Arvon has published its programme for 2016, with 17 poetry courses including titles ranging from the prosaic starting to write poetry to the intriguing poetry as controlled explosion.

The tutorial cast is a who’s who of contemporary poets with the frequently-forward Ian Duhig, Mimi Kalvahti, Jean Sprackland, Jacob Polley, Daljit Nagra, Julia Copus, Liz Berry, Jane Draycott, Kei Miller, Steve Eley (who appeared at Marsden Write Out Loud’s Cuckoo Festival poetry jam), and Jo Bell who is well-known to Writer Out Loud readers.

Arvon courses are week-long residential stints where you can get stuck in to learning, writing and making real progress. They change lives. My own experience can attest to that, though that was not a poetry course. Write Out Loud has run a performance poetry course with Arvon, so we are biased. At around £750 for the week’s tuition, accommodation and all food they might seem not to be cheap, but they are generally good value, and grants are available.

The learning takes place in wonderful centres including John Osborne’s and Ted Hughes’ old gaffs, The Hurst in Shropshire and Lumb Bank (pictured) in Heptonstall respectively. They do try to keep you away from the pressures of email and phone. At their third English centre, Totleigh Barton, I found no mobile coverage and was delegated by fellow students to tour the district to find somewhere from which to contact the outside world. I returned to announce that the best coverage was immediately beside the village phone box.

Besides poetry there is writing for theatre, screen, fiction non-fiction, and for radio, tutored by Oxford Professor of Poetry Simon Armitage, whose roots are in Marsden, whence this dispatch is posted for your information.

Courses fill up very quickly: www.arvon.org