Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award

Registration is now open for the Iceland Writers Retreat. In addition to general registration, which is currently open to all, we have scholarships slots available for those with financial need. The Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award offers talented writers in need of financial support an opportunity to attend the Iceland Writers Retreat in Reykjavík, Iceland in April, 2024. The deadline has now passed to apply for 2024. 

The scholarship deadline has now passed
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Who can apply?

Anyone who is aged 18 or over on April 24, 2024 is eligible to apply for an Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award (anyone is welcome to independently register and attend the event without a scholarship). The winning candidate(s) must demonstrate that they do not have the financial means to attend the conference without this award.* Candidates do not need to be professional writers, but should be serious about the craft and interested in developing their skills and contacts. Their writing interests must fit well with the faculty for the 2024 retreat (i.e. literary fiction, non-fiction, memoir).
Family members of the judges and those who have already attended the IWR are not eligible to apply.

What does it cover?

Entrants can apply for either full or partial funding. Full funding covers one participant fee, four nights accommodation at the Retreat hotel (Foss Hotel Reykjavik), and round-trip flights to Iceland.

Partial funding covers the participant fee only, and neither accommodation nor round trip flights.

(Note that there is no scholarship available for the Iceland Readers Retreat.)

Please ensure that you apply for the most suitable category for you, as if you apply for full funding you are very unlikely to be considered for a partial award. (Note that we usually have many more applications for full funding than partial funding.)

The award does not include airport transfers, travel insurance, travel visas (if applicable)**, other incidentals or meals not listed in the itinerary, or the Relax & Write extension.

Contributors

Thanks to the generosity of the following friends and alum of the IWR, we are able to offer scholarships for our 2024 event.

Karen Anderson, Carol Binkowski, Akvile Buitvydaite, Eirene Chen, Elizabeth Clemants, Patrick Connolly, Brigitte Dix, Nate Drenner, Judyth Emanuel, Jeannie Entenza, Susan Evans Shaw, Randver (Randy) Fleckenstein, Amy Gavin, Erica Green, Kristin Harper, Molly Hill, Edna McNamara, Denise Morettin, Lisa Morriss-Andrews, Daniel Musgrave, Joy Nash, Rhoda Neville, Peggy Newell, Elizabeth Nunberg, Sólveig Ólafsdóttir, Rhonda Owen, Ghislaine Patthey, Elizabeth Pentland, Catherine (Cathy) Raphael, Karen Redfearn, Eliza Reid, Erika Sanders, Richard (Rick) Theiss, Kate Todd, Janine Vici Campbell, Molly Watson, Sara Winokur, and April Wolfe.

About the IWR Alumni Award

This is the sixth time the IWR Alumni Award has been granted. It is so named because it has been funded by former IWR participants. We are extremely grateful for their generosity.

If you have any questions about your application, or the alumni awards in general, please contact [email protected]

The deadline for applying for 2024 has now passed

2024 Recipients

Marko Bogdanovic, is an aspiring author from Belgrade, Serbia. His writing background is versatile - from various types and genres of fiction, journalism in different media and movie reviews to advertising copywriting and blogs. Marko won two national-level awards in Serbia for his literary fiction short stories. One of them also helped him land the IWR Alumni Award.

Marko Bogdanović (Serbia)

Marko Bogdanović is an aspiring author from Belgrade, Serbia.

His writing background is versatile - from various types and genres of fiction, journalism in different media and movie reviews to advertising copywriting and blogs.

Marko won two national-level awards in Serbia for his literary fiction short stories. One of them also helped him land the IWR Alumni Award.

Sometimes he feels like a superhero concealing his secret identity - as if nobody notices that it's the same person in both roles.

During the day he is Bruce Wayne - with a 9 to 5 job in marketing - and at night he is Batman - the host of Storyline Sessions, a platform where he interviews authors from around the world and shares his thoughts on writing, as well as his work.

He is currently working on a short story collection and two novels, all wildly different and all competing for his attention.

Gina Dark is an emerging writer, established language teacher and translator, and a non-practising solicitor. Since 2020, she has been developing her writing skills through online courses in creative non-fiction, memoir, and fiction with the UK’s National Centre for Writing and Arvon, as well as in translation with the British Centre for Literary Translation.

Georgina Dark (UK / France)
 
 

Gina Dark is an emerging writer, established language teacher and translator, and a non-practising solicitor. Since 2020, she has been developing her writing skills through online courses in creative non-fiction, memoir, and fiction with the UK’s National Centre for Writing and Arvon, as well as in translation with the British Centre for Literary Translation. Currently, she lives in France with her partner and is self-employed, teaching English and Russian, and translating. Previously, she worked in London as a lawyer for the UK’s Government Legal Service, and in various roles for international organisations in Paris and Copenhagen, as well as for an advertising agency in Moscow. In addition to her legal studies with the Open University and BPP, she has a BA in Modern Languages from the University of Bristol and an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Portsmouth. In her spare time, Gina sings in a local choir, plays the violin, learns languages, and enjoys walking in the countryside.

Monica Drake is the author of two novels, including Clown Girl (Hawthorne Books) and The Stud Book (Hogarth) and a collection of linked short stories, The Folly of Loving Life (Future Tense Books). Her essays and stories have appeared in the Paris Review, the New York Times (Modern Love), Oregon Humanities Magazine, The Sun and many other publications online and in print.

Monica Drake (United States)

Monica Drake is the author of two novels, including Clown Girl (Hawthorne Books) and The Stud Book (Hogarth) and a collection of linked short stories, The Folly of Loving Life (Future Tense Books). Her essays and stories have appeared in the Paris Review, the New York Times (Modern Love), Oregon Humanities Magazine, The Sun and many other publications online and in print. She is the formerly anonymous author behind a viral essay, "Whatever Happened to___________________?" published in Longreads magazine (Whatever Happened to ______ ? - Longreads which has inspired other women writers to come forward. She writes about love, loss, feminism, culture, childbirth and most recently menopause, always with a fundamental feminist lens and an eye toward building a better world--better ways of living on this planet--together. 

Zehra Imam, is a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School and a Muslim Chaplain-Intern at MIT. She is the founder of Illuminated Cities, an education organization that works with communities impacted by violence and adversity, and was an international teacher.

Zehra Imam (United States)
   

Zehra Imam is a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School and a Muslim Chaplain-Intern at MIT. She is the founder of Illuminated Cities, an education organization that works with communities impacted by violence and adversity, and was an international teacher. She is writing about her experiences in Palestine as a Religion, Conflict, and Peace Institute summer intern at Harvard on Instagram @loveletterstopalestine.

Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award recipient Sandra Jackson-Opoku is the author of the American Library Association Black Caucus award-winning novel, The River Where Blood is Born and Hot Johnny and the Women Who Loved Him, an Essence Magazine Hardcover Fiction Bestseller.

Sandra Jackson-Opoku (United States)
   

Sandra Jackson-Opoku is the author of the American Library Association Black Caucus award-winning novel, The River Where Blood is Born and Hot Johnny and the Women Who Loved Him, an Essence Magazine Hardcover Fiction Bestseller. Her fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and dramatic works are widely published and produced. Jackson-Opoku’s work has earned a National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowship, Newcity Lit50: Who Really Books in Chicago, an Esteemed Literary Artist Award from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and other awards and honors.

Previous Winners:

2023: April Dobbins (Unites States / Iceland); Lisa Guenther (Canada); Tochukwu Okafor (Nigeria)

2020: Chelsie Bryant (United States; attended in 2022); Abak Hussain (Bangladesh; attended in 2023); Okechi Okeke (Nigeria; attended in 2023); Jo McClelland Phillips (Canada / Australia; attended in 2022); Chuck D. Smith (Philippines; attended in 2023); Michelle Walshe (Ireland; attended in 2022)

2019: Lucy Grace (UK); Daniel Musgrave (United States); Lola Opatayo (Nigeria); Jonaki Ray (India); Carien Smith (South Africa)

2018: Fatin Abbas (Sudan / United States); Michael Agugom (Nigeria); Puja Changoiwala (India); Julia Duin (United States); Nora Shychuk (United States)

2017: Akvile Buitvydaite (Lithuania / Denmark); Peter Ngila (Kenya), Nathan Ramsden (UK); Victor Yang (United States)

2016: Megan Ross (South Africa); April Wolfe (United States)