Allons-y: A Writing Retreat in Bordeaux Next Spring
And a new book (and an event in Cincinnati) from past Bookish interviewee Don Tassone
Upcoming submission period alert: Virginia Quarterly Review will read poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction submissions from August 1 - 15.
The Academy of American Poets First Book Award (48-100 pp - single spaced). Submission period: July 1 - September 1 - $5,000 prize + publication
University of Wisconsin’s Creative Writing Institute’s Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes for a poetry collection (50-90 pp - single-spaced). Submission deadline: September 15
A preview of last week’s July agent list is available here. Monthly and annual subscriptions to Bookish are currently 25% off.
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This past May I went to Bordeaux to take part in a writing retreat hosted by Foreword Retreats. It was my first time in that region of France and my first trip overseas in a long while. In college I was a French major (in that era, STEM coexisted more or less companionably with the humanities) and spent junior year in Strasbourg, a city in far eastern France, near the Vosges mountains, a few miles across the Rhine from Kehl, Germany, where my host mother went shopping for bargains.
Before I flew to France in mid-May, political turmoil, free-floating rage and despair, and the logistics of getting to Bordeaux and my other work-related obligations felt ponderous, but the trip turned out to be one of the best of my life.
There’s no shortage of writing retreat possibilities, but the retreat in Bordeaux (in the town of Blaye, on the Gironde River, north of the city of Bordeaux) was extraordinarily well organized. The participants were all very kind and engaged, and every detail of the retreat closely attended to by Carol Johnson, Foreword’s founder, and our on-site host and concierge, Bree Col, who was highly competent, charming, and great fun.
Next spring, April 26 - May 2, 2026, I’ll be leading the retreat again, capped at 8 writers. We’ll have 3-hour writing sessions each day, and I’ll meet with each participant for a one-on-one session. All genres—prose, poetry, plays, and scripts—and all levels of experience are welcome.
Along with our writing and workshop sessions, we’ll discuss some of the business-related aspects of publishing and writing during our week together. I hope you’ll join me.
We’ll stay in a chateau, Borgeat de la Grange, that is part of a working vineyard, an on-site chef preparing our meals. Each participant will have a well appointed bedroom with a private bathroom. There is the option to share a suite with another writer for a reduced rate.
Registration deadline is September 28. Please do register soon. Space is limited to 8 participants.
Because the accommodations and cuisine are topnotch, you likely have surmised that it’s not a budget retreat. The meals, private bedrooms and bathrooms, the mid-week tour of a nearby historic landmark and lunch in town, a vineyard tour, a wine-tasting and wine class taught by Chateau Borgeat de la Grange owner Estelle, are scrupulously organized and presented.
More information is available here.
Please share this with anyone you think might be interested and if you have questions, please get in touch by replying to this email or messaging me here on Substack. 📗
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Cincinnati area readers: A book launch event, Saturday, July 26
Past Bookish interviewee Don Tassone is publishing his debut children’s book, Clara’s Big Discovery, on July 22, and he’ll be appearing with the book’s illustrator, Jane Rytel, at Joseph Beth Kids on Saturday, July 26, 10:30 AM ET. Here's the link for more information about Don and Jane’s event.
Clara’s Big Discovery is a moving and very smart book about self-acceptance. Don read it for our final night’s reading at the Bordeaux retreat I led this past May in Blaye, and we were all verklempt by the end.
