September 6-13
w/Guest Fellow: Jenny Zhang

Join an intimate group of exceptional writers on a life-changing residency in Greece.
Applications Now Open

Join us for a life-changing week in the verdant escape of Halkidiki Greece. In the company of 9 select writers and a distinguished guest mentor, you will refine your work, hone your craft, and develop your voice.

Engaging with new genres and perspectives, you will be challenged to push the boundaries of your storytelling. Whether you are working on a novel, memoir, play, musical, collection of poems, screenplay, pilot, or other genre-bending pursuit, this is an opportunity to propel your progress alongside a group of exceptional peers.

 

The Retreat

Stretch your technical capacity and harness the power of long-lasting community

Write, collaborate, and workshop with a group of exceptional writers from across the globe. Rosemary’s House was founded with the mission of providing writers with the environment, expertise, and community to develop their work.

Engaging in intimate group workshops and receiving individualized mentor feedback, you’ll be invited to identify and confront the holes in your writing. Each cohort is curated to ensure that there is a diversity of strengths and expertise so that all participants accelerate their growth. Writing does not have to be a lonely enterprise. Benefit from a community of committed peers and take yourself seriously by devoting time and space to your craft.

 

Find inspiration, ground your creative process, and build a career

Resting in a location that the ancients used to call “phlegra” or “land of fire”, Rosemary’s House lives in communion with a place where thinkers, like Aristotle and Alexander the Great, have inflamed precedent, kindled ideas, and passed the torch.

Taking an applied approach to learning about world-building, sensory motif, time scale, and character, we lead excursions to thought-provoking environments like local archeological sites and islands.

 

What You’ll Learn

Each week-long retreat is designed to balance collaboration and individual exploration. Invited writers will submit an excerpt of their work for critique ahead of the residency. Most mornings, each cohort will convene for a multi-genre workshop, under the supervision of the guest fellow in residence. The schedule will also feature a formal “fellow’s chat” and Q&A, optional genre-based seminars and writing exercises, and ample time for writing.


You will refine your ability to give feedback and, in doing so, advance your capacity to critique your work. Advancing your understanding of dialogue, plot, structure, world-building, character, and narrative, you will expand your toolkit and leave with an inspiring community of collaborators to serve you throughout your career. After attending a Rosemary’s House residency, you will have life-long access to the RH alumni community.

Developing Craft

  • How do I make my writing more immediate?

  • Is my crutch plot, landscape, or character?

  • What is the heart of my story?

    Building Community

  • How do I work with writers across genres?

  • How do I build the stamina to finish a long-form project?

  • What audience will my work appeal to?

    Finding Professional Direction

  • How can I work towards making a living in writing?

  • How do I find an agent and get published?

  • How do I write something that has trans-media potential?

The Fellow

 

Cohort Three: Led by Jenny Zhang

Jenny Zhang  is the author of the story collection Sour Heart and the poetry collection My Baby First Birthday. She is the recipient of the Pen/Bingham Award for Debut Fiction, the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and an O. Henry award. Her work appears in The New York Times, Poetry, Harpers, N+1, Best American Poetry, and other publications.

Residencies and fellowships she's been awarded include: MacDowell, Marble House, Mirante Xique Xique, Willapa Bay AiR, Jentel, Yaddo, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She’s written television and film for A24, HBO, Netflix, Apple, and Amazon. She holds degrees from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Stanford University.

Info & Lodging

 

Dates:
September 6-13 (arrival on the 6th and departure on the 13th)

Address:
Rosemary’s House
Nitiki, Sithonia
Greece

Location / Travel:
Rosemary’s House is located on Halkidiki’s second peninsula, Sithonia. It rests between the villages of Nikiti and Marmaras, perched on a cliff that overlooks the Aegean Sea. We provide complimentary airport transfer from the local airport Thessaloniki (SKG). The journey is about one hour by car.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or need assistance.

Lodging:
While Rosemary’s House, its common spaces, private pool, and private beach are open to all attending writers, we house the majority of our writers in accommodations in neighboring hotels and houses. All accommodation options are within walking distance of the main house, and we additionally operate a shuttle bus that is available to all writers throughout the day. Fresh linen and clean bedding are provided in each room at the beginning of the retreat. Attending writers can opt for various tiers of housing and privacy, which are detailed here.

 Meals:
Acclaimed local chefs and taverns cater all meals, providing a hearty Mediterranean diet of freshly-caught fish, regionally sourced vegetables, and locally-pressed wine. Attendees will have access to a plentiful garden on the premises, as well as daily access to the breakfast buffet at the neighboring five-star hotel Athena Pallas. We work with our partners to ensure that we can accommodate dietary restrictions and allergies and provide all participants with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Vaccination:
To ensure everyone’s safety and well-being, we ask that participants have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 when attending the retreat.  If you are not fully vaccinated at the time of the retreat, we require proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of the retreat start date.

 

Pricing & Application

 

Your admission includes full access to the retreat, all guest workshops, group excursions, airport transfers (SKG), 6 nights/7 days of beautiful accommodation, and full catering, which includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We have a team of acclaimed local chefs who will be preparing our beautiful, nutritious cuisine. It does not include the cost of your flight. Our standard admission rates include shared lodging, but you can upgrade to a private room. Our private options are detailed here.

Our early-bird rate is available to attendees who apply up to two months before the start date of the retreat. As our admissions are rolling, we can’t guarantee that spots will remain available, so we encourage you to apply at your earliest convenience. With only 10 spaces available in each cohort, our process is selective, and we’re looking for motivated and talented writers who are ready to harness the opportunity that this experience provides. We look forward to receiving your application.

Early bird tuition: €3995

Standard tuition: €4995