“Full of curiosity”: Akvile Buitvydaite’s IWR experience
Akvile Buitvydaite was a recipient of a partial Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award. This is her story.
Kimmery Martin’s Guide to Iceland
Kimmery Martin has shared her experiences about the Iceland Writers Retreat on her blog. She writes that the event had “an invigorating cosmopolitan feel,” thanks to participants who attended from 20 countries. The story has many interesting photographs and practical information on travelling in Iceland, whether for the IWR or not.
You can read the full story on Kimmery’s website.
A glossary for the 2017 Iceland Writers Retreat*
Victor Yang was one of four recipients of the Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award in 2017. This is the story of his experience at the IWR.
Five reasons to attend the Iceland Writers Retreat
DIYMFA published a list of five reasons to attend the Iceland Writers Retreat, by 2017 participant Sara Letourneau. “I came home from this trip inspired, clear-headed, and ready to return to writing after a month where my confidence in my craft had pretty much shattered. And for that, I am profoundly grateful for the IWR experience,” she writes.
Sara’s top five reasons to attend are:
- A Wide Variety of Workshops, Led by Internationally Acclaimed Writers
- It’s Smaller Yet More Global Than Most Writing Conferences
- Excursions in Reykjavik and the Icelandic Countryside
- Immersion in Iceland’s History and Culture
- The Camaraderie and Shared Understanding Between Writers
Read the full article here.
“This is going to be an amazing week”: Iceland Writers Retreat Illustrated
Writer and illustrator Megan Herbert has attended the Iceland Writers Retreat three times. In addition to leading a popular free workshop on screenwriting at this year’s event, she was live drawing details from her workshops and other parts of the conference.
“Why the Iceland Writers Retreat is simply perfect”
Dorothyanne attended the Iceland Writers Retreat for the first time this year.
In a personal blog about the experience, she writes: “To say it was life-changing sounds trite and overblown, but it was so for me. … It feels intimate, safe, friendly, warm, and oh so supportive.”
Dorothyanne discusses her workshops, which were led by an “overwhelmingly spectacular” faculty.
On being ravished, or why the Iceland Writers Retreat is simply perfect
IWR 2017 Workshop Reflection: “How to laugh at bad critics” with Chris Cleave
Chris Cleave, award-winning British novelist, was a faculty member at the fourth Iceland Writers Retreat. In his typical self-deprecating yet good-natured humour, he led a workshop on criticism: how to get it, how to seek it out, and what to do with it once you have it.
Featured author David Lebovitz on Reykjavík bakeries
The fourth Iceland Writers Retreat has just come to an end. While we sift through the photos and memories (a detailed post will be coming soon!), check out this column by our faculty member David Lebovitz, who led small-group workshops on putting personality into food writing and on how to write a cookbook.
Iceland Writers Retreat author readings hosted in conjunction with Reykjavik UNESCO City of Literature
In celebration of the fourth Iceland Writers Retreat, we will are thrilled to announce that we’ll be hosting an evening of author readings in conjunction with Reykjavik UNESCO City of Literature. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the Iðnó building, by the Reykjavik city lake, at 8 pm on Tuesday, April 4th and will feature readings by this year’s fabulous Iceland Writers Retreat faculty. The evening will be moderated once again by the wonderful Egill Helgason.
Our Featured Authors are: Olof Palme Prize winner Carsten Jensen; bestselling author Bret Anthony Johnston; New York Times bestselling author Chris Cleave; author and Iceland Writers Retreat alumna Claudia Casper; chef and author David Lebovitz; Giller Prize winner Esi Edugyan; author, ethnologist and journalist Vilborg Davíðsdóttir; Man Booker Prize shortlist nominee Madeleine Thien; bestselling author Meg Wolitzer; Somerset Maugham Prize winner Nadifa Mohamed; Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse winner Paul Murray; and, author of The Paris Wife Paula McLain.
For more information in both Icelandic and English see our Facebook event.
Iceland Writers Retreat at the 2017 AWP Conference & Bookfair in Washington, DC
Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Iceland Writers Retreat booth at the 2017 AWP Conference & Bookfair in Washington DC this weekend. This was the first time we’ve attended this incredible event and we were thrilled to be able to meet so many interesting people and tell them about the Iceland Writers Retreat and our fabulous 2017 faculty. We had so much fun and even met some of our great IWR alumni! This year’s AWP was a massive success with over 12,000 people in attendance and around 800 exhibitors, with lots of lovely books, of course. Apart from our popular IWR bookmarks and flyers, and the wealth of literature on Iceland provided by Reykjavik UNESCO City of Literature, the Icelandic Literature Center, and Iceland Naturally, all those who stopped by our booth got to sample some delicious OMNOM chocolate from Iceland and could pick up some handy notebooks and pens from Icelandair.
We’d sincerely like to thank everyone who signed up to receive our newsletter – we’ll be sending you all a welcome post very soon.
