletter to make sure you hear about them as they are hot off the press!
Join Tamzin in using creative writing to explore our relationships to local rivers, at this time of ecological crisis.
In this series of 4 online workshops, participants will be invited to focus on a river of their choice and to spend time with their river in between sessions. Using playful prompts, we will weave our riverly discoveries into our words, writing to and from the perspective of our chosen rivers.
We will meet weekly on zoom, between 6 and 8 pm, on the following evenings:
Monday 8th June
Monday 15th June
Monday 22nd June
Monday 29th June
All writing levels are very welcome. There will be opportunities to share your work in the group but there is no obligation to do so. The emphasis in these workshops is not to perfect our writing practice but to use writing as a tool for expression and curiosity.
Places are limited to 8 participants. To ensure group cohesion, please be clear you are able to make all 4 session dates before purchasing a ticket.
Tickets are offered on a donation basis at a suggested value of £30 in total for all sessions and can be purchased here. All donations will go directly to the Totnes Climate Hub.
If you have any questions please email Tamzin at hello@apple-barn.com
These workshops are a collaboration between Apple Barn and the Totnes Climate Hub.
'The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and the realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction'
- Rachel Carson
One-to-One Mentoring
Tamzin and Natasha also offer one-to-one mentoring programmes for those wanting to delve deeply into the themes we work with or for support with short or long term writing projects. Mentoring is also an option for those that would like to use writing as a tool for self-inquiry, whether to explore a particular issue or to simply bring space and attention to personal experience. These programmes are tailored according to individual aims or curiosities and designed to fit with personal schedules.
Please get in touch using the contact form on the Contact page and write ‘one-to-one’ in the subject line along with a few details of what you are looking for.
Artist & Writer Residencies
We offer a small, informal residency for artists and writers who are looking for something simple but increasingly rare: time and space.
As artists and writers ourselves, we understand how hard it is to find either. The pace of contemporary life pulls us away from the slow, generative work of making — the kind that requires stillness, wandering, and room to think. We believe that taking time to make creative work is far more important than our culture tends to acknowledge, and this residency is our small offering in that spirit.
Residencies are open to anyone, though we often welcome people whose practice is in some way in conversation with the natural world — writers, visual artists, printmakers, poets. But that is not a requirement. If you simply need time away from ordinary life to draft, to think, to begin or to continue something, you are welcome here.
The Land
We are based in South Devon, on eight acres of rewilding land that our family has cultivated over the years. Alongside the wildness, we run a cut flower farm, keep free range ducks and chickens, and grow some of our own vegetables. It is a quiet, pastoral place — full of texture and life — and you are free to walk it, sit in it, and let it work on you however it will.
The Accommodation
You will stay in a self-contained annexe flat on our land. Downstairs is our letterpress studio, an open plan space where we make pamphlets and stationery. The kitchen here is available for self-catering throughout your stay, and as it is a shared space it may sometimes be used by other artists — something we hope will lead to good conversation over a cup of tea. Upstairs is a private one-bedroom flat with its own bathroom, which is entirely yours for the duration of your residency.
Your Time Here
There is no programme and no obligation to produce anything. You might spend your days drafting new work, taking long walks, sitting quietly, or simply letting ideas come. The residency is an invitation to use your time however feels most useful to your practice. We are offering space and time — what you do with them is entirely up to you.
Practicalities
Residencies are typically one to two weeks, depending on your project and preferences, though we are happy to discuss other arrangements if your needs are different — just get in touch.
We offer residencies on a rolling basis throughout the year. If you are interested in coming to stay, we would love to hear from you. Please use the contact form on the Contact page and include 'residency' in the subject line.