As some of our regular retreaters know, I have been writing a book chapter on our writing retreats at Chapelgarth - how they started, how they survived through the pandemic, overcoming challenges and embracing new opportunities, and how they continue to thrive.

I am delighted to announce that the chapter (and more importantly, the book!) is now published by Palgrave, within the  Studies in Gender and Education Series. The editors have done a wonderful job, not only gathering an array of different perspectives and original contributions to the topic of 'women writing in social spaces', but summing up the contents of the book in a succinct and thought-provoking introduction. Moreover, the book is enriched by an enlightening foreword by Barbara M. Grant, who first started running writing retreats for women more that 25 years ago in New Zealand. Taking the long view, Grant comments on how far we have come, and how the different models of social writing presented by experienced facilitators in the book testify to how much this field has grown, from a marginal practice to an increasingly mainstream intervention, which Higher Education institutions increasingly turn to.

The different perspectives included in the book also demonstrate how writing retreats are becoming more popular beyond the Anglo-Saxon countries where they were first established, and suggest that many more writing retreats in different parts of the world - and in different languages - are now beginning to get established. As different formats of writing retreats are trialled out and experimented, it is clear that the 'women only', 'safe space' 'container' is not the only formula available. However, overwhelmingly, it remains true that it is mostly women who choose to join writing retreats, and for this reason, writing retreats remain, by and large,  a gendered community.

Due to the time in which the book was written, most authors engage or relate to the pandemic in one way or another - describing how the new circumstances were a catalyst for transition from face-to-face to virtual writing retreats, and how the format of writing retreats adapted to the exceptional circumstances. Of these challenging times, authors recount different experiences, which are united by a common theme. Lucy R. Hinnie, who developed the #remoteretreat model even before lockdown forced everyone to go online with retreats, introduces the concept of 'compassionate productivity', as a term which best defines the different approach to the writing practice that online retreats have enhanced. As Hinnes states:

What compassionate productivity suggests is that writing has the radical potential to become something more than a tool for measurable outcomes. By reframing writing as a practice of care, rather than a measure of worth, the tools of #remoteretreat can empower and liberate writers from a cycle of self-abnegation and frustration.

There is so much wisdom, so many tips and so much positive encouragement to celebrate in this much-needed edited book,  that it is difficult to sum up in  a short blog.  Amongst a  number of powerful statements which define the essence of writing retreats,  Hinnie,  reminds us that a 'writing retreat is not a bootcamp: it 'reject toxic productivity'.

Comparison is the thief of joy, and our digital spaces are rife with the productivity of those around us. You do not have to engage with this. Remember that you are on your own path, steering your own ship. And what a ship it is!

To find out more about the book, join us at the book launch/ WRAP network launch  on 18th March please register here: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=qO3qvR3IzkWGPlIypTW3y3Zzsh_NqzxKtBldvqJSVRBUMkpIVVRYWjRMNjlPSUpZUkdUQ1ZTT05KNi4u