Wild Writing in the Boreal
an annual wilderness writing retreat for women
APRIL 28-30, 2023
held at Falcon Trails Resort in Whiteshell Provincial Park, on Treaty 3 territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ and Michif Piyii (Métis) people.
Wild Writing in the Boreal blew my expectations through the roof! The entire weekend was so full of love, honesty, and beautiful writing. Both Lauren and Donna are amazing, talented women that we are all lucky to be learning from. Never have I felt so grounded at a retreat, and I am walking away feeling knowledgable and motivated. – Kiera Anderson
Wild Writing in the Boreal is an intense, engaging experience. I’ve attended two years in a row and both times came away with the information I need to keep building my career as a writer. Donna and Lauren are extremely knowledgeable and engaging, and class sizes are small. It’s a safe place to share your writing with others.
They pulled me into a deeper level of writing than ever before and the connections made within the all-female group were extremely empowering for me as a woman. I made new friendships and professional contacts at this retreat and I can’t recommend it enough. Regardless of your level of skill or where you are on your writing journey, if you’re passionate about writing, this retreat is for you. – Elizabeth Page
About the Retreat
Wild Writing in the Boreal is an annual writing retreat for beginning and experienced writers. It brings together women from Northwestern Ontario, Southern Manitoba, and beyond for a weekend of writing, sharing stories, and connecting in a warm, safe, easygoing, and gorgeous environment.
Delicious food, hot tubs, wood-burning stoves, starry nights, beautiful nature, and new friends – not to mention our Saturday evening open mic and sing-a-long and our Sunday lunch raffle – create a weekend to remember!
This year, workshops include: Play & Writing and Taking Risks In Creative Nonfiction (Donna) and Finding Your Story’s Roots and Who Said That?!: POV in Fiction (Lauren), and a Sunday morning talk by Zilla Jones on the ins-and-outs of publishing (literary journals, publishers, agents, rejection, and more: bring questions!)
But if you’d rather write more on Sunday, join Lauren for Pick-a-Prompt: A Silent Write-In.
Sunday Evening Book Launch!
End the retreat by celebrating the release of Lauren’s brand new book – Places Like These, a short story collection, published by Book*hug Press
Zilla Jones is our 2023 guest writer
Guest Writer: Zilla Jones
Zilla Jones is an African-Canadian female writing on Treaty 1 territory. She is the winner of the Malahat Open Season, Jacob Zilber, GritLit Festival and Freefall short fiction awards, and her fiction appears in Prairie Fire, the Malahat Review, Prism International, Freefall, the Puritan, the Fiddlehead, Room and is forthcoming in the Bayou Review, Federation of BC writers anthology and George Floyd anthology. She has been long-and shortlisted for a variety of awards, such as the CBC short story contest. She has received grants from the Manitoba Arts council including the Deep Bay Artists residency which enabled her to complete drafts of two novels.
The Retreat Facilitators
Donna Besel loves writing of all kinds, and does workshops and presentations for schools, libraries, universities, conferences, and retreats. She grew up at West Hawk Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park and her “boreal stories” have appeared in various publications and earned national recognition. Her work has won the Prairie Fire Creative Nonfiction prize, the Great Canadian Literary Hunt, and has been longlisted multiple times for the CBC Literary Awards.The forests of Eastern Manitoba, where she has always lived, provide endless ideas and settings. Her first book, a collection of short stories called Lessons from a Nude Man, earned several award nominations. In 2021, the University of Regina Press published her memoir, The Unravelling: Incest and the Destruction of a Family.
Lauren Carter‘s last novel This Has Nothing To Do With You won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction from the Manitoba Books Awards, and she also received the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. Her first novel Swarm appeared on the CBC Canada Read’s longlist. She has also published two poetry collections: Lichen Bright and Following Sea. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and has taught creative writing across North America and online to students from around the world, including Syria, Qatar, and California. Her fifth book — short story collection Places Like These — will be published by Book*hug Press in Spring 2023. Visit her at www.laurencarter.ca
Ready to Join Us?
Contact Deborah at Falcon Trails by emailing groupsATfalcontrailsresort.com
Countdown the Sleeps Until Our Next Retreat!
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