18-21 January 2021
The Dell House, Malvern, Worcestershire
Our three-day science fiction & fantasy writing retreat in Malvern, which includes:
- a masterclass each day from two acclaimed authors – New York Times best-selling author and FantasyCon 2019 Guest of Honour Una McCormack and Liz Williams, author of many SFF books, most recently Comet Weather and A History of Paganism, and the 2022 FantasyCon Guest of Honour.
- and a workshop on How To Pitch your Book from Handheld Press
is now fully booked. We’re sorry to disappoint you. If you’d like to be added to the waiting list in case of cancellations, please email us at enquiries@handheldpress.co.uk.
We are now planning a second retreat in Malvern in 2021. This is likely to take the same shape as the January retreat:
- from £375 per person, exclusive of VAT
- double, twin and single rooms
- full board (apart from Friday’s evening meal)
- protected writing time
- private and group writing spaces
- opportunities for walks and board games.
The retreats are for published authors and creative writing students: the qualifying criterion is having published SFF professionally, from a single short story to your own multi-volume series of novels, OR are currently studying or have studied creative writing at a higher education institution.
If you’d like to apply for the second 2021 retreat, please email us with your application to enquiries@handheldpress.co.uk.
Please include this information:
1: your name
2: your email address and postal address
3: do you want to be allocated a private room, or are you willing to share with another person who is also applying to the retreat? If yes, please give their name.
4: would you like to be allocated the ground-floor Butler’s Apartment for accessibility reasons? If yes, please let us know what accessibility requirements you have.
5: three rooms (all doubles or twin) are in the first-floor Nursery Apartment with a shared bathroom and separate WC. If you would prefer not to be accommodated in one of these rooms please tell us, but be aware that these may be the only rooms available.
6: do you have dietary requirements The Dell House catering team need to know about? Please give details. The catering will be based on vegetarian eating, with meat and fish added as needed.
7: please give details and links or scans of your published work, and/or your creative writing study and the results of any examinations you took as part of a creative writing course.
The small print
You can see the range of rooms and prices here: 2020 rooms and prices
Download the draft timetable here: 2020 Writing Retreat timetable (likely to be the same in 2021, but we will publish an updated outline in autumn 2020).
Rooms are priced according to whether they have en suite bathrooms, or are sharing a bathroom with one or two other rooms. Most rooms will have a private desk. There will also be desks and tables to write at in a shared living-room exclusive to the retreat.
Six of the rooms have double or twin beds, so can accommodate couples or friends who wish to share a room and pay a double-occupancy rate.
The Butler’s Apartment on the ground floor has been reserved for one person or a couple with access requirements, and/or an assistance dog, though this is not a wheelchair-accessible room. See this page for more details on access at The Dell House.
The Dell House cannot accommodate pets, apart from assistance dogs.
All meals will be provided, except the Friday evening dinner, when you are free to eat in the town, or get a takeaway for yourself or in a group, as you want.
We welcome applications from published authors or applicants who have studied creative writing. The minimum requirement for the retreat is that you have published at least one piece of your writing professionally, or that your creative writing has been examined at postgraduate level.
We warmly encourage applications from writers who identify as other than male, white, cis, and abled.
We will process all applications as they come to us – first come, first served. If your publishing/studying requirements are satisfied, and we have the room you require, we’ll be pleased to confirm your place on the waiting list.
Due to the limited number of places, successful applicants will be allocated the rooms on a first-come, first-served basis. We will set up a waiting list if necessary.
When we confirm that your application has been successful, we will ask for a 50% deposit to be paid within 10 days, and the remainder to be paid a few months later.
If you have to cancel, we will hold any payment you have made until we can reallocate your room. If we are able to do this, we will refund your payment, less 10% for administrative hair-tearing.
If in the event of unforeseen events we have to cancel the retreat, we will refund any payment you have made within one month of notice being given, less 10% administrative forehead-clutching. We cannot be held responsible for any travel arrangements you may have made or have to cancel. We recommend that you take out a travel insurance policy. We reserve the right to change the programme at short notice, but will only do this if there is no other option. Should this very unlikely situation arise, we will endeavour to provide a top-quality replacement to ensure that the retreat and the masterclasses will be all that you expect.
For all enquiries, please email us on enquiries@handheldpress.co.uk.
