UNDER ROUGH RIDGE WRITERS’ RETREAT  

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Ōtūrēhua in Central Otago has become a magnet for writers. Here in the Māniatoto, where the sky is big enough to contain all dreams, writers have come from all over the country to attend our retreats, to linger and soak in the magic of this place, in the hope of weaving words into something wonderful.

 

In 2019, with half a dozen writers already living here, author Mike Riddell came up with the idea of running a writers’ retreat. He suggested that our resident writers, among them poets, novelists, a screenwriter and an editor, as well as well-known former Poet Laureate Brian Turner, could teach workshops.  There would  also be guest speakers and panel discussions, but mostly the retreat would be an opportunity for other writers to take time out from their normal lives, and write.  

 

That first retreat, held over a weekend, drew 50 people from all over the country.  It was highly successful and the consensus at the end of it was that the retreat should cater for fewer people for a longer time.  So each year from 2020 onwards we’ve invited writers to come for a full week and experience the ‘world of difference’ that is Central Otago. Although we hold the retreat in early spring, we've had at least a flurry of snow most years, providing enough chill for those from more temperate parts of the country to get a sense of what it’s like to live in a place of extreme temperatures. 

 

Our main focus during the retreat is on providing you with time and space to work on a long-form project with the help of wonderful surroundings and a team of published authors who all live in the Ida Valley. We have some communal meals, plenty of opportunity for discussion, great visiting speakers, and a marvellous final party to round things off.  While we usually have a broad theme for the speakers, participants can be writing across all genres, and with all levels of experience.

 

Some people have  been coming year after year, so it pays to register early to get a place and arrange accommodation for yourself to avoid missing out.

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2025 Retreat

 

Dates for 2025 are Saturday 11 October (arrive) to Saturday 18 October (leave).  

We'll post more details as they become available. Remember to book your accommodation early as the rail trail season will have begun.

 

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2024 Retreat - all done!
 

Yes, the 2024 retreat is done and dusted, and by all accounts was another great success. Once again we took over the Community Hall and, thanks to Pete and Joyce Majendie, transformed it into a space with a cafe vibe, for people to write, socialise, generally hang out, as well as becoming an excellent venue for our evening events. This year we had three speakers, Quentin Wilson, Kathleen Jamie and Emma Neale (see details below), a book launch (Pete Majendie's A Deaf in the Family), a wine tasting and open mic session, as well as our usual grand finale when anyone can perform a skit, musical or otherwise. We even managed (mostly) to stay healthy. Did we get snow? Maybe just a flurry while the sun kept on shining, but we did have a few days and nights of horrendous gales, which forced even the intrepid tent-stayer indoors. 

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2024 Speakers

 

Over the five years we have had a variety of guest speakers, all excellent writers. They have included Kate de Goldi, Barbara Sumner, Philip Temple and Neville Peat, Fiona Farrell and David Clarke. The theme for the 2024 retreat was Getting Your Work 'Across The Line', and our speakers were experienced editors and publishers, Emma Neale and Quentin Wilson. This year we also had special guest, Scottish poet and essayist Kathleen Jamie.

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Emma Neale

 

 

 

Emma Neale is the author of thirteen books. Her novel Billy Bird (2016) was short-listed for the Acorn Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award. Emma received the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for a Distinguished Contribution to New Zealand Poetry 2020. Her novel Fosterling (Penguin Random House, 2011) is in script development with Sandy Lane Productions, under the title Skin. Her stories, The Pink Jumpsuit (Quentin Wilson Publishing, 2021) were long-listed for the Acorn Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Emma lives in Ōtepoti/Dunedin and works as an editor. (Photo: Caroline Davies)

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Quentin Wilson

 

Quentin Wilson brings with him 37 years of experience in all aspects of book

publishing – in that time his having published, or designed and produced for

other publishers, more than 1,000 titles. Publishing now between 10 and 14

titles a year, he is the publisher at Christchurch-based independent publishing

house, Quentin Wilson Publishing. He buys and sells international rights, and

commissions and contracts works in the categories of literary fiction, historical

fiction, genre fiction, YA fiction, general non-fiction and poetry — all being books

he passionately believes should, need, or want to be published. Find Quentin

and QWP books at: quentinwilsonpublishing.com

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Kathleen Jamie

 

 

​Kathleen Jamie is one of the most distinguished Scottish writers of recent decades, and Makar, National Poet for Scotland. She is currently on a writing fellowship at the University of Otago and we’re delighted and hugely honoured that she’s agreed to come to Ōtūrēhua.  Kathleen is a previous winner of the Forward Prize and the Costa Award for poetry and has recently retired as Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Stirling. She is also a nature and environmental writer and the author of four noted books of essays, including Findings, Surfacing and, most recently, Cairn.