Megan Ross recently returned from the Iceland Writers Retreat – known as one of the world’s best and most picturesque writers retreats.
Ross is a writer, journalist and editorial designer from Gonubie in the Eastern Cape. She was selected as the female South African entrant for the PEN International New Voices Award in 2014, longlisted for the 2015 Short Sharp Stories Award and shortlisted for the 2015 Short Story Day Africa Prize.
In December, she won an Alumni Award to the Iceland Writers Retreat, and travelled to Reykjavík in April.
Read her report, and interview with IWR co-founder Eliza Reid:
It’s touted as one of the best writing retreats in the world, and after attending I must agree that the Iceland Writers Retreat lives up to its reputation. Set in picturesque Reykjavik, the retreat consists of four days of writing, events and workshops led by acclaimed authors. This year’s retreat featured workshops with Neel Mukherjee, Miriam Toews and Cheryl Strayed, among others, and was also the first year the Alumni Award was awarded. An all-inclusive prize, based on merit and financial need, the award is entirely funded by the retreat’s alumni, and is the reason I was able to travel 11,000km to beautiful Iceland for such an unforgettable writing experience.
On the last day, I caught up with co-founder of the IWR, Canadian-born writer Eliza Reid, to talk about her work-life balance, mingling with famous writers and her key ingredients for a writing retreat.
You’ve had a busy year. There’s the Iceland Writers Retreat, you’re a mother to four children and you’re also a writer. How do you manage to do so much, with a young family in tow?
Iceland is a great place for young families. There is help in the form of subsidies from the government and Reykjavik is a really safe, small city: I let my children walk home from school, and child care is reasonable. Coming from Canada, where having four kids and still working would just not be possible, it makes logistical sense to be here. I also have a home office and my husband and I have a really good domestic balance at home.
On top of this, your husband is running for the Icelandic presidency, and you might just be the new First Lady of Iceland. How is this affecting things?
At the moment I’m focusing exclusively on the campaign, where there are only another three weeks to go. I’m just doing the essential stuff for IWR and some of my other projects, while Erica [Jacobs Green, IWR co-founder] is of course, looking after a lot. We also have Lisa Shannen helping us on social media.
At the beginning of the retreat, you mentioned that you came up with the idea for a writing retreat over lunch with Erica. Tell me about that.
I like to say that most good ideas always start over booze of some sort. But really, we were over at Erica’s drinking wine in the kitchen, and Erica had just come back from a writing conference in the United States. We were having this philosophical discussion about writing and we wondered why there’s nothing like that here in Iceland when there are so many in the US … and being the kind of person who is into event organising, I piped up and said we should start our own. (We also joked that it would be a good excuse to hang out and make our lunches tax-deductable!)
How did you get things started?
I was going to Canada, where my brother is also a writer. He and I chatted about my idea for a writers’ retreat, and I asked him what he thought peoples’ expectations would be, what we should focus on and how we would go about organising something like this. He suggested we find some authors who would be good teachers, and get some sponsors on board.
In only its first year, you attracted writers like New Yorker journalist Susan Orlean. How did you manage to secure such a famous writer for a fledgling event?
We were really lucky at first. Susan Orlean is a friend of a friend, so we were able to get her in 2014. And we just wrote Geraldine Brooks an email asking her to get involved the following year. Word of mouth helped, and getting those first authors assisted us out for the retreats that followed. We also made sure everything looked legitimate and ran smoothly. And since then, writers have been surprisingly willing. The retreat is also set in Iceland, which is a big drawcard!
Iceland is home to a rich, centuries-old literary tradition and is also the first non-native English speaking country to have a UNESCO City of Literature. Does this have anything to do with the IWR gaining such momentum in only its third year?
It helps that Iceland has its own well-known authors, along with an amazing literary culture, but honestly, I have no idea how it’s grown so big, so quickly. I guess people have enjoyed it and they’ve expressed this through word of mouth.
What is at the core of the Iceland Writers Retreat?
This isn’t a competition or a conference. It’s about bringing like-minded people together into a completely new, beautiful environment. There’s a relaxed, friendly tone. And the travel dimension is very attractive.
How important is the team behind the scenes?
The retreat started with just Erica and I. Erica has a fulltime job so I do a lot of the day-to-day things but we make all the big decisions together. In terms of a team, we have our social media and marketing intern, Audrey Wright, who manages that aspect of things. We’re lucky to mentor her, which forms part of her university programme in Toronto. There’s also our blog manager, plus our volunteers who help out for the duration of the retreat. We also pay our volunteer coordinators, Elizabeth Nunberg and Lisa Shannen.
The event is so slick and impeccably run. How do you achieve this with such a small team?
Planning, planning and more planning. Even though we organise everything down to the last minute, there’s constant work to be done during the retreat. I mean, this year I’ve only been to one workshop. I know Erica’s also only been to one, and the rest of the time we have just been working.
How do you cope when things go awry?
No matter how well we plan things there are always little things that can go wrong. But you just have to fix them! For instance, Cheryl Strayed couldn’t come this year. She had terrible flu and couldn’t fly. But people are generally understanding, so we deal with it and move on, and learn for the following year.
You and Erica are a powerhouse team. How do you do it?
Erica and I have been friends since 2011 and just work really well together. I never have to explain myself to her, and vice versa. Communication is obviously key in this sort of thing.
Does running a writing retreat inspire your own writing career?
It most certainly does. Lately, I haven’t put a priority on my own writing career or made it my whole focus and that’s okay. On the rare occasion, I do get some writing in. But that’s really on the rare occasion.
What is your favourite part of the retreat?
I find the entire event wholly fulfilling. Erica and I joke that we’ve found a way to meet people from around the world, and make great contacts to stay with each time we travel. But seriously, I have loved creating this network of similar-minded people from all over the world, and Erica and I both enjoy playing a role in connecting people with each other.
The Alumni Award is a great way to make this sort of event more inclusive. Was this one of its aims?
Despite us trying to make it as cost-effective as possible, we know not a lot of writers could afford to go to this sort of event. So we thought we should just ask our alumni, because they could afford to come here in the first place. Owing to their generosity, we named it for them. Although we based the Alumni Award on merit and financial need, we were well aware it would be difficult to determine who is more deserving since we don’t ask for proof of financial need. When it comes down to it, do you choose the widow with four kids and cancer from Iowa or the young female writer in Sudan? It can be difficult.
How did the Alumni Award work?
It was mainly a quick win contest. We had five hundred entries and it ended up being like this lottery. We didn’t charge an entry fee and a competition works really well because it’s great advertising too.
How long did it take to raise the funds?
We used the Icelandic version of Kickstarter, and raised 50 percent of our goal in just one day, and the rest in only two weeks. We were pleased with how ready the alumni were to help because it really showed the value of such an award.
What is your core focus when planning the retreat each year?
We insist on small, intimate groups, as well as a good gender balance in the faculty and the classes. And then of course, it’s set in Iceland! We incorporate this tourism aspect into a lot of what we do in the form of literary tours and events. People enjoy this.
Do you have any plans to expand the IWR? Would you consider hosting another event or recreating something similar somewhere else?
We decide plans for expansion on a year-to-year basis. We like to give as many people as possible an opportunity to attend, but also want to maintain the small, friendly feeling. There’s a few tweaks lined up for 2017 which we are yet to announce. As for the latter, we’ll always host it in Iceland.
I keep imagining an event like this in South Africa. What would you tell someone looking to establish a new writing retreat?
Write a good business plan. When you’re thinking about securing a corporate sponsor, don’t tell them your event is great because it’s a good cause, give them the bottom line: tell them it will make them money! Then involve organisers and suppliers that you can trust.
When organising a literary event on this kind of scale, what should one be aware of?
I would say that there are always going to be people who don’t like certain aspects of things. Accept this and don’t be disheartened. Another key thing is managing other people who want to come along for the ride, because there will be people who want a portion of the success when things go well.
Have you learned any valuable lessons in running the last three events?
I’ve had to learn to say no! For example, we’ve had agents approaching us to pitch at the retreat and we’ve always said no to because this just doesn’t tie in with our vision. Don’t try to be all things for all people. Erica and I have always been upfront about what the IWR is and how we run it.
And lastly, what would you say is the secret to the phenomenal success of the IWR?
We hand out feedback forms at the end of every retreat, and we take this information very seriously. You must find out what people loved and didn’t love, and grow from it. We also always keep in mind that this is our event. To anyone else, I would say to remember that you need to be loyal to your vision. Ignore any naysayers, do what you want to do and execute that.
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