Writers Retreat

Develop your writing craft and forge lasting friendships in a welcoming and inspiring environment.

Nestled deep in the woods between two lakes, you’ll spend five idyllic days writing new material, attending presentations by award-winning faculty, enjoying evening readings, and making connections in the literary world.

The program features engaging class sessions, provocative faculty presentations, and faculty and participant readings—plus ample opportunities to explore Interlochen’s campus, mingle with other writers, and write independently amidst the serenity of nature. You can also participate in an optional public reading at Interlochen Public Library.

You'll select a concentration from several unique tracks described below, each grounded in different craft concepts with an emphasis on generating new work. Descriptions for each track will be posted soon.

You’ll emerge from the program with the inspiration and ideas to develop your next work—plus the encouragement and support of your new friends and mentors.

What You'll Need

You should bring a draft or outline of the work you’d like to develop during your time at the retreat.

Dates

June 8 - 13, 2025

Early Registration Fee

$626

Fee increases after March 1

On-Campus Lodging

Participants can enjoy 10% off at the Stone Hotel and Cottages.

Choose one of the following concentrations upon registering.

Explorations in Poetry and Prose with Ignatius Valentine Aloysius

In this generative writing workshop, you’ll explore ways to blend the musicality, rhythm, and controlled rigor of the poetic form with the more expansive and familiar narrative prose structure. Poetry and prose are fundamental to the writers' craft, but inviting a more intricate relationship between these two writing methods can broaden our understanding of creative writing power. While you move through a conventional narrative landscape, learn how lyricism can also redeem and excite you. Use it to free your canvas (without getting carried away), and as you foster newer hybridized ways to enhance your storytelling and character development, draw ideas from imagery, precise language, and emotion to push some boundaries. Bring your curiosity and questions. Come, write with me.

Writing Short: Stories in a Flash (Fiction & Nonfiction) with Desiree Cooper

Many writers shudder at the notion of limiting their stories to 1,000 words or less. But brevity in storytelling can be both powerful and profound. If you’re interested in writing flash, roll up your sleeves and join this workshop. We’ll investigate how flash pulls from other narrative structures, including poetry, jokes, and journalism. You’ll leave with specific tools for compression, concision, and whittling a story to its perfect essence. This will be a generative workshop and is open to all writers of all levels.

Writing the Hard Stuff with Patricia Ann McNair

All writing can be hard, true enough, but let’s face it, some things are harder to write than others. Sex, pain, grief, violence, confessions, and family secrets are just some of the things we might struggle with telling on the page and to our readers. Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, writing can feel a little like exposing oneself. And yet, some of the strongest stories are made from difficult topics. Let’s look at the things we are afraid to write and why, and let’s explore ways to get out of the way of what the story wants to be. You may be making new work or grappling with ongoing material, but in either case, let’s try to silence the self-censors. Open to all genres and levels of writing experience.

Narrative Alchemy: Fusing Fiction & Live Experiences with Christine Maul Rice

Is your writing a blend of memory and wholly imagined events? Most likely. If not, why? From James Baldwin to Zora Neale Hurston to Tim O'Brien, writers reimagine lived experiences into fiction. This workshop will guide each participant to identify the most compelling material from what often seems like an overwhelming abundance of experiences. Digging? Excavating? Yes. We'll prod beneath the surface of your life to lift and draw out. We'll experiment with point of view, structure, and form to get each participant's most compelling material on the page. We'll create brand new work or push work in progress in useful directions. We’ll think deeply about how fiction and nonfiction merge by reading a number of texts, looking at various objects and images, and even listening to music. We’ll explore avenues that will lead us to fresh characters, unintended places, and tension-filled situations. Come to the workshop with a short story, novel chapter, or nonfiction essay you’d like to investigate further or come to the workshop with nothing particular in mind. Either way, be open to the endless possibility of creation.

Please bring materials to take notes and work on writing assignments. In workshops, you will usually use journals and pens, but a laptop can be handy during the week. A USB Flash Drive (memory stick) is also recommended. Printers and Wi-Fi will be available.

See our registration and cancellation policy.

K-12 educators in Michigan can earn 22 SCECH clock hours by attending the Writers Retreat.

The Anne-Marie Oomen and Katey Schultz ICCA Creative Writing Scholarship is awarded annually to (one or more) eligible participants in the Interlochen College of Creative Arts (ICCA) Writers Retreat. The scholarship funds awarded will cover the applicant’s registration fee for the retreat. Award is competitive and merit-based.

VIEW THE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS AND APPLICATION