memoir writing

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

Recently I attended Kristina Olsson‘s excellent Memoir Bootcamp at the Queensland Writers Centre. How wonderful it was to be a student again and to learn from one of Queensland’s most celebrated writers. Kris’s book Boy Lost about the loss of her elder brother, has been a model for my own memoir in progress – “Dear Madman” – for many years. Kris has a workshop series coming up at the fabulous Avid Reader bookstore next year – keep an eye on their events.

During the course, I realised I have been trying to avoid an important and necessary element of successful memoir writing, reflection with hindsight.

Kris put us onto Sven Birkerts The Art of Time in Memoir and Vivian Gornick’s Situation and the Story which are packed with useful ideas and examples of memoir writing, including the concept of the Situation and the Story.

There are at least these two layers of time in memoir: the Situation which fleshes out in scenes the events from the past, key events in the section of life we are exploring, and: the Story, the author’s reflection with the benefit of hindsight, seeing patterns and creating meaning from these events.

As Kris told us, “Put your struggle on the page.” The reader needs to see the writer grappling with meaning making, in order for these personal events to resonate with the reader’s own story, their struggles. I now realise I’ve been trying to avoid this, hoping that, as with fiction, the scenes of key events alone would be enough. They’re not.

Much as we like to avoid it, the writer herself is the protagonist in her memoir. A raw and honest portrayal of self is necessary, reflecting on past actions and the meanings we’ve created through a compelling narrative. Helen Garner is a master of self representation in her non-fiction and thinly disguised fiction as well. She shows herself warts and all and we love her for it.

Be brave and put yourself on the page. I worried that my hippy trippy, out-there side may not be palatable to the literary community but Kris and my classmates assured me that they too all had secret inner hippies, and I should not try to hide this part of myself. Perhaps this is what will resonate most with others.

Excerpt from *The Art of Time in Memoir* by Sven Birkerts

As the above excerpt tells us, it is by sharing the most deeply personal, our own inner journey of meaning-making, that we create the universal. And isn’t that what we all want? To reach for a kind of truth all readers will understand, a special wisdom that is beyond individual experience but applies to us all?

To do this, within a compelling narrative that keeps readers turning pages, is the memoirists’ challenge. Perhaps the most demanding of all genres, memoir requires great courage and honesty, exposing our inner selves in the hope that by sharing our personal battles we can create a work of art, a thing of beauty from all that pain.

Go deep memoirists. Go hard or go home. Uncover those buried secrets and bring them to the light. Show us how it’s done.

Are you writing a memoir? Have you been avoiding putting yourself in, like I have? Any hints and tips you’d like to share? Please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Take care, keep smiling and write like a fury!

Lots of love

Edwina xx