Genre: Fiction
Dismantling the Mother Shelf: Expanding Our Thinking About Women’s Stories of Parenthood

Books centering mothers are often lumped into one category by the publishing industry, flattening the nuanced and varied experiences of this group into a one-size-fits-all niche. A memoirist asks the industry to do better.
La Baldi Residency
The La Baldi Residency, sponsored by the arts collective Cultivate, will offer two-week and one-month residencies from April through October to poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and translators in apartments and a small terratetto house in the historic hilltop village of Montegiovi, Italy. Residents will stay in private lodging with a fully equipped kitchen, a bathroom, and an outside sitting area. Some lodging options include a study. Individual writers and collaborative teams may apply.
La Baldi Residency, 15504 Moravia Court, Derwood, MD 20855. Susan Main, Cultivate Director.
Iceland Writers Retreat
The 2025 Iceland Writers Retreat was from April 23 to April 27 at the Fosshotel in Reykjavík. The retreat features workshops, panels, lectures, receptions, and time to write for fiction and nonfiction writers, as well as literary tours of Iceland. The faculty included fiction writers Kevin Chong, Pedro Gunnlaugur Garcia, Meng Jin, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, and Curtis Sittenfeld; fiction and nonfiction writers Jann Arden, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Helen Macdonald, and Danny Ramadan; and nonfiction writers Thordis Elva and Rick Jervis. The cost of the retreat was 310,000 ISK (approximately $2,202).
Iceland Writers Retreat, P.O. Box 76, 212 Gardabaer, Iceland. Erica Jacobs Green and Eliza Reid, Cofounders.
Squam Writes Retreat
Squam Writes offered a retreat from June 5 to June 8 to fiction and creative nonfiction writers at Rockywold Deephaven Camps, a historic resort campsite on the shores of Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire. Residents were provided lodging in cottages, cabins, and lodge rooms along the shores of the lake; time to write; and the opportunity to join optional craft-focused workshops led by the codirectors as well as optional peer critique groups. Professional feedback on your writing was available for an additional $75. The faculty included novelists Jilly Gagnon and Melissa Hed.
Squam Writes Retreat, 18 Bacon Road, Holderness, NH 03245. Jilly Gagnon and Melissa Hed, Codirectors.
Fiction Meets Science Residency
The Fiction Meets Science Residency offers up to two residencies of three to ten months annually to fiction and nonfiction writers at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study in Delmenhorst, Germany. Residents are provided with a private apartment and office space at the institute, where they will connect with an interdisciplinary community of guest scientists. Residents are expected to give one lecture or reading and to attend the weekly lectures given by the scientist fellows at the institute.
Fiction Meets Science Residency, Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, Lehmkuhlenbusch 4, 27753 Delmenhorst, Germany. Susan M. Gaines, Project Director.
Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference and Bookfair
The 2025 AWP Conference and Bookfair was held from March 26 to March 29 at the Los Angeles Convention Center and also included a virtual component comprising prerecorded and live streamed events. The conference featured panel discussions, readings, discussion rooms, and a bookfair. Prior to March 25, the cost of the conference for in-person preregistration, including all virtual programming and content, was $375 for nonmembers, $255 for members, $105 for seniors, and $70 for students.
Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference and Bookfair, 440 Monticello Avenue, Suite 1802, PMB 73708, Norfolk, VA 23510. (240) 696-8273.

Paris Writer’s Residency
The Paris Writer’s Residency will offer a monthlong residency in October to poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and translators at the American University of Paris. The resident is provided with an en suite single or double room, which includes a work desk, at the Irish Cultural Center in Paris. Some rooms include a private study space, and residents have access to a shared kitchen. Access to the library at the Ecole Normale Supérieure is also offered. The resident receives travel reimbursement of up to €1,500 (approximately $1,544).
Paris Writer’s Residency, American University of Paris, 147 rue de Grenelle, Paris 75007, France. Amanda Dennis, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and English.
Atlanta Writers Conference
The spring 2025 Atlanta Writers Conference, sponsored by the Atlanta Writers Club, will be held on May 2 and May 3 at the Westin Atlanta Airport Hotel. The conference includes a book fair featuring attendees’ books; presentations on the craft and business of writing, including a workshop on intellectual property and legal protection for writers; agent and editor pitch sessions; query letter critiques; manuscript excerpt critiques; and Q&A panels for poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers.
Atlanta Writers Conference, 8080 Jett Ferry Road, Atlanta, GA 30350. (404) 632-3525. George Weinstein, Conference Director.
American University of Paris Summer Creative Writing Institute
The American University of Paris Summer Creative Writing Institute will offer workshops to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers from July 1 to July 23 on the university’s campus in the seventh arrondissement of Paris. The faculty includes poet and fiction writer Siân Melangell Dafydd; poet, fiction writer, and nonfiction writer Biswamit Dwibedy; poet and nonfiction writer Lisa Robertson; and fiction writer Amanda Dennis. The cost of tuition is €2,224 (approximately $2,289) for auditors or €4,448 (approximately $4,577) for transferable academic credit.
American University of Paris Summer Creative Writing Institute, 5 Boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg, 75007 Paris, France. Andrea Christmas, Summer School and Financial Aid Coordinator.
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