Become a member of the CCLA and join us on our 2009 trip.

CCLA Membership is only $50 and you get:

– 4 issues of The Ambassador, our perfect bound literary journal
– A monthly eNewsletter – The Envoy
– Submit your poetry, prose, reviews to The Envoy
– Submit your poetry and prose to our CCLA members anthology
– We also publish members work in a variety of different anthologies or even a full book.
– Join us on our CCLA member trips.
– Sign up as a CCLA reader at the annual Stellar Literary Festival
– Sign up as a CCLA reader at the annual Purdy Fest. 
– Sign up as a reader at the open mic at the CCLA Art and Lit Fest
– Free booth at the annual CCLA Art and Lit Fest

   Find Info on:

- Day Trips
- Workshops
- Publishing
- Readings
- Included in your price
- What is Not included
- Prices
- Tentative Flight Times
- Book Your Holiday

January / February, 2009
CCLA Trip to Holguìn, Cuba

Start saving for our next CCLA trip to Cuba.  Two years in a row the CCLA has been to Havana on a workshop / reading tour. In 2009 we are shifting gears and going to Holguín and Guardalavaca.  We will spend one week in the city of Holguín and one week in a resort on the beach near the town of Guaradalvaca called Club Amigo

For the first week in Holguín we will spend time workshoping our writing and taking three different day trips.  Those day trips will include: 1– a trip to the top of Cross Hill, 2– A trip to Manuel’s father’s farm and 3– a trip to the seaside port of Gibara.  Below you will find a description of each day trip.

While in Holguín we will be spending almost every morning gathered as a group to workshop our writing.  The workshops will be held during and after breakfast at our main casa particular which will also be our primary meeting place.  Every participant will have an opportunity to share some of their brand new work that has been growing out of the trip and/or work that they brought with them from home.  For some authors this will be an opportunity to work on existing work in a relaxing holiday environment while for others it is an opportunity to see and explore Cuba and workshop the brand new work that is being written each day. See below for details on some of the workshop activities.



Day Trips for the First Week:

1– A walk to the top of Cross Hill. Cross Hill should more aptly be described as a mini mountain that bulges out of the west side Holguín. Over 500 steps will take you to a breath taking view of Holguín province all the way to the ocean.  While it is a huff and a puff of a walk to the top the stairs are laid out in sections of 25 steps.  A few months ago I carried my bicycle to the top and rested after every 50 steps. Take a rest at each section or take a cab to the top.  We will have lots of time to take notes and write while at the top. You will want to bring your camera and your note book.  Some of us will walk down the back side of the mountain into Holguín’s poorer community.  A walk through these streets will be fuel enough for a raft of poems or short stories.  I am sure there are novels being enacted as we plan this trip.

2 – A trip to Manuel’s father’s farm.  We will have to rent a jeep or three to get us all there.  The roads are a poem or short story in themselves.  Navigating these potholed roads and understanding the politics behind their condition will almost be worth the trip. The condition of the roads will slow us down considerably but the trip will be worth it. We will stop to see the country side a few times and take some pictures and write some creative notes.  We will have a pig or goat roast dinner at a turn of the century Cuban farm with Manuel’s family as our hosts.  You will feel like you have walked into history and turned the corner on modern life.  We will have lots of time to roam the fields and pick plantain for dinner. Manuel’s father is a true man of the land. This will be a long day but you will never forget the love and hospitality that will be given you by Manuel’s family.

3 – A day trip to the seaside port of Gibara. You will fill your fantacy and your note books after spending the afternoon in this town of a million ghosts.  Gibara is a historic seaside port about 20 – 30 minutes from Holguín.  The country highways are in good condition and we will probably go all together in one mini van.  Keep your camera and note pads handy as you roam this 250 year old town that has been in a slumber for the last 100 years.  There are a couple of antiquated museums there but you will want to spend your time walking the quiet streets on your own or in small groups.  We will have lunch there and take our time driving back to our casa stopping a few times to snap pictures and take notes for your future book that will be swimming around in your head.

Day Trips for the Second Week:

During the second week at the resort on the beach we are thinking about going on a couple of day trips.  Here are a couple of places that will be of literary interest.  All of the day trips will be great fuel for poems and short stories that can be included in the trip anthology that each CCLA traveller will be included in.

1 – The Chorro de Maita is a reconstruction of a Taino village.  At this location, in the foothills, there is a burial grounds that looks out towards the ocean.  It has hundreds of years of exposed graves and bones.  It is possible that we could include a trip to the city of Banes as part of this Chorro de Maita trip. Banes will also fuel many poems as it is not a tourist location. You will see the every day lives of Cubans in this city.  Both locations would be of interest for anyone interested in the present day as well as the historic anthropology of Cuba.  Chorro de Maita is an extremely beautiful evocative place, especially for anyone interested in Original Peoples, archeology, bones and history.



Workshops:

“Writing-On-The-Spot” is a unique opportunity to participate in ten minute exercises that will help to hone your literary skills and develop ideas quickly.   These exercises will be carried out many times during the trip and will be the bases for one of the published anthologies if we have enough submissions.

“Intimate Strangers III” This workshop is very different from the writing-on-the-spot quick action process.  It is based on a single photograph presented to the group.  Participants will be led in a specific ponderous format that will involve sharing ideas and will culminate in writing a first draft of poetry or prose.  Participants will share their observations of the presented photograph and will be lead into understanding how observation coupled with hyperbole is a powerful subjective rather than objective writing tool. The poems and short stories that come from this workshop will be published in the “Intimate Strangers III” anthology.


“Feed Back Workshops” These workshops will be held a few times a week and will give participants the opportunity to read some of the poetry or prose and receive feedback from the group and the writer-in-residence. There will be plenty of opportunity to discuss an individual’s work in this gentle but enlightening format. Participants are invited to bring some of their “almost finished” work for these critique sessions.  




Publishing:

We will be publishing at least two books from the trip.  One book will be the “Intimate Strangers III” anthology and the other will be the Trip anthology that will include work by trip participants. 



Readings:

Reading locations have not been established yet but we will probably do a reading at UNEAC and at the University of Holguín and possibly at the public library. We will talk about where, when and how many readings we should do after we know other aspects of our itineraries.