Holiday Activities

skills, inspiration, passion

Writing Retreats

Writing courses are available at Atsitsa Bay on the island of Skyros in Greece.

Skyros writing retreats offer writers, thinkers and dabblers the opportunity to learn from distinguished writers, share the joys and struggles of the creative process, discover their strengths and polish their skills.

In an idyllic holiday environment, far away from the demands and routines dictated by a busy life, writing holiday course participants can navigate beyond old boundaries and emerge with pieces of writing of which to feel proud.

Former Writers’ Lab participants such as Susan Elderkin, Crysse Morrison, Shani Solomons, Emma Darwin or Grace Wynne-Jones have gone on to publish books or to stage plays they started, developed or completed in Skyros.

Writing courses are open to novices with a secret passion for writing as much as to writers who already have a book under their belt. The tutors enjoy helping people at any stage of development – so do come with work in progress or just an empty page.

The Skyros Writers’ Lab has built up an excellent reputation over the years. Steven Berkoff, Rachel Billington, Margaret Drabble, Hanif Kureishi, D M Thomas, Sue Townsend, Marina Warner, Hugo Williams and many others, including Booker and Pulitzer Prize winners such as Hilary Mantel, James Kelman, Barry Unsworth, Bernice Rubens and Alison Lurie, have graced the centre with their presence over the years and given hundreds of people the benefit of their experience.

‘Intellectual rigour, spiritual encounters and good old-fashioned rioting in the evening’. The Times