Under Rough Ridge Writers’ Retreat organiser Rose Riddell said the theme of this year’s retreat was "getting over the line" or how to get your work published.
There were 26 people attending the week-long event at Oturehua, with one coming from Australia.
During the week there would be workshops for the writers and opportunities to work one-on-one with Mrs Riddell and Oturehua-based editor Paula Wagemaker.
"She’s been in the business 40 years and she is absolutely brilliant at turning a script into something that really is ready for publication. And also advising people — ‘look, the arc of the story’s not so good here or you need more description there’."
Also speaking during the week would be Christchurch publisher Quentin Wilson, who had nearly 40 years’ experience in all aspect of book publishing and runs his own independent publishing house.
Short-story writer, poet and editor Emma Neale, from Dunedin, would also be there along with Makar (Scottish national poet) and essayist Kathleen Jamie.
Ms Jamie, who is on on a writing fellowship at Otago University, recently retired as professor of creative writing at the University of Stirling. As well as poetry, she is a nature and environmental writer who has authored four noted books of essays including Findings, Surfacing and Cairn.
In 2014 Jamie challenged herself to write a poem every week, which were published as The Bonniest Companie the following year.
Ms Neale has published 13 books including her 2016 novel Billy Bird which was shortlisted for the Acorn Prize at the Ockham New Zealand book awards and long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award.
In 2020, she was awarded the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for a distinguished contribution to New Zealand poetry. One of her novels, Fosterling, is in script development with New Zealand film and television company Sandy Lane Productions whose productions included Juniper and The Mountain.
Mrs Riddell said while there were more options than ever for authors to be published, they needed to be mindful how crucial it was to ensure distribution of their book.
Retreat attendees would have their mornings free to write. Some chose to do that in their own space while others would work in the Oturehua hall, which had been transformed into an artist grotto for the week.
Meals would be shared in the hall and on Friday night there would be a concert to round the week off, Mrs Riddell said.
The retreats were started by Mrs Riddell’s late husband Mike in 2019 when he suggested the half dozen writers living in the Maniototo village could teach workshops. Each year there were guest speakers and panel discussions, but the retreats were mostly an opportunity for writers to take time away from their everyday lives and write.
