Turn your life into a book – and your writing talent into a career

Two summer schools at University College Falmouth in July 2009 will offer unique opportunities for budding writers to stretch their abilities and find out how to turn their experience and talents into paid, published work.

Building on last year's success, the Professional Writing Summer School will be taught entirely by successful practising writers and will cover areas ranging from telling compelling stories and creating convincing fictional characters to copywriting for business and pitching ideas for feature articles and non-fiction books.

In the same week, 6-10 July, the Turn Your Life Into A Book Summer School will focus on using material from your own experience to write in both non-fictional and fictional forms. Areas covered will include beginnings, finding your voice and shaping and editing your material for publication.

The Turn Your Life Into A Book Summer School will be led by Sophie Parkin, a high-profile writer who has drawn extensively on her own colourful life story for novels including Dear Goddess and the Life and Loves of Lily series, as well as for memoir pieces published in Virago's Sons and Mothers and Mothers by Daughters. Sophie, who grew up in Cornwall, has written for numerous magazines and newspapers, broadcast on national radio and TV and appeared at many literary festivals. She's also a columnist for literary website 3ammagazine.com and runs the monthly 3AMPP literary music evening in conjunction with The Penpusher Magazine.

Together with her mother - the artist and novelist Molly Parkin - and her 18-year-old daughter Molly, Sophie also runs a multigenerational disco, The Parkin Lot, at Soho's famously bohemian Green Carnation Club.

Tutors running one-day workshops for the Professional Writing Summer School are:

Tim Pears, whose first novel, In the Place of Fallen Leaves, won both the Hawthornden Prize and the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award and whose latest, Blenheim Orchard, was described by The Daily Mail as "a brilliantly insightful family saga, full of comedy and sadness".

Susannah Marriott, a freelance writer and editor who has published 20 non-fiction books on subjects ranging from complementary medicine to folklore.

Jane Pugh, who has worked as a script editor at both the BBC and Carlton Television, on series including Peak Practice and Ballykissangel, and has also written several short dramas for Channel 4 television.

Oliver Bennett, a prolific features journalist and travel writer whose work appears regularly in national magazines and newspapers including the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.

Piers Alder, Head of Content at Duttons, a leading branding agency working with many major UK and international brands, and a partner at digital marketing agency Raww.

Both summer schools will be taught at University College Falmouth's attractive Woodlane campus in central Falmouth from 6-10 July. Places on each are limited to 16 and cost £380 (not including accommodation).

Christina Bunce, who leads the College's MA Professional Writing course, says: "The feedback from participants at last year's Professional Writing Summer School was extremely positive, so we're delighted to be able to offer the same format again at the same price, which we think represents exceptional value for money. We're also very excited to be launching the Turn Your Life Into A Book Summer School with Sophie Parkin. As well as being a gifted writer, Sophie is a hugely entertaining personality and I'm sure it will prove a memorable as well as a highly informative week."

For more details and to book a place on the course, please visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/summerschool or call Heidi James on 01326 370476.

For further information about MA Professional Writing at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/professionalwriting, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214374.

University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.

This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2012 that will be unique to the South West.

The College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union, the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall County Council.

Ends

For further information about Sophie Parkin, please visit www.sophieparkin.co.uk

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792; or email: jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk

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