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Writing about a Writing Retreat in Italy


If I had 4000 Euros, and nowhere to go in May this year, THIS is where I’d be.

But since I don’t have 4000 Euros just lying around waiting to be spent, and I can’t go no place in May, my home is my writing retreat.

Writing retreats are only good for you if:
-the teacher/s is very good
-you can’t often make time in your life for writing
– the place you’re going to is marvellous.

I’m not sure about the first, the second I refuse to admit, but the third…well, who doesn’t want to go to Rome?

Life has been so chaotic of late that writing seems to take a back seat, often. I do that ‘writing in the head’ bit, but it is not enough. Period.

So today, it is back to my notebook, and a solid hour of writing. No dreaming about Italy. What the heck, it is okay to dream, as long as I’m writing! After all, as someone, I forget who, said:

A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream.

So maybe, someday, I’ll go to this Residency Program instead!

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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