Short forms, long weekend.
2024 Conference Dates:
Conference: October 20th-23rd
Add-on Writing Retreat: October 23rd-27th
“As a newbie to the writing world, I did not know what to expect in a writing conference. All my fears melted away when Penny opened the workshop with her humor and authenticity. She set the perfect tone for all participants to be willing to take risks, share deeply personal stories and receive feedback.”
About The Conference:
Participants come to Iota to study all forms of short prose writing, including essays, prose poems, short stories, flash fiction and nonfiction, micro essays, and much more. “Short” is a relative term, of course, and our students work onsite on pieces that vary in length from flash to novellas. The conference is generative, and we know that some pieces begun at Iota have grown into much longer projects once the authors got back home.
Iota is designed to help writers break from questions about genre. When is a piece a micro essay and when is it a prose poem or when does it turn into flash fiction? Iota posits that it doesn’t matter: just write it.
2024 Conference Faculty:
Ann Hood (she/her) is the author of over a dozen novels, including the bestsellers The Knitting Circle, The Obituary Writer, and The Book That Matters Most. Her debut novel, the bestseller Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine, has been in print since 1987. She has also written five memoirs, including Comfort: A Journey Through Grief, which is the story of her five-year-old daughter Grace from a virulent form of strep in 2002. The book was a NYT Editors’ Choice and was named one of the top ten non-fiction books of 2008 by Entertainment Weekly.
Her essays and short stories have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Food and Wine, Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, and many more.
She has won two Pushcart Prizes, two Best American Food Writing awards, a Best American Travel Writing award, and a Best American Spiritual Writing award,
Hood’s most recent book is her memoir, Fly Girl, which is about her eight years as a TWA flight attendant from the late 70s to the mid-80s, spanning the Golden Age of Flying through deregulation and the beginning of vast system wide changes. annhood.us
Penny Guisinger (she/her) is the author of Postcards from Here and the forthcoming Shift: A Memoir of Identity and Other Illusions. Her work has appeared in Fourth Genre, River Teeth, Guernica, Solstice Literary Magazine, and others. Pushcart nominated, a Maine Literary Award winner, and a three-time notable in Best American Essays, she is a co-director of Iota Short Forms and a former assistant editor at Brevity. Penny is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA Program. pennyguisinger.com
Conference Schedule
Sunday:
11:30 Registration Opens
1:30 Welcome and Formal Start
2:00 Workshops (3 hours)
6:00 Dinner
7:30 Faculty Reading with Ann Hood & Penny Guisinger
Monday:
8:00-10:00 Breakfast Bar
10:30 Facilitated Discussion (1 hour)
12:00 Lunch
2:00 Workshops (3 hours)
6:00 Dinner
7:30 Guest Reading
8:00 Open Mic
Tuesday:
8:00-10:00 Breakfast Bar
10:30 Facilitated Discussion (1 hour)
11:45 Group Picture
12:00 Lunch
2:00 Workshops (3 hours)
6:00 Celebration Dinner with Live Music
8:00 Open Mic
Wednesday:
8:00 Hot Breakfast
9:00 Workshops (3 hours)
12:00 Bag Lunch, Conference Farewells and Departure
Add an Iota of a Retreat!
Running the week after the conference, it’s an opportunity to continue experiencing the peace and inspiration of the conference. Allow yourself the gift of processing all you’ve engaged with during the conference and having space to WRITE! The retreat will be set at your own speed, and you may tailor the day’s activities to your own to schedule.
Write, read, relax, explore the region and/or venture no farther than the Institute’s fifty acres of forest and former farmland via the many trails awaiting you there and beyond.
Lodging
Heartwood Lodge is a beautiful & comfortable home during the conference. Different room types are available to meet your needs, with full size beds and single bunk beds. Each room has a private bathroom and is available with single or double occupancy. The Lodge has a quiet library, a communal kitchen with dining room and laundry facilities.
2024 Conference Pricing
Conference Registration Fee: $530
• Conference workshops & activities
• Lunches included
Lodging & Commuter Pricing
Private Lodging: $645
• 3 nights
• Single room with attached bathroom.
• Breakfasts & Dinners included
Double Lodging: $385
• 3 nights
• Shared room with attached bathroom.
• Breakfasts & Dinners included
RV Camping: $205
• 3 nights
• Plug in and access shared bathrooms & common space.
• Breakfasts & Dinners included
Camping: $175
• 3 nights
• Bring your own tent and access shared bathrooms & common space.
• Breakfasts & Dinners included
Commuter Rate: no additional fee
Add-on meals for Commuters: $25 - $135
• Optional Breakfasts and Dinners
2024 Retreat Pricing
Retreat Registration Fee: $700
• 4 nights
• Private room with attached bathroom.
• Lunch Wednesday - Breakfast Sunday included
• Optionally attend Cobscook Movement Classes