International Writer's Retreat & Publishing Seminar 2025
January 2-12, 2025 | Paris & Arles, France
with author Jennifer Steil
The MFA in Creative Writing program at Rosemont College will offer its annual International Writers' Retreat in January 2025. This year we will be traveling to Paris and Arles, France. MFA in Creative Writing and MA in Publishing graduate credit, non-credit, and companion prices are available. Airfare is not included.
*STUDENTS WHO WANT TO TAKE THE TRIP FOR CREDIT MUST REGISTER FOR CRW 7185 OR CRW 7186 WINTER WRITING SEMINAR or GPP 7185 International Publishing Seminar ON THE iWAY. This registration form is for non-credit students and companions only!
Cost to Attend
Graduate Credit Price: $4630 Double Room (includes tuition) $4950 Single Room
Non-Credit Price: $3750 Double Room/$4450 Single Room
Companion Price: $3500 Double Room/$4200 Single Room
Advanced Reservation $500 Deposit Due: October 1, 2025
Balance Due: November 15, 2024 (After November 15, program fee is not refundable.)
Pre-trip Meeting: Friday, Dec. 6, 2024 Main Building
Wednesday January 1 : Departure from Philadelphia
Transportation: (walking and train transportation in France)
Thursday January 2
- Arrive in Paris (transportation to Hotel)
- Welcome dinner
Friday January 3
- Morning – Walking tour Literary Paris
- Afternoon – meeting at publishing house
- Evening – Louvres Museum
Saturday January 4
- Morning – Walking tour Hemingway’s Paris
- Afternoon – Notre Dame de Paris
- Evening – Cruise on the Seine
Sunday January 5
- Morning – Victor Hugo’s House
- Afternoon – Train travel to Arles
Monday January 6
- Morning – Workshop
- Afternoon – Roman Arles (walking tour)
- Evening - Free
Tuesday January 7
- Morning – Workshop
- Afternoon – Walking tour: Arles and the books
- Evening - Free
Wednesday January 8
- Excursion in Camargue
Thursday January 9
- Morning – Workshop
- Afternoon – Actes Sud (Publishing House)
- Evening - Free
Friday January 10
- Morning – Workshop
- Afternoon – Train Travel to Paris
Saturdy January 11
- Morning – Eiffel Tower
- Afternoon – Free
- Evening – Farewell Dinner
Sunday January 12
- Departure from Paris
Airfare and flight registrations are the responsibility of the attendee. Direct round-trip flights (recommended) are available from most major East Coast airports to Paris. Flights can be cheaper from New York Airports, but you will need to factor in the transportation to and from and or long-term parking. You can also do a multi-leg trip, if you want to, but you need to be at Charles DeGaul Airport in Paris by 10 AM on January 2. Flights to Europe from the East Coast, generally, are overnight. This means to arrive on January 2, you must leave on New Year's Day (January 1, 2025). There is a direct flight from Philadelphia to Paris on American (AA754), which I recommend, that arrives at 8:20 AM.
Booking your flight before the fall may give you the best price. Travel Insurance is a MUST! I also HIGHLY recommend that you get a FLU and Covid Shot before the trip.
Faculty
Jennifer Steil is an award-winning author and journalist. Her third book, the novel Exile Music, was released by Viking in May 2020 and won the Grand Prize in the 2020 Eyelands Book Awards and was named a finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Lesbian Fiction Award. Her previous novel, The Ambassador’s Wife, published by Doubleday in 2015, won the 2013 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Best Novel award and the 2016 Phillip McMath Post Publication Book Award. It was shortlisted for both the Bisexual Book Award and the Lascaux Novel Award, and has received considerable critical acclaim. Jennifer’s first book, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky (Broadway Books, 2010), a memoir about her tenure as editor of the Yemen Observer newspaper in Sana’a, received praise from The New York Times, Newsweek, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Jennifer earned her PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham, England, an MS in Journalism from Columbia University, an MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College, and a BA in Theatre from Oberlin College. www.jennifersteil.net
Carla “C.J.” Spataro is the program director of the MFA in Creative Writing and MA in Publishing programs
at Rosemont College. She is an award-winning short story writer and a Pennsylvania
Council on the Arts grant winner. Her short fiction has appeared in Sequestrum, Exacting Clam, Phantom Drift, December Magazine, Italian Americana, Iron Horse Literary Review, Pithead Chapel, Permafrost, The Baltimore Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and others. Poetry has appeared in Ovunque Siamo. Her work has also been anthologized in Another Breath, Forgotten Philadelphia, Extraordinary Gifts, 50 Over 50 and Taboos & Transgressions. Her debut novel, More Strange Than True (Sagging Meniscus) was published in June 2024. www.cjspataro.com