Writers have always come to Loutro - situated within the inspiring natural resource of South West Crete and bounded by its positive liberating energy, our writing courses bring together people, experts, ideas and artistic creativity. Arriving off weekend flights for the orientation dinners on Sunday evenings, the Courses & Retreats run from Mondays to Fridays, with ample free time outside the schedule. The writers dine together again during the week, with a closing dinner on the Friday evening at a nearby bay for readings of course work, food, wine, moon, stars… then heading for their return flights over the following weekend, the room changeover days being Saturdays and Sundays. Respect for individual space is central to the Loutro writing proposition and all writers are accommodated in their own en suite sea view rooms, situated variously around the small village. There are 8-9 restaurants and 4-5 café bars to choose from, with food, drink and accommodation all reasonably priced.

'Follow the Creative - Return to the Creative'

Lesley Glaister is the prize-winning author of seventeen novels. Her most recent pair are Blasted Things, set post-World War 1 and A Particular Man, featuring some of the same characters but set post-World War 2. She has also published short stories and poetry, and drama for both stage and BBC Radio 4. Alongside her own writing, Lesley enjoys teaching Creative Writing at all levels from one-off workshops to post-graduate degree courses, most recently at the University of St Andrews. Lesley lives in Edinburgh with her husband, writer Andrew Greig, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

‘Craft and Tone : ‘Poems should storm in the front door, step lightly out the back' - I love these words - though I can't remember who said them – because they draw our attention to the sometimes difficult matter of beginnings and endings, to craft and tone in general. Our week in Loutro will focus on both the content and form of poetry, thinking through ideas of voice and mood in our poems. We will cover a wide range of published work in order to generate our own. 

Hannah Lowe is a poet, memoirist and academic. her latest book, the kids, won the costa poetry award and the costa book of the year, 2021. her first poetry collection chick (bloodaxe, 2013) won the michael murphy memorial award for best first collection. she is a professor of creative writing at brunel university.

Dave Swann is a poet and fiction writer, who worked for 25 years as a lecturer at the Universities of Chichester and Lancaster. Now a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Cumbria University, he helps nurses and paramedics with academic skills. Dave's novella, Season of Bright Sorrow (Ad Hoc Press, 2021), was named 2023 Rubery Book of the Year. Inspired by incidents he witnessed as a writer-in-residence at HMP Nottingham, where he helped rehabilitate lifers and long-term prisoners, leading to The Privilege of Rain (Waterloo Press, 2011), shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry in 2017, and a PhD on the role played by writing in the rehabilitation of offenders. Dave’s stories and poems have won many awards, including eleven successes at the Bridport prize and two in the National Poetry Competition. He has taught in many settings, including homeless centres, Greek harboursides, and schools — and remains committed to helping students to develop their self-expression.

Kathryn Maris is a poet, critic, editor, translator and occasional curator who has been teaching creative writing for 25 years to all age groups, specialising in adult education. In recent years, as a Writing Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund, she has conducted numerous one-to-one sessions, becoming a very experienced and respected reviewer. She currently works as Poetry Editor for AFM magazine, while pursuing a PhD at Durham University. Her most recent collection was The House With Only An Attic And A Basement (Penguin 2018) a portion of which won the Ivan Juritz Prize for creative development.

Maurice Riordan was born in Lisgoold, Co. Cork, and lives in London. His Selected Poems is published by Faber in March 2025. Among his previous books are Shoulder Tap (2021), The Water Stealer (2013), The Holy Land (2007), Floods (2000) and A Word from the Loki (1995). He edited The Finest Music (Faber, 2014), an anthology of early Irish poetry in translation. He is a former editor of The Poetry Review and is Emeritus Professor of Poetry at Sheffield Hallam University.

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