adaptations masterclass
Spend a week with us in early summer at Relais de Camont, an 18th century farmhouse turned creative residency in southwest France, run by renowned author, chef and cooking teacher, Kate Hill. Participate in tailored workshops, group viewings and conversation; find a quiet corner of the kitchen garden to write in; meet one-on-one with your instructors; and sample the stunning seasonal produce of the region.
your instructors
Work on writing your own creative adaptation while learning about techniques used in contemporary classics like Sherlock, Bridgerton, and the fairy tales of Angela Carter. This intensive, hands-on reading and writing retreat will be led by award-winning novelist Kirsten Tranter, author of Hold (2016), A Common Loss (2012) and The Legacy (2010) and Associate Professor of English and Writing, Trisha Pender, author of I’m Buffy and You’re History: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Contemporary Feminism (2016).
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Kirsten Tranter is an internationally acclaimed author, editor and critic based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and co-founder of the Stella Prize for Australian women’s writing. She is the author of the novels Hold (2016), longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the Voss Literary Award, A Common Loss (2012) and The Legacy (2010), a contemporary adaptation of Henry James’ classic Portrait of a Lady. The Legacy was praised by The Guardian as “a seductive contemporary literary thriller… a knowing, classy debut” and named a Kirkus Review debut novel of the year, as well as being shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal and the ABIA literary fiction award and longlisted for the Miles Franklin award. Kirsten has mentored authors and taught creative writing and literary studies around the world, at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Technology, Sydney. Her short fiction is widely published in collections including her Edgar Award-nominated story in Sydney Noir (2019). Kirsten enjoys working closely with authors to develop their voice and build on existing strengths, and she is excited to explore the inspirational possibilities of adaptation in a residency workshop setting.
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Trisha Pender is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Newcastle, Australia, who has taught courses on adaptations for over a decade. She is the author of I'm Buffy and You're History: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Contemporary Feminism (Bloomsbury 2016) and Early Modern Women's Writing and the Rhetoric of Modesty (Palgrave 2012). Trisha has published a chapbook of poetry, Bibliophilic, (Puncher & Wattmann 2018), featuring adaptations of canonical poets and contemporary pop culture, as well as shorter creative pieces in the literary journals Cordite, Overland, and Southerly. Having recently experienced wonderful writing residencies at the Relais de Camont and Centre Pompadour in France, Trisha is keen to share her literary expertise and project planning skills with a new set of readers and writers.
June 10-16, 2025
The workshop will be accessible to beginners through to experienced authors, and we ask that you come with your own idea for an adaptation in mind. This could still be in the early stages of planning, or it could be considerably advanced. Participants can expect to find inspiration and direction for their own adaptation projects, collective engagement with the process of adapting stories into literary, dramatic, and visual forms, and consideration of the ethics and politics of working with existing material. Alongside you, your instructors will also be working on adaptation projects: Kirsten on her fourth novel, The Passenger, an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep transposed to the Sydney art world of the early 80s; Trisha on a verse play, The Real Housewives of Henry VIII, based on the actual writings of Henry’s six wives.
Relais de Camont
The week-long workshop will be run in English and limited to 6 participants. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis from January 15, 2025 , until places are filled. Tuition is €1900 per person, which includes approximately 25 hours of instruction plus a one-on-one meeting with your instructors. Accommodation and board, involving excellent French food by our chef-in-residence, is €1925 for a single occupancy bedroom with private ensuite at Relais de Camont (https://relaisdecamont.com/) or at the nearby Little French Retreat (https://www.littlefrenchretreat.com/). Participants make their own arrangements for travel to and from Agen, France, which is accessible by TGV fast train from Paris, Toulouse, and Bordeaux.
enhance your retreat experience
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Time to write
Maximise your time at Relais de Camont by adding an extra week’s writing residency (unstructured, self-catering) from June 17-23 (or other available dates).
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Manuscript assessment
Take advantage of Kirsten’s manuscript assessment service (via zoom) from €300,
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Project development
Sign up for Creative Project Planning,with Trisha (€200) or Writing for Substack with Kate Hill, based on Finding France, her Memoir in Small Bites, with over 9000 subscribers.