Writing Stone
Wyl Menmuir
September 7–11, 2026
Nature Writing and the Landscapes That Define Us
The Highlights
- Five days writing with Wyl Menmuir, Man Booker nominated author, in one of the landscapes at the heart of his trilogy on place and the natural world.
- Dedicated time away from ordinary life to write, think, and pay close attention to the world around you.
- Built around The Spirit of Stone, his new book on our relationship with the natural world, in one of the most stone-rich corners of Britain.
- Come with work in progress. Leave with new writing and a different relationship with place.
The Basics
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Five nights accommodation in West Penwith, Cornwall, full board.
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Four full days of writing sessions, workshops, and discussion with Wyl.
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All meals, snacks and drinks included, with all dietary requirements catered for.
- Time to walk, visit ancient sites, and write in the landscape.
What draws us to stone? What does it mean to write from a landscape shaped by rock and earth, by the weight of what endures?
Wyl Menmuir returns to Dyski for a writing retreat built around his new book The Spirit of Stone, the final part of his trilogy exploring our relationship with place. Where The Draw of the Sea took readers to the water's edge and The Heart of the Woods into the forest, this retreat journeys into the landscapes of rock, stone and earth.
From mountains and caves to stone circles and quarries, from Neolithic carvings to the buildings we live and work in, stone is everywhere beneath us and around us, shaping not only our landscapes but our imaginations and the ways we live together. This retreat takes all of that as its starting point.
Set within a private woodland in West Penwith, one of the most stone-rich corners of Britain, with quoits, menhirs, fogous and ancient monuments within easy reach, we'll spend five days writing and thinking together. We'll visit some of these places. We'll write near them, about them, or simply alongside them.
The sessions are open to writers at any stage, working in any form. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or something harder to name. Wyl's work has always moved between the page and the landscape, and this retreat follows the same instinct: that close attention to the natural world, to the specific weight and texture of a place, is one of the most useful things a writer can do.
This retreat will appeal to anyone drawn to nature writing and landscape writing, and to anyone who has ever stood in front of something ancient, or vast, or quietly ordinary, and felt the pull of it.
Five nights accommodation in Cornwall. All meals included.
The cost of this residential workshop is:
£500 for a non residential place.
£995 for a shared twin room.
£1250 for a private double room.
£1450 for a private double room with en-suite.
Wyl Menmuir returns to Dyski for a writing retreat built around his new book The Spirit of Stone, the final part of his trilogy exploring our relationship with place. Where The Draw of the Sea took readers to the water's edge and The Heart of the Woods into the forest, this retreat journeys into the landscapes of rock, stone and earth.
From mountains and caves to stone circles and quarries, from Neolithic carvings to the buildings we live and work in, stone is everywhere beneath us and around us, shaping not only our landscapes but our imaginations and the ways we live together. This retreat takes all of that as its starting point.
Set within a private woodland in West Penwith, one of the most stone-rich corners of Britain, with quoits, menhirs, fogous and ancient monuments within easy reach, we'll spend five days writing and thinking together. We'll visit some of these places. We'll write near them, about them, or simply alongside them.
The sessions are open to writers at any stage, working in any form. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or something harder to name. Wyl's work has always moved between the page and the landscape, and this retreat follows the same instinct: that close attention to the natural world, to the specific weight and texture of a place, is one of the most useful things a writer can do.
This retreat will appeal to anyone drawn to nature writing and landscape writing, and to anyone who has ever stood in front of something ancient, or vast, or quietly ordinary, and felt the pull of it.
Five nights accommodation in Cornwall. All meals included.
The cost of this residential workshop is:
£500 for a non residential place.
£995 for a shared twin room.
£1250 for a private double room.
£1450 for a private double room with en-suite.
Wyl Menmuir is a multi award-winning author of novels, non fiction and short stories.
His 2016 debut novel, The Many, was nominated for the Man Booker Prize. Wyl's non-fiction books have been awarded the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors, the Award for Excellence from the OWPG, and a Holyer an Gof Award.
In 2026, he was awarded the Blue Metropolis Planet Literature Prize, given for a body of work that demonstrates the beauty and fragility of the living world and promotes greater ecological awareness.
A former journalist, Wyl has written for Radio 4, The Guardian and The Observer. He is a senior lecturer in creative writing at Falmouth University and a regular tutor for Arvon Foundation and Curtis Brown Creative.
Born in Stockport in 1979, Wyl now lives in Cornwall with his wife and two children. When he is not writing or teaching writing, Wyl enjoys messing around in boats.
︎︎ /wylmenmuir
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Funded places and access
There are two fully funded places available for this residency, intended to support those who may need financial assistance to attend.
Funded places cover the residency fee, accommodation, and all meals for the week. Travel costs are not included.
Access is important to us. If there is anything that might make attending difficult, including access to equipment, please let us know when applying. We will do what we can to support access.
How to apply
To apply for a funded place, please submit a short statement of no more than 300 words explaining why you would like to take part, what you hope to gain from the experience, and how it would support your practice.
Grant deadline: July 20th, 2026.
Apply for a funded place
Immersive, place-based workshops and residencies.
Focused on process, experimentation, and learning through practice.
Pronounced ['dɪski], a Cornish verb meaning to learn, or to teach.
Focused on process, experimentation, and learning through practice.
Pronounced ['dɪski], a Cornish verb meaning to learn, or to teach.
Dyski runs residencies and workshops for musicians, composers, writers, sound artists and anyone working at the edges of their practice.
We work primarily in Cornwall, UK and occasionally further afield, led by practitioners across experimental music, sound art, modular synthesis, audiovisual performance, field recording, electroacoustic composition, writing and expanded creative practice.
Our residencies emphasise process, experimentation and close engagement with place, with funded places available to support access.
We work primarily in Cornwall, UK and occasionally further afield, led by practitioners across experimental music, sound art, modular synthesis, audiovisual performance, field recording, electroacoustic composition, writing and expanded creative practice.
Our residencies emphasise process, experimentation and close engagement with place, with funded places available to support access.