Short forms, long weekend.
2026 Conference Dates:
Conference: October 15 - 18
Add-on Writing Retreat: October 18 - 22
Registration is open!
About The Conference:
The Iota Conference is presented in partnership with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance (MWPA).
Highlights:
Multi-genre generative workshops with two Iota faculty.
Multi-genre workshop of pre-submitted work with an MWPA board member. Generative work has always been Iota’s focus, but participants can now add a two-session workshop for feedback on existing pages.
Optional retreat
The Iota Short Forms Conference began in 2013 as a place to learn about and experiment with all forms of short prose writing, including essays, prose poems, short stories, flash fiction, flash nonfiction, micro essays and more. Whatever the genre, Iota Founder Penny Guisinger and her friends, mentors, and accomplices worked together to create a gathering focused on the power of the short. Over the years, this generative conference provided the seeds of many pieces that eventually grew into much longer projects. In 2022, Suzanne Strempek Shea joined as co-director, bringing her decades of teaching, writing, and community-building experience with her. Soon after, Iota linked arms with the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance because it’s more fun and effective to do this work with our friends! In 2025, noting more of Iota participants’ goals of writing lengthier work, we added a long-form elective to the conference.
Whatever your goal, the conference’s fast four days offer workshops, talks, discussions and readings that will help you plant the seeds for stories, essays and poems of all sizes, and will send you home with new works-in-progress and the momentum and inspiration to continue your work. Consider joining the optional five-day retreat and stay on campus to write, explore the area, and continue the conversation with fellow writers.
“As a newbie to the writing world, I did not know what to expect in a writing conference. The conference set the perfect tone for all participants to be willing to take risks, share deeply personal stories, and receive feedback.”
2026 Conference Faculty:
Penny Guisinger (she/her) is the author of Postcards from Here and the award winning 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
Alexis Paige is the author of two award-winning memoirs: Work Hard, Not Smart: How to Make a Messy Literary Life, a memoir of writing craft and creativity; and Not a Place on Any Map, a memoir-in-flash about the geography of trauma—both published by Vine Leaves Press, where Paige is the Nonfiction Acquisitions Editor. Her work appears in many journals and anthologies, including Hippocampus Book’s Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction, Longform, The Rumpus, Fourth Genre, and Brevity, where she was an Assistant Editor. Winner of the New Millennium Nonfiction Prize and twice a top-ten finalist of Glamour Magazine’s Essay Contest, Paige has also received two “Notable” mentions in Best American Essays and four Pushcart Prize nominations. She teaches in the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University and is an Associate Professor of English at Vermont State University. You can find her online at alexispaigeauthor.com.
MWPA Faculty
2026 Conference Schedule
Thursday:
11:30 Registration Opens
1:30 Welcome and Formal Start
2:00 Generative Workshops (3 hours)
6:00 Dinner
7:30 Faculty Reading
Friday:
8:00 Breakfast Bar
9:00 Workshop for pre-submitted work (optional - extra cost)
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Generative Workshops (3 hours)
6:00 Dinner
7:30 Guest Reading
8:00 Open Mic
Saturday:
8:00 Breakfast Bar
9:00 Workshop for pre-submitted work (optional - extra cost)
11:45 Group Picture
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Generative Workshops (3 hours)
6:00 Dinner
8:00 Open Mic
Sunday:
8:00 Hot Breakfast
9:00 Generative Workshops (3 hours)
12:00 Conference Farewells and Departure
Optional Retreat Begins
Add an Iota of a Retreat!
Running Sunday to Thursday after the conference, the optional retreat is 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! Suzanne Strempek Shea will lead the retreat, writing daily with anyone else who gathers in the dedicated classroom, and will be ready and willing to explore the area and join in discussions at nightly cooking sessions. Plus, you’ll be right on site for the weekly music session at Cobscook Institute, and you’ll be welcome at the week’s movement classes there.
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, live your dream of being a hermit, or explore the region and/or venture no farther than Cobscook 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.
We encourage participants to stay on campus. Depending on the number of registrants we may not be able to accommodate everyone. Please visit our Where to Stay Webpage for more options.
2026 Conference Rates
Conference: $665
• Conference workshops & activities
• Meals: Thursday lunch, Friday breakfast and lunch, Saturday breakfast and lunch, Sunday breakfast
Lodging
Single Room: $300
• 3 nights (check-in Thursday, checkout Sunday)
• Room with attached bathroom
Shared Double Room: $225
• 3 nights (check-in Thursday, checkout Sunday)
• Room with attached bathroom
RV Camping: $75
• 3 nights (check-in Thursday, checkout Sunday)
• Plug in and access shared bathrooms & common space.
Camping: $30
• 3 nights (check-in Thursday, checkout Sunday)
• Bring your own tent and access shared bathrooms & common space.
Conference Optional Add-ons
Dinners: $75 for three dinners (Thursday, Friday, Saturday Celebration)
Saturday Celebration Dinner Only: $25
Pre-submitted workshop (deadline to register is September 5): $150
Post-Conference Retreat
Retreat Registration Fee: $550
Led by Suzanne Strempek Shea
4 nights (Sunday until checkout Thursday)
Room with attached bathroom
Meals not included
Optionally attend Cobscook Movement classes
Optional group meal cooking/outing