What can you get out of a writing retreat? Past CBC Nonfiction Prize winner Leslie A. Davidson explains
CBC Books | Posted: February 22, 2018 10:01 PM | Last Updated: October 10, 2023
The 2024 CBC Short Story Prize is currently open for submissions
In 2016, Leslie A. Davidson won the CBC Nonfiction Prize for her essay Adaptation. As the winner she received $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts. She also received a writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, which she completed the following year.
Davidson's memoir Dancing in Small Spaces was published in 2022. Both her winning essay and her memoir were inspired by her relationship with her husband, and the health challenges they faced together.
The 2024 CBC Short Story Prize is now open! The winner will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have the opportunity to attend a two-week writing residency at The Banff Centre, and have their work published on CBC Books.
You can submit original, unpublished fiction that is up to 2,500 words. The deadline is Nov. 1 at 4:59 p.m. ET.
CBC Books talked to Davidson about her writing residency and why such experiences are important for writers.
1. It's a defining moment
"I've even been very reluctant to identify myself as a writer until now. As I walked to my studio, there was a sign saying, 'No visitors beyond this point.' I thought, 'Oh my goodness!' It felt a bit like I was here under false pretenses. But no, I really am doing this.
Being able to go off and do a 'writerly thing,' where you're in the company of other writers, is supportive and empowering.
"Being able to go off and do a 'writerly thing,' where you're in the company of other writers, is supportive and empowering. It's a way of acknowledging the work that we're all trying to do wherever we are in in that and however we define ourselves."
2. It's a chance to build community
"A retreat is one of the few opportunities we get to let down the guard a little bit. I didn't have a community of writers, having always lived in small towns. At lunch, there were writers with the Writers' Guild of Alberta. There were people of all varying degrees or at varying places in their career — young and successful, older like me and just beginning, and the range in between. Everybody's so committed and working so hard."
3. It gives you time to write
"It is an un-conflicted time to devote yourself to your writing. That was what I went for. Having been given such an incredible space to go is such an honouring gift. You leave your room, walk over to the studio and there is the space, you and the view — which was the big distraction.
It is an un-conflicted time to devote yourself to your writing.
"But it's quiet and that's what it's for. Even if all I did was make notes and ponder time, I did more work in 10 days than I probably do in months."
4. You'll come home inspired
"My visit let me recommit to trying to carve out pieces of time in my life for writing. I came home thinking, 'How do I do that at home?' It's so easy for the writing time to slip away. But I came home with a project that I now think is possible. That was the big deal from Banff."
Leslie A. Davidson's comments have been edited and condensed.