Fiction
Short story and novel-in-progress workshops. Submit up to 25 pages of prose with your application; faculty distribute pages to the cohort in advance and discuss them in seminar.
Established 2027 · Portland, Maine
A week of craft
at the edge of the Atlantic.
Coastal Writers is a summer workshop and retreat for poets, novelists, and essayists, held in residence at The Press Hotel in downtown Portland, Maine.
About
A small conference with the rigor of a graduate seminar and the openness of a residency.
For one week each summer, sixty writers gather in Portland to do the work — drafting, revising, reading aloud, listening hard. Mornings are spent in small workshops led by working novelists, poets, and essayists. Afternoons are unstructured: write in your room, walk the working harbor, meet a faculty member for a manuscript conference, take the ferry to Peaks Island.
Coastal Writers is built on a simple premise — that serious writers do their best work when they are taken seriously. Cohorts are kept deliberately small. Faculty are chosen for their craft and their generosity as teachers. The schedule leaves room to think.
We sit at the corner of Exchange and Congress, in a building that was once the headquarters of the Portland Press Herald. The presses are gone but the building remembers them. It is a good place to write.
The Workshops
Four genres. Six days. Fifteen writers to a room.
Poetry
A seven-person workshop centered on close reading of new work, with daily craft talks on form, line, and revision. Submit ten poems with your application.
Narrative Nonfiction
Memoir, essay, and long-form journalism. Submit up to 20 pages. Includes a craft thread on research, reporting, and the ethics of writing about real people.
The Generative Room
For writers between projects or working across genres. A daily prompt-driven studio with no advance submission — bring a notebook and a willingness to draft in public.
Faculty
Working writers who teach with care.
Each year we invite a small group of faculty — novelists, poets, essayists, and editors at the height of their craft — to lead workshops, deliver craft talks, and meet one-on-one with participants. The 2027 faculty will be announced this winter.
Faculty Announcement
Winter 2027
Faculty Announcement
Winter 2027
Faculty Announcement
Winter 2027
Faculty Announcement
Winter 2027
Past visiting writers will include — well, that's the point of starting something new. Watch this space.
A Week in Outline
The shape of the days.
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Sunday
Arrival & Opening Reading
Check-in at The Press Hotel through the afternoon. Welcome reception at 6 p.m., followed by the opening faculty reading in the hotel's Inkwell Bar.
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Mon–Fri
Workshops & Craft Talks
9:30–12:30 daily workshop. 1:00 lunch on your own. 2:30 craft talk or panel. Afternoons open for writing, manuscript conferences, or the city. Evening readings most nights.
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Wednesday
Off-Day on the Water
No workshops. A chartered sail on Casco Bay in the morning; an afternoon lobster lunch at a working wharf; an evening with nothing on the schedule.
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Saturday
Closing Readings & Departure
Participant readings in the morning, brunch on the Press Hotel terrace, and farewells. Late checkout available.
The Venue
The Press Hotel.
The Press Hotel occupies the former headquarters of the Portland Press Herald at the corner of Exchange and Congress in the Old Port. The building's bones — newsroom-tall windows, brick, ink — have been kept; the rest has been quietly renovated into one of the most literary hotels in New England.
All workshops and craft talks take place in-house. Participants are offered a discounted room block for the week; off-site lodging recommendations are available for those who prefer to stay nearby.
- Address · 119 Exchange Street, Portland, Maine
- Workshop spaces · The Newsroom, The Inkwell, The Composing Room
- Within walking distance · the working waterfront, Longfellow Books, the Portland Museum of Art, the ferry terminal for Peaks & Casco Bay islands
The City
Portland in July.
The harbor
A working harbor still — lobster boats, ferries, an occasional schooner. Walk the eastern promenade at sunrise; you will not regret it.
The bookstores
Longfellow Books, Print: A Bookstore, and Yes Books are all a few minutes from the hotel. Readings happen weekly.
The islands
The Casco Bay Lines ferry runs from the foot of Commercial Street. Peaks Island in twenty minutes; Cliff Island in an hour.
The food
One of the best small food cities in the country — oysters at Eventide, hand-rolled pasta at Solo Italiano, lobster anywhere there is a dock.
Apply
Applications for 2027 open this fall.
Admission is competitive but not impossible. We read every application carefully and look first at the work. Submission requirements vary by genre — full guidelines will be posted with the application.
Tuition
$1,950 — includes all workshops, craft talks, evening events, the Wednesday excursion, opening reception, and closing brunch. Lodging is separate.
Lodging
A discounted block of rooms at The Press Hotel is held for participants. Rates and a reservation link are sent with the acceptance letter.
Scholarships
A small number of need-based and emerging-writer scholarships are awarded each year. Indicate interest on your application.