Further Information

Support the IWR Alumni Awards Program

"We just love that IWR Alumni Awards program attracts writers from around the globe, and it's all thanks to you, our generous IWR community and alums," says IWR Co-founder, Erica Green. "The grantees make the event that much more amazing and rich."

"The IWR Alumni Awards is a great way to pay the IWR experience forward, and to stay connected to the IWR family in the most meaningful way, adds Eliza Reid, IWR Co-founder. "It’s not just your valuable monetary donations but all of opportunity you create for our in-need grantees."

What is IWR’s Alumni Award?

The Iceland Writers Retreat (IWR) is an annual series of cultural tours and writing workshops led by acclaimed authors from around the world. This fundraising project has the goal of engaging our alumni and literary champions to rally around our Alumni Award recipients, by supporting our grants to need- and merit-based international recipient(s) so that they may attend the event in Reykjavik.

The Iceland Writers Retreat (www.icelandwritersretreat.com) is a unique gathering of people from around the world to meet in Reykjavík — a UNESCO City of Literature — where you can connect with fellow literary enthusiasts, develop your writing alongside world-renowned authors, and build a global community of thinkers, observers, and artists.

Alumni Awards Applicants

IWR’s Founding Directors and alumni collaboratively bring the IWR Alumni Awards to fruition through community fundraising to award one to two individuals to attend the event each year, free of charge. There are many gifted writers who would benefit from attending but simply cannot afford to attend. These grant awards make their attendance possible and enrich the program.

Alumni Award Eligibility

Anyone who is aged 18 or over on April 23, 2025 (the first day of IWR) will be eligible to apply for the award.

Acknowledgment of financial need must be indicated.

Candidates do not need to be professional writers but should be serious about the craft and interested in developing their skills and contacts.

Their writing interests should fit well with the faculty for the 2025 retreat (i.e. literary fiction, non-fiction, memoir).

The award recipient(s) will be chosen by a panel of IWR alumni and the two Founding Directors. The recipient(s) will be chosen primarily based on two factors:

1) The potential they demonstrate (or have demonstrated) as writers

2) Their need for financial support in order to attend.

The applicant should also be able to demonstrate how they would use their knowledge gained after the event and how they will help to promote the IWR after the fact.

All recipients agree to allow IWR to use imagery and video in which a recipient's likeness may appear, for current and future promotion of IWR and the IWR Alumni Awards programs. Recipients may be asked to additionally submit text about the benefits of attending, as well as the benefits of the IWR Alumni Award, to be used for the promotion of IWR and IWR Alumni Awards program.

The more we are able to raise, the more awards we will be able to grant! We are hoping that alumni and other friends of the IWR community will support this program by contributing financially if they can, to enable one or more deserving candidates to attend this event.

Thank you in advance for your continued support!