Spend six nights in Québec’s Bas-Saint-Laurent, in the Kamouraska region along the St. Lawrence River, for a small-group writing retreat combining focused morning workshops, generous time to write and explore, and shared meals in a striking coastal landscape.

Open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, the retreat will be limited to 8–12 participants. Mornings will be devoted to close discussion of participants’ work and conversations about craft; afternoons will be largely free for writing, reading, resting, or exploring the region. Evenings will center around shared meals and conversation.

The retreat runs from September 4–10, 2027, with round-trip group transportation included from Québec City to the retreat and back.

Led by Sylvie Bertrand — writer, writing coach, founding editor of Cagibi, and Senior Teacher at The Writers Studio — the workshop is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

This retreat will use place as its central theme and as a lens for thinking about craft. We will look at how place operates in a piece not simply as setting, but as atmosphere, memory, pressure, history, identity, and source of dramatic tension.

The aim is for each writer to leave with substantial feedback on the work they bring, along with a deeper understanding of how place can reveal what a piece is really about.

Participants may choose either a private room or a shared room.

Private accommodations include a private guest room with its own private bathroom at the retreat hub, where workshops, lunches, dinners, and most group activities will take place. Participants staying there will also have access to the pool and garden.

Additional private and shared accommodations are located at a nearby inn, approximately a three-minute walk from the retreat hub, and all have private bathrooms and views of the St. Lawrence River.

Specific room assignments will be made by the retreat organizers.

Meals are an important part of the retreat experience. All meals are included from dinner September 4 to breakfast September 10, with an emphasis on local products and generous, carefully prepared food. Wine will be included with dinner. All meals will be served at the retreat hub.

The setting itself is part of the retreat: the St. Lawrence River, the tidal landscape of the Bas-Saint-Laurent, the village of Kamouraska, and the surrounding countryside will offer both space and inspiration throughout the week.

Round-trip group transportation is included from Québec City to the retreat on Saturday, September 4, and back to Québec City on Friday, September 10.

Participants are responsible for arranging their own travel to Québec City before the retreat and onward travel from Québec City after the retreat. Detailed meeting-point and departure information will be provided to registered participants.

Sylvie Bertrand is a writer, editor, and teacher based in Brooklyn. She has taught memoir and fiction at The Writers Studio since 2018 and is a co-founding editor of Cagibi. Her writing has appeared in Epiphany, Cleaver, Peregrine, December, and elsewhere, and her work has received a Pushcart Special Mention and a PEN/Robert J. Dau nomination. She also works privately with writers as a developmental editor and writing coach.

A native of Montreal, she is especially interested in the relationship between place, memory, language, and story.