The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Budapest and Prague Writing Retreat will be held from July 19 to July 27, 2024 in the historic city center of Budapest, Hungary and Prague, Czech Republic. Come explore the rich Danube River culture in Eastern Europe, as we enjoy learning about the stories and lore, poetry, unique music, local food specialties and historic sites of the beautiful jewel box cities of Budapest and Prague.

The retreat features writing and publishing workshops, craft seminars, and generative writing sessions for poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The faculty includes poets and prose writers Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai. The cost of the retreat is $4,800, which includes tuition, lodging, daily breakfast, and special meals. Transportation is not included.

Using only the online application system, submit 5 to 10 pages of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or hybrid work, and a brief cover letter (including a bio and contact information for two references) with a $10 application fee by June 1. Early applications strongly encouraged as seats are limited on the retreat. Multilingual poetry and prose submissions, including self-translations, are welcome. Partial scholarships for BIPOC writers, LGBTQ+ writers, writers who are students, and writers who are parents are available. To apply for a scholarship, submit a general retreat application, as well as a cover letter, including a statement on how the scholarship will assist you in meeting your writing goals, by May 15. There is no application fee for scholarships. Registration is first come, first served; space is limited. Visit the website for an application form and more information.

Faculty:

Diana Norma Szokolyai is a writer, teacher, and co-founder/Executive Artistic Director of Cambridge Writers’ Workshop. She is co-editor of CREDO: An Anthology of Manifestos & Sourcebook for Creative Writing and author of the poetry chapbooks Parallel Sparrows, and Roses in the Snow. Her writing is published in Critical Romani Studies, The Poetry Miscellany, The Boston Globe, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and MER VOX Quarterly. Her poetry has been anthologized in Other Countries: Contemporary Poets Rewiring History and Teachers as Writers, as well as translated into German for the anthology of Romani poets from around the world Die Morgendämmerung der Worte, Moderner Poesie–Atlas der Roma und Sinti. She was awarded a 2021 Center for Arts and Social Justice Fellowship at Vermont College of Fine Arts for her work translating Romani poets into English. Other honors include honorable mention for Best Poetry Book in the 2014 Paris Book Festival and finalist for Hunger Mountain’s 2020 May Day Mountain Chapbook series. Together with Dennis Shafer, she founded ChagallPAC, an interdisciplinary arts organization that hosts performances, readings, and workshops, with a gallery space on Artists’ Row in Salem, MA. A first generation American of Hungarian Romani heritage, she holds an M.A. in French Literature & Cultural Studies from UConn, an Ed.M. in Arts in Education from Harvard, and an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Rita Banerjee is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and Director of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She is editor of CREDO: An Anthology of Manifestos and Sourcebook for Creative Writing (C&R Press) and the author of the poetry collection Echo in Four Beats (Finishing Line Press), which was nominated for the 2019 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize at the Academy of American Poets, named one of Book Riot’s “Must-Read Poetic Voices of Split This Rock 2018”, and was selected by Finishing Line Press as their 2018 nominee for the National Book Award in Poetry. Banerjee is also the author of the novella “A Night with Kali” in Approaching Footsteps (Spider Road Press), and the poetry chapbook Cracklers at Night (Finishing Line Press). Her work has appeared on-air on Vermont Public Radio, Goddard College Community Radio’sBon Mot, the Ruth Stone Foundation Podcast, and KBOO Radio’s APA Compass, and in print in the Academy of American Poets, Poets & Writers, Hunger Mountain, PANK, Nat. Brut., Isele Magazine, South Asian Avant-Garde, Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, Objet d’Art, and elsewhere. She is the co-writer and co-director ofBurning Down the Louvre (2024), a documentary film about race, intimacy, and tribalism in the United States and in France.  She received a 2021-2022 Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council for her new memoir and manifesto on female cool, and one of the opening chapters of this new memoir, “Birth of Cool” was a Notable Essay in the 2020 Best American Essays, and another chapter from her new memoir, “The Female Gaze,” was a Notable Essay in the 2023 Best American Essays.

In Budapest, we will stay at:

Hotel Oktogon

Andrássy út 52

H-1062 Budapest, Hungary

Phone: +36 1 884 8750

In Prague, we will stay at:

Falkensteiner Hotel Prague

Opletalova 21

11000 Prague, Czech Republic

Phone: +420 222 211 229 

Accessibility accommodations include public transportation near the venues and elevator access. If you have accommodation requests, please contact Cambridge Writers’ Workshop manager Corrine Previte at info@cambridgewritersworkshop.org for additional accessibility details. 

Contact Info:

Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, Inc.

Artist’s Row, 24 New Derby Street, Salem, MA 01970

Office Phone: (617) 401-8950

Diana Norma Szokolyai, Executive Artistic Director

info@cambridgewritersworkshop.org

directors@cambridgewritersworkshop.org 

Visit cambridgewritersworkshop.org for further information. All genres welcome. Please email info@cambridgewritersworkshop.org or call 617-401-8950 for more information.

If you’d like to join us in Paris, please apply online by June 1, 2024, and include a $10 application screening fee and a 5-10 page writing sample of poetry, prose, drama, illustrated, or hybrid work.  Please also include the following in your cover letter:

1. Full Legal Name 

2. Contact Info (Telephone & Address) 

3. Age & Nationality (Participants should be 18+)

4. Prior creative writing experience and/ publications (not necessary) 

5. Creative writing goals for the retreat 

6. Short one paragraph biography 

7. Contact of Two Personal References (Name, Email, Address, Phone, Relationship to Applicant)

8. What would you bring to a writing workshop community? (communication skills, patience, listening skills, etc.)

Due to limited seats, early applications are encouraged!

Deadline: June 1, 2024