Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes are two of the best known and best respected poets of the twentieth century, and they were both influenced by the life and work of Emily Brontë. Sylvia even called her and Ted ‘a happy Heathcliff and Cathy’. They spent their honeymoon in Brontë Country and immersed themselves in the world of Emily Brontë, writing works inspired by this great writer.
This summer school is a celebration of the poetry, passion, creativity and literary heritage of all three writers – for the very first time!
Discover the extraordinary lives, loves and literary legacies of two of the twentieth century’s most influential poets, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, against the dramatic landscape of Brontë Country.
Set in the heart of Haworth and the surrounding Yorkshire moors, this unique summer school offers an inspiring opportunity to explore the lives and work of Plath and Hughes, whose relationship, poetry and enduring influence continue to fascinate readers around the world.
Through a stimulating programme of talks, readings, discussions and guided walks and visits to key areas, participants will examine the powerful connections between these two remarkable writers. We will explore their individual literary achievements, their complex relationship, their shared fascination with nature and mythology, and the ways in which the Yorkshire landscape helped shape their imagination and poetry.
The summer school will also consider the literary inheritance of Emily Brontë, examining the relationship between the Romantic imagination, the Gothic tradition and the distinctive poetic voices of Plath and Hughes.
There will be opportunities to discover the landscapes that inspired generations of writers, discuss some of the finest poetry of the modern age, and develop your own creative writing in an atmosphere of literary exploration and discovery.
Whether you are an established writer, a poetry enthusiast, a student of literature or simply fascinated by the lives of these extraordinary literary figures, this summer school promises an unforgettable experience.
Come and explore the poetry, passions and creative genius of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes in the very landscape that inspired the Brontës.
A summer of literature, landscape and inspiration in the heart of Brontë Country.
June 28 – July 2 £495 (five-day course in Haworth)
Does not include accommodation.
Enquiries and booking: brontewritingcentre@outlook.com
Tutors
Dr Claire O’Callaghan
Dr Claire O’Callaghan is a literary scholar, cultural historian, and writer. She is currently writing and researching a book about the influence of Emily Brontë on Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. She is an expert on Victorian literature and culture, particularly the lives, works and legacies of the Brontës. Claire is Senior Lecturer in English (Victorian Literature) at Loughborough University, U.K. (part-time), and also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Brontë Studies, the official journal of the Brontë Society.
Claire is the author of Emily Brontë Reappraised (Saraband, 2018). She works closely with the Brontë Parsonage Museum, most recently leading a project on Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Little Book’—an initiative dedicated to transcribing, editing, and interpreting a long-lost manuscript newly recovered. She is also preparing a new edition of Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey for Oxford World’s Classics (forthcoming 2027).
A frequent media contributor, Claire has contributed to media and television for the BBC, Sky Arts, and History Hit.
Praise for Emily Brontë Reappraised: “Thoughtful…an informally written, no-nonsense reappraisal…”
Dr Steve Ely
Steve Ely is a poet, Ted Hughes scholar and teacher of creative writing. He has published fourteen books or pamphlets of poetry, including the Forward Prize and Ted Hughes Award shortlisted Oswald’s Book of Hours, the Northern Writers award winning Incendium Amoris, the Laurel Prize shortlisted The European Eel and the UKI-ASLE nominated Eely.
His most recent books of poems are Orasaigh (2024) and White Pony (2026). He is a committee member of the Ted Hughes Society, and until this year he was Director of the Ted Hughes Network at the University of Huddersfield. He has written extensively about the importance of Hughes’s Yorkshire, leading the Discovering Ted Hughes’s Yorkshire project, leading a number of literary walks in Hughesian landscapes, and publishing a monograph, Ted Hughes’s South Yorkshire: Made in Mexborough, and several articles on Hughes.
His recent Hughes research has focused on the Expressionist strain in Hughes’s work, the importance of his neglected scriptwriting and the importance of the Heptonstall/Colden Clough landscape to Hughes life and work. This groundbreaking research led to his discovery of the hitherto unknown site where Hughes buried the ashes of Assia Wevill, an account of which is given in his 2020 article ‘The Key of the Sycamore’.
During 2022-24 he taught and co-led the Ted Hughes/Sylvia Plath summer schools at Arvon Lumb Bank with Heather Clark, and he has taught creative writing and lectured in a number of residential and other settings, including various Arvon Centres, the Garsdale Retreat, festivals, universites, schools, prisons, in community settings and online. His recent work on Plath has focused on close readings of her later work, identifying the typical characteristics of her dazzling art, and how her poetry interacts with and draws on aspects of her life.
Dr Michael Stewart
Dr Michael Stewart is the author of four novels: King Crow (Bluemoose Books, winner of the Guardian’s Not-the-Booker Award, selected as a recommended read for World Book Night); Café Assassin (Bluemoose Books); Ill Will: The Untold Story of Heathcliff (HarperCollins, optioned by Kudos Films); and Black Wood Women (HarperCollins); two short story collections: Mr Jolly (Valley Press) and Four Letter Words (Wrecking Ball Press); two poetry collections: Couples (Valley Press) and The Dogs (Smokestack); and a hybrid memoir: Walking the Invisible: Following in the Brontës’ Footsteps (HarperCollins)
He is also the creator of the Brontë Stones project, four monumental stones situated in the landscape between the birthplace and the parsonage, inscribed with poems by Kate Bush, Carol Ann Duffy, Jeannette Winterson and Jackie Kay.
He has written for TV, radio and stage, and is the winner of the BBC Alfred Bradley Bursary Award, and the BBC Short Range film competition. His BBC Radio 4 drama Excluded was shortlisted for the Imison Award. He was head of Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield for 18 years and now runs the Brontë Writing Centre.
Find out more about him here
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