The Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) welcomes proposals from writers, therapists, narrative medicine practitioners, and more for our fourth Retreat for Survival and Healing.
This two-day retreat for sexual assault survivors will be a safe space for creativity, generative writing exercises, discussions on ways to write trauma, advice on publishing, and more. This event will be open to writers of all backgrounds and experience levels and provide an opportunity to work with talented writers from across the country who use trauma-informed teaching techniques to guide workshops that will focus on mutual support for a weekend of writing time centered on healing, safety, and comfort.
These workshops should be designed with an eye toward forging connections and making creative writing accessible to beginners and experienced writers alike. Proposals in all writing genres, as well as hybrid genres, will be considered. Each workshop will be approximately 90-minutes in length and will be conducted twice. Workshop leaders may also be asked to work with writers in one-on-one conferences or as part of group exercises.
This retreat will take place in Oak Ridge, TN, which is 25 miles outside of Knoxville, during a Friday/Saturday in October, 2025 (official date to be determined). Workshop leaders will receive a $1,000 honorarium to cover travel, housing, and teaching fees. These honorariums are supported by a grant from the Poetry Foundation.
Proposals should be no longer than 250 words and include information on the type of workshop you’d like to hold, what writers you may be looking at as examples, and goals of the workshop itself in regards to the retreat’s stated goals. Previous workshops included topics such as “Writing Trauma through Fabulism,” “The Hero’s Journey: Reclaiming Your Narrative by Embracing the Impossible,” “From Inside the Margins: Using Narrative to Facilitate Intercommunal Healing,” and “Self-Care as Self Preservation.”
Submit proposals by no later than February 20, 2025 at http://tiny.utk.edu/survivalandhealing.
