MWC Announces the Winner of the 2025 Great River Writer’s Retreat — Stella Joyce Krall 

Congratulations to this year’s winner of the great River Writer’s Retreat, Stella Joyce Krall of Madison, WI!

Krall will be in residence August 25 – 31, 2025, at Benet House Retreat Center in Rock Island, preparing one novel manuscript for publication “that looks at the nature of memory and whether a person’s culpability for previous actions is excused if they lose their memory due to dementia rather than repression,” while developing a newer manuscript about “a pair of college friends whose lives have diverged despite their physical and emotional closeness.” She will share some of her work during a public reading at The Atlas Collective (1801 5th Ave., Moline, IL) on Saturday, August 30 at 4pm. 

Announcing the Winner of the 2023 Great River Writers Retreat! 

Congratulations to this year’s winner of the great River Writers Retreat, Dee Robb!

Robb will be in residence July 25-31, 2023, at Benet House Retreat Center in Rock Island, concentrating on a story-in-verse project about teen domestic violence. She will share some of her work-in-progress as one of the featured readers at the SPECTRA Reading Series event at Rozz-Tox (2108 3rd Ave, Rock Island, IL) at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 27.

Applications for the Great River Writers Retreat – Deadline 5/31

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 Contest will open for all writers on January 1, 2023 and close on May 31, 2023. The retreat dates for 2023 are July 25-31, 2023 at the Benet House Retreat Center in Rock Island, IL.