WRITERS RETREAT

WRITERS
RETREAT

Information & Application Details

Applications for the 2023 Oxbelly Writers Retreat are now open.
Τhe deadline for submission is February 28, 2023.

The working language is English; thus, a good knowledge of English is essential in order to participate.

  • Location
    Costa Navarino, Messinia, Greece
  • Dates
    June 3-11, 2023
  • Duration
    8 days
  • Application Deadline
    February 28, 2023

The Oxbelly Writers Retreat brings together writers from around the world for a week of literary and creative exchange, held at Costa Navarino in historic Messinia, Greece. In its inaugural year, Oxbelly Writers Retreat will support 15 emerging fiction writers and poets committed to elevating their craft, strengthening their literary voice, and contributing to intercultural dialogues around storytelling.

Fellows will engage in workshops and craft sessions led by faculty and guests who are themselves established and acclaimed writers and industry leaders, followed by unstructured time to write in the serene and transformative environment the Messinian scenic landscape offers. The Oxbelly Writers Retreat has no cost to apply and all expenses for fellows are covered.

Program Details

The Retreat will consist of a series of workshops led by a faculty of acclaimed writers. The second half offers a mini-residence for the fellows to soak in the scenic and peaceful atmosphere of Costa Navarino and produce work unhindered by Retreat obligations, with evening talks, lectures and readings by both the writing mentors, guest writers, and industry guests.

Fellows will also engage in cross programmatic opportunities with the Oxbelly Episodic Program, running concurrently at Costa Navarino, thereby expanding their networks and the cross-pollination between the literary and TV industries.

Open Call for Greek and International applicants who are emerging writers of fiction or poetry, including unpublished writers and students, 18 years old and over.

Applications close February 28, 2023. Selected applicants will be informed by email in April 2023.

The Writers Retreat aims to support exceptional narratives in all genres by emerging fiction writers and poets from around the world. Our sole criteria is literary quality. To this end, we welcome work that is original in its vision, is written in an engaging voice, uses evocative language, experiments with form, and that is confident in its craft regardless of subject matter. We ask you to submit work that is refined, polished, and that reflects your truest potential as a writer.

For any further information, please email contact[at]oxbelly.com

F.A.Q.

Do I have to be a published or unpublished author?

The work that you are submitting with cannot be published before. You yourself may be a published writer.

Can I submit more than once? or to both fiction and poetry?

You are limited to one submission, poetry or fiction. Double submission will result in disqualification.

What is the visa process for international applicants, if accepted?

Applicants must lead the visa process, although we will prepare the appropriate letter of recommendation.

Chigozie Obioma
Chigozie Obioma
Program Director, Mentor

Chigozie Obioma was born in Akure, Nigeria. His first two novels, The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were both finalists for the Booker prize. His novels have been translated into more than 29 languages and won the inaugural FT/Oppenheimer Award for Fiction, an NAACP Image Award, the LA Times Book prize, the Internationaler literaturpreis and was nominated for many other awards. The Fishermen was adapted into an award-winning stage play by Gbolahan Obisesan that played in the UK and South Africa between 2018-2019. He was named one of Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2015. He is the James E. Ryan Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and divides his time between the US and Nigeria. 

Rebecca Makkai
Rebecca Makkai
Mentor

Rebecca Makkai’s last novel, The Great Believers, was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; it was the winner of the ALA Carnegie Medal, the Stonewall Book Award, the Clark Prize, and the LA Times Book Prize; and it was one of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of 2018. Her other books are the novels The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House, and the collection Music for Wartime—four stories from which appeared in The Best American Short Stories. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Rebecca is on the MFA faculties of the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe and Northwestern University, and is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago.

Kwame Dawes
Kwame Dawes
Mentor

Kwame Dawes is the author of numerous books of poetry and other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. His most recent collection UnHistory, was co-written with John Kinsella (Peepal Tree Press, UK 2022). Dawes is a George W. Holmes University Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner. He teaches in the Pacific MFA Program and is the Series Editor of the African Poetry Book Series, Director of the African Poetry Book Fund, and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. He is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Kwame Dawes is the winner of the prestigious Windham/Campbell Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In 2022, Dawes was awarded the Order of Distinction Commander class by the Government of Jamaica.

Scott Cairns
Scott Cairns
Guest Speaker

Scott Cairns is the author of ten poetry collections, including Idiot Psalms, Slow Pilgrim, and Anaphora. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The New Republic, Poetry, etc., and has been anthologized in Best Spiritual Writing and Best American Spiritual Writing. He has also written a spiritual memoir, Short Trip to the Edge, a theological meditation, The End of Suffering, and libretti for the oratoria “The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp” and “A Melancholy Beauty.” His spiritual memoir was also released in Greek and Romanian editions. Cairns has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and was awarded the Denise Levertov Award in 2014. He was Curators’ Distinguished Professor of English at University of Missouri, and currently directs Seattle Pacific University's MFA in Creative Writing. Cairns is the founding director of Writing Workshops in Greece, a program that brings writers to engage with literary life in modern Greece.

Anuradha Roy
Anuradha Roy
Guest Speaker

Anuradha Roy has written five widely read novels, among which Sleeping on Jupiter won the DSC Prize for Fiction 2016 and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2015. All the Lives We Never Lived won the Sahitya Akademi, one of India’s highest literary honours, and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. It won Tata Literature Live Book of the Year. The Folded Earth won the Economist Crossword Prize and her latest book, The Earthspinner, won the Sushila Devi Prize. All her books, most notably her debut, An Atlas of Impossible Longing, have been translated into many languages. She also writes essays and journalism. Roy was writer-in-residence at the Maison des Écrivains Étrangers et des Traducteurs in France, and has been a visiting speaker at Cornell and Cordoba Universities. She lives in Ranikhet, India, where she runs a scholarly press, Permanent Black, with her partner Rukun Advani and four dogs.
 

Fiammetta Rocco
Fiammetta Rocco
Guest Speaker

Fiammetta Rocco is a senior editor and the culture correspondent at The Economist. Her journalism has won awards on both sides of the Atlantic. Fiammetta has been the judge of numerous prizes for fiction and non-fiction, and is also the administrator of the International Booker Prize. Of Franco-Italian origin, she grew up in Kenya and read Arabic at Oxford University. Her book, “The Miraculous Fever Tree”, about malaria and the discovery of quinine, was published in Britain and in America. She and her family live between London and Scotland.

Bill Clegg
Bill Clegg
Guest Speaker

Bill Clegg is a literary agent in New York and the author of the bestselling memoirs Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man and Ninety Days. The author of the novels Did You Ever Have a Family and The End of the Day, he has been longlisted for The National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, PEN/Robert Bingham Prize and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence.  He’s written for the New York Times, Lapham’s Quarterly, New York Magazine, The Guardian and Vogue.

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