EVENT RECAP
2021 Highlights
2021: A Virtual Retreat
In 2021, with the pandemic and travel bans still underway, we knew safety had to come first, but that we had to find a way to keep our precious writing community together. And so, from our homes around the globe, we gathered for the first ever virtual Iceland Writers Retreat and Iceland Readers Retreat. Some of our most dynamic former faculty joined to teach workshops to over 200 people from 26 countries. We offered thirty different workshops, across three days, which included a Q&A panel of Icelandic authors, book talks from renown authors, writing intensive workshops in both fiction and nonfiction, and more. Between classes, we offered brief informational talks, we opened up chat rooms for alumni or newcomers, and showed videos of past retreats and about Icelandic literature. Despite our distance, we found a way to unite, to write, to learn, and ultimately, to connect.
ONLINE OPTIONS
Our 2021 Faculty
We have asked some of our most popular former instructors to reprise their workshops from their time in Iceland, or to lead an interactive “book club” style discussion.
Click on the author’s name to read their bio and find out about what they are teaching.
W= Writing workshop
B= Book-club style discussion
Q= Taking part in an author Q&A discussion
IWR 2021 Schedule
April 23: Note Ragnar Helgi Ólafsson is now teaching “The Poet’s Jacket” in slot 2 on Friday and Randy Boyagoda is now teaching “Life, Death, and Dante” in slot 3 on Saturday. This pdf will be updated shortly. Also note that there will be no chat rooms before the event begins.

Past Faculty
Adam Gopnik
New Yorker staff writerAdania Shibli
Award winning author and teacherAdelle Waldman
Bestselling authorAlison Pick
Man Booker Prize nomineeAndrew Evans
Author, travel writer, and TV hostAndrew Westoll
Charles Taylor Prize winnerAndri Snær Magnason
Icelandic Literary Prize winnerAnn Hood
NYT bestselling authorBarbara Kingsolver
Orange Prize for Fiction winnerBret Anthony Johnston
Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, AustinCarsten Jensen
Olof Palme Prize winnerChigozie Obioma
Man Booker Prize finalistChris Cleave
New York Times bestselling authorClaudia Casper
Author, IWR AlumnaCraig Davidson
Scotiabank Giller Prize nomineeDavid Lebovitz
Chef, AuthorElina Hirvonen
Author, journalist, and filmmakerElizabeth Renzetti
Bestselling author and journalistEsi Edugyan
Giller Prize WinnerGeraldine Brooks
Pulitzer Prize winnerGerður Kristný
Icelandic Literature Award winnerGwendoline Riley
Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction nominee (2017)Hallgrímur Helgason
Icelandic Literary Prize winnerIain Reid
Award winning authorIvan Coyote
Hilary Weston Roger's Trust prize nomineeJames Scudamore
Man Booker Prize nomineeJohn Vaillant
Governor General’s Award winnerJoseph Boyden
Giller Prize winnerKate Williams
Historian, novelist, and broadcasterLauren Groff
National Book Award finalistLina Meruane
Chilean writer and scholarLina Wolff
August Prize winnerLinn Ullmann
Critically acclaimed Norwegian authorLouis de Bernières
Commonwealth Writers' Prize winnerMadeleine Thien
Man Booker Prize nomineeMarcello Di Cintio
Award-winning travel writerMark Kurlansky
Journalist and bestselling authorMeg Wolitzer
Bestselling AuthorMiriam Toews
Governor General’s Award winnerNadifa Mohamed
Somerset Maugham Prize winnerNeel Mukherjee
Man Booker Prize nomineePamela Paul
The New York Times Book Review editorPaul Murray
Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse winnerPaul Yoon
Harvard University lecturerPaula McLain
Author of The Paris Wife & morePriya Basil
Commonwealth Writers' Prize nomineeRagnar Helgi Ólafsson
Icelandic Literary Prize nomineeRandy Boyagoda
University of Toronto English professorRory Maclean
Bestselling travel writerRuth Reichl
Bestselling food writer and editorSara Wheeler
Internationally bestselling travel writerSarah Moss
Creative Writing Prof and award-winning authorSjón
Nordic Council Literary Prize winnerSusan Orlean
New Yorker staff writerSusan Shreve
Guggenheim Award winnerTaiye Selasi
Granta “Best Young British Novelist”Terry Fallis
Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour winnerTessa Hadley
Windham Campbell prize winnerVilborg Davíðsdóttir
Author, Ethnologist, JournalistVincent Lam
Giller Prize winnerÁ Íslensku

Ritlistarnámskeiðið Iceland Writers Retreat verður haldið í sjöunda sinn dagana 28. apríl – 2. maí, 2021. Í þetta sinn verður námskeiðið stafrænt á netinu. Á námskeiðinu gefst rithöfundum og fólki sem hefur bók í bígerð kostur á að taka þátt í námskeiðum og vinnustofum sem þaulreyndir höfundar og ritstjórar sjá um. Námskeiðið verður á ensku.
Auk námskeiða og vinnustofa fá ráðstefnugestir að kynnast hinum ríka bókmenntaarfi Íslendinga í gegnum kynningar af ýmsu tagi.
Iceland Writers Retreat er ætlað að höfða til erlendra gesta sem vilja æfa sig í skrifum og kynnast um leið sögu, menningu og náttúrufegurð Íslands. Heimafólk getur líka skráð sig á námskeiðið.
Ég held að IWR sé mikill hvalreki fyrir íslenska bókmenningu. Leiðbeinendur á heimsmælikvarða ásamt þáttakendum færa heim fjölbreytt og góð áhrif.”
–Andri Snær Magnason
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