Fees and Practicalities
The participant fee for 2025 was ISK 310,000 for a standard package; ISK 360,000 for IWR Voyage; and ISK 410,000 for IWR Write. Please visit our registration page for details on what is included in each package (as well as a currency converter).
Iceland can be an expensive country to visit, so while you don’t need to pay for many additional events, things like meals and drinks can cost more than in other countries.
Please see our Terms, Conditions, & Cancellation Policy here.
Each year IWR looks for ways to provide funding to those who need financial assistance to attend the retreat. Please see the Scholarships page for further details.
The Fosshotel Reykjavik has disabled access (please write to the hotel directly for guest room with specific accessibility needs). The excursion sites are mostly equipped for disabilities. Please contact us with specific requests or concerns, and we will confirm everything for you.
Yes, that will not be a problem. Please note any dietary requirements on our registration form.
Yes. We secure a special conference rate at our venue, which was Fosshotel Reykjavík in 2025. We will e-mail you a link to book at the special IWR rate when it is available. But you are free to reserve accommodation anywhere you wish. (Please note that we cannot advise on alternatives for accommodation.)
If you wish to attend with a friend, you can each sign up for the IWR and then book a twin or double room. You can also sign up a non-participating partner. Details are on our registration page.
Participation
Everyone is welcome to attend. There is no application process. We think you’ll get the most out of it if you have an interest in developing your skills as a writer, but there is no requirement for you to have been previously published or even to have an intention to publish. Whether you’re aspiring, published, or simply enjoy writing as a hobby, we think you’ll find inspiration and have something to learn from all of our small-group workshops. We are focusing on books — rather than magazines, guidebooks, or online writing — in both fiction and non-fiction. So, for example, there are no poetry or screenwriting workshops but writers who focus on those genres are still welcome. Likewise if you write in a language other than English that’s fine too, but the language of instruction is English.
The Iceland Writers Retreat is open to anyone who enjoys writing. Instructors will be focusing on writing for both fiction and non-fiction books, rather than genre fiction or other media. Having said that, we’ve welcomed delegates who wrote primarily poetry or plays, and they still found the workshops helpful. At our 2016 retreat, our featured author Gerður Kristný was also an award-winning poet. Our 2025 faculty member Jonas Hassen Khemiri has written seven plays that have been performed worldwide. Whether you’re working on crime fiction, memoir, or even just scribbling for fun, we’re confident you’ll enjoy the workshops.
Workshops are taught in English, but of course the knowledge you gain should be applicable across all languages. Several of our previous delegates write in languages other than English, and they felt they gained a lot from the courses too.
Our featured writers come from numerous countries, as do our delegates. You can expect to meet people from around the world, as well as plenty of locals of course!
Event content and schedule
The Iceland Writers Retreat was founded by writers for writers. The focus of our program is to help you work on developing your writing, to introduce you to well-known writers, to give you the opportunity to mingle with like-minded people, and to introduce you to Iceland’s rich literary culture. There is no specific time dedicated in the schedule for you to pitch your book to agents or publishers, although of course there will be plenty of chances to network.
The workshops you attend will be small groups of a maximum of 15 people with one writer. Our writers will also be attending the cultural tours, receptions, and meals, so there will be plenty of time to mingle.
As the event approaches, we will send you descriptions of the workshops, and you will register for your favorites. We usually post the titles of the workshops around November. (You can see what has been taught in previous years in our previous event pages.) Those who have the IWR Voyage or Write packages will be given priority to sign up for workshops. We create waitlists for full workshops and do our best to give you a chance to attend your top choices. (It is typical for participants to be placed in most, if not all, of their top choices for workshops.)
Five workshops are standard. However, the IWR Voyage package includes six workshops, and the IWR Write packages includes nine workshops (and no day tour). Please see the registration page for more details.
If you choose the IWR Write package, you will have nine workshops and no day tour. Details on the three retreat packages are available on our registration page.
Your trip to Iceland
Yes, and we highly recommend it! There is plenty to see in Iceland.
If you book your hotel room via our IWR booking link, you will likely have the option of booking additional days at that rate. If you are flying to Iceland with Icelandair, you can use your time in Iceland as a stopover between Europe and North America (or vice versa).
You may also wish to consider staying for our Relax & Write extension, which includes two group dinners and an open mic night for participants to read from their work.
We’ll send you a welcome book upon registration that includes handy tips about traveling in Iceland.
Pack a bathing suit if you'd like to visit hot springs or one of the capital’s outdoor geothermal swimming pools (and we highly recommend this). Don’t worry if you forget, though, since you can always rent one! And of course just drop us a line if you have any further questions.
Things kick off around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, so if you’re arriving from North America you’ll have most of the day to relax. If your flight is from Europe, it will depend on the arrival time of your flight, but you should be fine with an afternoon arrival. The only event on the first day is the welcome dinner and author reading.
Our main event finishes in the late morning on Sunday, April 27, so you'll have time to get to the airport for an afternoon flight. Many of our participants choose to stay for the 2-night Relax & Write extension.
Booking extra tours and transportation
We've partnered with TourDesk, a comprehensive tour-booking platform where you can arrange everything from airport transfers (private or FlyBus) to exciting one-day and multi-day excursions from Reykjavík.
Relax & Write extension
It’s only possible to book the entire two-night extension as we've made special arrangements for the meals and accommodation.
Miscellaneous
We thought about calling this event the Iceland Writers’ Retreat but decided to keep our brand clean and simple and wanted to avoid confusion when others wrote about it. So we’re taking a page from several famous companies and going apostrophe free.
We did think about calling our event Iceland Writing Workshops or Iceland Writing Conference, but we chose the word retreat instead because we wanted to convey a sense of friendliness and intimacy to the event. It doesn’t mean you’ll be isolated or on your own but rather that you’ll have the chance to be in a unique environment conducive to creativity and have the opportunity to mingle with like-minded people, rather than huge, impersonal crowds.