am writing memoir

MEMOIR AND LIFE WRITING RETREAT 2026 – Springbrook 10 – 12 April

/ Edwina Shaw / Leave a comment
writers at work in paradise
Come and write with us!

Is your creative spirit crying out for a little TLC? Always wanted to write but don’t know where to start? Need to reboot your writing mojo and be inspired to tackle that project based on your life that you’ve been thinking about forever? Come along and regain your love of writing and life at the next Relax and Write Retreat From midday FRIDAY 10 April – 3 pm SUNDAY 12 April 2026 in glorious Springbrook, at the TS Rainforest Retreat Centre high above the Gold Coast hinterland, surrounded by tall trees and lush rainforest with friendly pademelons and wallabies to keep us company.

Join like-minded women (and non-binary) writers in a fun and supportive environment discovering just how much some deep relaxation can ignite your imagination and get you writing again. Relax and unwind with gentle morning yoga sessions and be inspired by innovative workshops to help move those stories out of your head and onto the page. Learn how to turn your life stories into powerful creative works, whether memoir, autobiographical fiction or personal essays. 

  • Fun, friends, feasting and writing up a storm!

“I feel transformed, as a writer and as a human being.”

Bianca Millroy – writer and retreater

The program includes two yoga sessions, four workshops to get you writing, plus advice on submitting your work. Two nights comfortable single accommodation with bathrooms shared between two women, plus delicious vegetarian meals and a special readings night around the fire are included.

“The fully-catered retreat environment was comfortable and stress-free. An atmosphere that encourages, motivates and inspires.” Gay Liddington – writer and retreater

Connect with other creative types in a beautiful, peaceful location and remember your creative self. No more putting your dreams on hold. Treat yourself to this special weekend nurturing your writing spirit. Delicious home cooked meals, cosy corners to hide and write, the joyful companionship of fellow writers on the same path. Isn’t it time you put yourself and your creative dreams first. Let us nurture you for a change. You deserve it!

RETREAT PROGRAM All activities are optional

FRIDAY 10 April 2026

ARRIVAL from midday

4 pm – Meet and Greet  

4:30 – 6:30 WORKSHOP 1– Your Stories

6:30 DINNER

SATURDAY 11 April

7:15 am – 8:30 – Gentle morning yoga and breathing

8:30 – BREAKFAST

10:00 am – 1 pm – WORKSHOP 2 – Writing Scenes and Characters in memoir/life writing

1 pm – LUNCH 

1:30 – 4:00 – FREETIME and FEEDBACK SESSIONS

4 – 6:00 pm – WORKSHOP 3 – Writing from start to finish – developing a plan

6:00 pm – DINNER

6:45 – 7:30 pm – Readings around the fire

SUNDAY 12 April

7:15 – 8:30 – Gentle morning yoga and breathing

8:30 – BREAKFAST

10:00 – 1 pm– WORKSHOP 4 – Where and how to submit work, goal setting, questions and collage

1 pm – LUNCH

 3 pm DEPARTURES

Editorial feedback sessions with Edwina available on request $75 extra for those needing professional advice on a project.

FEEDBACK DETAILS – email Edwina your first 10 pages, double spaced, plus your synopsis at least 2 weeks prior to retreat for full edit/advice plus 30 minutes meeting time.

Massages/Bodywork treatments with Monique DeGoey – a highly sought after Zen Thai Shiatsu practitioner will also be available.

COST for the weekend of writing, fun and feasting, including comfortable single room basic accommodation, with bathrooms shared between 2, all meals, 2 yoga sessions, 4 creative writing workshops and a readings night. 

Transport not included.

Unwaged (finding it tough to make ends meet) $600. 

Waged (I’m doing okay thanks) $750

Please only choose the unwaged option if genuinely struggling. If you’re doing okay, please help me support those writers who aren’t.

All inclusive! For single accommodation and all retreat activities and meals.

PAY YOUR DEPOSIT HERE

I’ve been running these retreats every year since 2017 and they’re always a joy. I love watching new writing friendships form and the ‘Aha!’ moments when a writer gets a flash of inspiration and finds the answer to a story issue. At these memoir retreats we do a lot of writing to prompts as well as learning about how to write in scenes and develop characters in memoir. Remember in memoir, YOU are the main character. You can’t leave the ‘me’ out of memoir. You’ll also learn how to shape your memoir/story to keep your reader hooked right from the first page.

We always have a wonderful time. You might like to check out the Memoir Retreat Rundown from the 2025 memoir retreat here. Plenty of testimonials HERE too.

I hope you can come! $200 deposit will secure your place. Always check with me that places are still available before you pay!

If you’re find money tough right now, just drop me a line and we can work something out.

Your story is important. You deserve to be heard. Come along and join the fun and find a community of like minds to inspire your creativity.

Lots of love

Edwina 🙂 xx

THE COURAGE TO CREATE

/ Edwina Shaw / Leave a comment

Starting to write takes guts.

In ancient cultures, creativity was a part of everyday life for all people, shaping new objects to use, but also making them beautiful, art for art’s sake. These days creativity is seen as something separate, apart from the busy lives we lead, busy making money to keep a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. Art making is viewed as an optional “extra”, a hobby, a self-indulgence, a privilege and not a right, so that to consciously and continually pursue an art form like writing is an act of rebellion. 

Great courage is needed to step outside the norm and say, “I am a creator. What I have to say is important. My ideas are worth sharing. My stories need to be told.” 

Be that crazy kid who breaks the mould!

I am a firm believer that creativity is a powerful healing tool. Through crafting a work of beauty from our emotional pain, a new vision or version of the past is made, and we are freed from much of the burden of carrying that pain. Through creativity, in whatever form that takes, we express our tender hearts and release the stories we tell ourselves onto the page, the canvas, the dancefloor, the instrument. Through our courage to do so, others see their own stories and hearts reflected and know that they are not alone, that others also bleed, that we are all in this human mess together. 

This work is important. So much of the modern world ignores the emotional lives we all share, yet we are feeling beings, shaped by our emotions, thoughts and sensations. We are not machines. As the poet Samuel Hurley says in his poem, “AI vs The Poet” – “A thing that cannot grieve has no right to poetry”. 

As machines are taking over so many of our roles, we need to protect our very human right to create, our expression of what it is to live and our attempts to understand it. Is creativity the last castle of humanity?

Don’t hide in the shadows! Assert your human right to create!

How do we protect our right to creation?

By creating! By writing or drawing or dancing or sculpting or sewing or weaving or cooking or performing or singing. Without fear. By having the courage to continue to create in the face of technological advances and commercially focused marketplaces. By refusing to become an unthinking working machine but instead choosing to live fully and bravely and to express ourselves through the arts.

So put that pen to paper, open a new document and type without looking at the words. Paint for the joy of the colours. Dance for the bliss of movement. Sing for the magic of sound.

Life is not just about paying bills and doing what has to be done.

Life is to be grasped with both hands, to be savoured and enjoyed through the senses, to be shared through creative expression, to be fully lived.

It takes great courage to step into the ring as a practising artist, knowing what we create may never be seen and may never be rewarded financially. But still we create. 

We continue to create in the face of all those sensible folk around us who remind us our income is below the poverty line, that we have no superannuation, that we’re wasting our time. 

For we know the opposite is true. We who choose a life of creativity are making the very best use of our brief voyage through a human life. We are expressing what it is to be, and to be us. Unique, intriguing, wonderful.

And after our work has been knocked back—invalidated, unseen, unheard, it takes guts to continue, to stagger back up from the mat after the thirtieth knockout blow. Rocky has nothing on artists.

I once heard a writer say, “Writing may not make you rich, but it will enrich your life.”

In the years since then, I’ve learnt the truth of her words. What riches a life of observing, creating, refining and learning holds! Anything less is poor in comparison. I wouldn’t swap my writing life for all the handsome superannuation portfolios in the world.

Have courage, my dear writing friends, for we are the tellers of tales, the sharers of secrets, the wise and the wonderful. 

Are you yearning to create? Just start. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It won’t be perfect, it never is. 

But it will be you, on a page. And no one will ever be able to take that away. 

With lots of love

Edwina xx

PS. If you’re in need of a little en-COURAGE-ment on your writing journey, why not come along and join us in Vietnam in February 2025 in Heavenly Hoi An. Connect with other like-minded writing folk, immerse yourself in an exotic culture, explore the ancient town and your own creative heart, relax with yoga, and be encouraged, inspired and uplifted by writing workshops guaranteed to get you writing! All the info and to book HERE 15% now off all bookings for Heavenly Hoi An 2025!!