**The Great River Writers Retreat accepts applications from writers currently residing
in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin**
The Great River Writers Retreat winner is selected from an applicant pool of writers from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin across multiple genres, and allows the winner to spend a week working on a specific writing project they have underway.
The Great River Writer’s Retreat is generously sponsored by Dr. Nicolas Shammas and the Illinois Arts Council.
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Announcing the Winner of the 2026 Great River Writer’s Retreat
Congratulations to this year’s winner of the great River Writer’s Retreat, Saima Afreen of Bloomington, IL!
Saima Afreen is a poet, teaching-artist, fictionist, essayist, abstract painter and has been a journalist. Her research interests are: ethnogastronomy, gastro poetry, food rhetorics, and multimodality in creative writing praxis. Her literary pieces have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Indian Literature, The Bellevue Literary Review, HCE Review, Barely South Review, The Bellingham Review, The Roanoke Review, The Stillwater Review, The McNeese Review, The Nassau Review, The Oklahoma Review, Apricity Magazine, Summerset Review, Staghill Literary Journal, The Notre Dame Review, Lunch Ticket, Honest Ulsterman, Ignatian Literary Magazine, Watershed Review, Dreich Magazine, Chronogram Magazine, and Existere among others. She is a PhD candidate with a concentration in Creative Writing at Illinois State University (ISU).
She is the author of a poetry collection Sin of Semantics (Copper Coin) and a poetry chapbook titled Winter Biomythography (Press 254). She was a Sutherland Fellow at the Publications Unit of ISU where she worked as an editorial support for various in-house publications for one academic year. She also served as Assistant Poetry Editor for Spoon River Poetry Review, the flagship poetry journal of ISU. She was the writer-in-residence for Fall 2017 at Villa Sarkia Writers’ Residency, Finland. She was awarded the Charles Wallace Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of Kent, the UK for Spring, 2019. She was a writer-in-residence at Ragdale Residency, Lake Forest, IL for Summer 2026. She received Casa Uno Residency in Costa Rica for Poetry (forthcoming).
Afreen will be in residence August 24 – 30, 2026, at Benet House Retreat Center in Rock Island, working on a poetry manuscript about “Constructing the Idea of Home Through Food, Land, and Water.” She will share some of her work during a public reading and discussion of her work at the Rock Island Public Library Downtown Community Room (401 19th St., Rock Island, IL 61201) at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 29.
The Great River Writer’s Retreat winner is selected from an applicant pool of writers from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin across multiple genres, and allows the winner to spend a week working on a specific writing project they have underway.
This year’s finalists include:
Molly Hayman
S. Keyron McDermott
Donna O’Shaughnessy
The Great River Writer’s Retreat Contest will open for all writers on November 1, 2026 and close on May 1, 2027. The retreat dates for 2027 are TBD. For more information, please visit www.mwcqc.org/contests/writers-retreat/
The Great River Writer’s Retreat is generously sponsored by Dr. Nicolas Shammas and the Illinois Arts Council.
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Great River Writers’ Retreat – Applications Accepted Through May 1, 2027
“The week I spent at the Great River Writers’ Retreat was amazing. I got more accomplished during the retreat than I’d dared to hope, completely revising one manuscript and drafting several poems to include in a new one. Whether I was walking the paths of the 90 acres of land behind the monastery, reading in the library overlooking the lake, or writing at my desk in my room, my solitude and work were encouraged and protected. The nuns were kind and hospitable, and I felt very welcome. I am so grateful to the Midwest Writing Center for the gift of this time to reflect and write.”
–2010 Retreat Winner, Ann Hudson
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**Application Information for the 2026 Great River Writers Retreat**
Currently, our plan is to host the winning writer for a residency at the Benet House Retreat Center in Rock Island, Illinois (including a travel stipend, and an invitation to read to the literary community of the Quad Cities), dates for 2027 TBA.
The application must include the following:
1. Cover page
2. Proof of residence in IL, IA, MN, or WI (valid photocopy of driver’s license, current utility bill, etc.). Sensitive information, such a Social Security numbers and Driver’s License numbers, can be redacted.
3. Short bio, listing publications and any relevant work experience (100 words max)
4. Statement describing the project you intend to work on and what goals to your project are you hoping to achieve while at Great River Writer’s Retreat (500 words max)
5. 10-page sample of your work (poets: 10 pages of poetry, one poem per page; fiction and nonfiction writers: 10 pages of a short story, essay, novel excerpt or other work, accompanied by a brief synopsis if necessary) Work sample should be in 12 pt. font, Times New Roman). The work sample should be taken from writing done within the last 3 years.
**Deadline for submissions is May 1, 2026**
You can pay the application fee via PayPal using the button below:
or pay over the phone with a credit card by calling us at 309-732-7330.
If paying by check, please make payable to: Midwest Writing Center
Applications should be sent only via email to the address below
(.doc, .docx, .pdf file types only, please):
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The Great River Writer’s Retreat is generously sponsored by Dr. Nicolas & Gail Shammas
and the Illinois Arts Council.
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