The Yorkshire Writing Retreat

The Northamptonshire Writing Retreat

Ashby St Ledgers (Northamptonshire)

Friday 30th April – Friday 7th May 2027

Join me in the peaceful Northamptonshire countryside for a one-week writing retreat where you’ll learn and write alongside a group of three or four other writers through a series of workshops, feedback sessions and one-to-one chats. You’ll also have plenty of unstructured time dedicated to putting new words on the page.
This is a chance for you and your writing to take centre stage. As such, you’ll be encouraged to structure your stay according to what works best for you. The aim is that you’ll go away feeling creatively replenished, having conjured plenty of new words and made some wonderful new writing friends.

Who the retreat is for

The retreat is designed for any prose fiction writer whether their focus is on short fiction, novels or something more bespoke, and whether they've just started their writing journey or they've been writing for several years.

How the retreat works

Along with time to concentrate on your writing, the retreat offers workshops, feedback workshops, one-to-one chats, and social writing activities in the evenings. There's no compulsion to take part in everything. Every writer is encouraged to structure the retreat around their own needs and there’s plenty of opportunity to get away and do your own thing.

Workshops last between 60 and 90 minutes and will mostly follow a discussion-based approach, exploring important topics as a group and giving you lots of new ideas to add to both your work-in-progress and your writing toolkit in general.

Feedback workshops are a chance to share your work and get feedback from Matt as well as your fellow retreat participants. Sessions last approximately 90 minutes with 20 minutes allocated to each writer taking part.

One-to-ones are an opportunity to talk with Matt on an individual basis and can be used to discuss a specific project or to talk about your writing more generally.

The evening activities are a chance to engage with writing in ways that embrace the joy of the written word.

Accommodation

The retreat is taking place in the village of Ashby St Ledgers which is where the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot made many of their plans. The cottage we’ll be staying in is wonderfully appointed (there’s even a piano!) There are two cosy living rooms and a large courtyard for sitting outside if the weather is nice. The large kitchen has an electric hob and oven as well as an AGA and a microwave.

There are three ensuite double rooms available and one ensuite twin room which can be booked either by an individual or by a pair of writers travelling together.

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Accommodation options

Ensuite double
Twin room* (*either available to an individual or available to those coming as a pair)

Food and drink (self-catering)

The retreat is self-catered. If you’d like to join me for a welcome meal on the first evening, it would be my pleasure to provide this for you, but otherwise you’ll need to fend for yourself. You can either choose to cook at the cottage or dine out at the local pubs and restaurants.

Tea, coffee, milk, and biscuits will be provided. For all other provisions, there are supermarkets in Daventry (roughly 10 minutes drive) - lifts can be provided for those travelling without a car.

Travel

By car

Ashby St Ledgers is approximately 5 miles from the M1 junction 18.

By train

the nearest station is Long Buckby which has direct links to London Euston, Northampton, Birmingham, and Liverpool Lime Street on the London Northwestern Railway. Pickups / drop-offs can be arranged for a small fee.

Price

Ensuite double (single occupancy): £900
Twin room (single occupancy): £860
Twin room (shared occupancy): £620

The price is inclusive of accommodation, welcome meal, all retreat sessions, and general supplies (tea, coffee, milk, cake, biscuits). For the sake of transparency, the cost breakdown per person (for an ensuite double) is as follows - this is for information only as individual items can't be selected or removed.

Shared occupancy of the twin room is only available to two writers travelling together

Price breakdown (ensuite double, single occupancy)

Accommodation = £550
One-to-ones (£45 x 2) = £100
Workshops (£25 x 5) = £125
Other sessions (£15 x 5) = £75
Admin fees / welcome meal / general supplies = £50

Dates

Friday 30th April – Friday 7th May

If the above week becomes oversubscribed, I may add an additional week on either Friday 23rd – Friday 30th April or Friday 7th May – Friday 14th May

Provisional schedule

Arrival day

afternoon – arrival / settling in
afternoon – welcome session
evening – open-mic readings

Day 1

morning – workshop 1
afternoon – writing time
evening – writing bingo

Day 2

morning – workshop 2
afternoon – one-to-ones

Day 3

morning – feedback workshop
afternoon – writing time
evening – Q & A

Day 4

free day for writing / exploring the local vicinity

Day 5

morning – workshop 3
afternoon – one-to-ones
evening – write-your-own adventure

Day 6

morning – feedback workshop
afternoon – one-to-ones
evening – celebration evening

Day 7

morning – departure (by 9.30am)

Retreat facilitator

Matt Kendrick is a writer, editor and teacher based in the East Midlands, UK. His short fiction has appeared in various journals, and has been included on the Biffy 50 list for 2019-20, in Best Microfiction 2021, Best Small Fictions 2022 and the Wigleaf Top 50 2022.

As a creative writing tutor, he aims to teach in a way that's encouraging, detailed and aspirational, helping each writer feel empowered to fulfil the potential of their stories.

Specialisms: flash fiction, novella-in-flash, novel writing, story structure, character development, lyrical writing, sentence flow, literary fiction, literary-speculative, fabulous realism, humour writing, ekphrasis

Apply

Places on the retreat are strictly limited and will be decided by application.

All applicants will receive a reply within two weeks.

Participants will need to pay a 50% deposit by the 15th January with the remainder payable by the 12th March.

Apply

Terms and conditions

Full terms and conditions can be found on the application form.