Congratulations to this year’s winner of the Great River Writers Retreat, Jo Ivy Young! Young is currently working on her master’s degree in creative writing at the University of Northern Iowa. She has won the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators Work-in-Progress Award, and placed as a nonfiction research finalist for SCBWI. She recently won Author Mentor Match. She is a former archaeologist who loves birds, bugs, and books. Jo’s also a verified tree hugger (just ask the trees in her neighborhood).

Young will be in residence August 29-Sept 4, 2022 (along with our 2021 winner Jeffrey Wolf who postponed his retreat due to COVID-19), concentrating on her writing at Benet House Retreat Center in Rock Island, IL. They will both celebrate their experiences in the area, and share some of the writing they worked on during the retreat at a public reading (date and location TBD–stay tuned for more info).

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 TBD, but will be between the end of August and early September, as it has for previous years. 

The Great River Writer’s Retreat is generously sponsored by Dr. Nicolas Shammas and the Illinois Arts Council Agency.