When and where do you write best?

I’m choosing dates for my retreats in 2026. This will be the seventh year for Ridge Writing Retreats! So far, I’ve facilitated about 70 retreat days online and in person in Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Tampere and Säynätsalo, and a few hundred hours of Write on Wednesdays.

I write well at all our venues, and that is down to the people, because your fellow writers are what makes a good retreat. Still, each place has a character of its own.

Best to get started – Wivi Lönn’s library. Sadly, after my first retreat when it was the Local Culture Hostel, the building that she designed for the city library is now owned by a private company. But libraries everywhere remain one of my favourite places to write.

Best of both worlds – Unity Tampere. Pyynikinharju/ridge and the lake below provide a gorgeous setting but it is ten minutes by bus into town. Besides a sauna and brewery bar, Unity has coworking spaces that Finnish researchers can access.

Best for that creative, bohemian atmosphere – Kirjalijatalo/The Writers’ House Jyväskylä. This old wooden house is another of Wivi Lönn’s, and there’s a writers’ residence upstairs. I used to have a desk here. Come for your own mini-residence.

Best in the city – Valo Helsinki. The rooftop spa definitely helps, but so does the excellent food, and above all the fact that we have been here so often, the staff know exactly what we need.

Best getaway – Säynätsalo* Kunnantalo/Town Hall. If you long for the retreat part of a writing retreat, this is the one, it is on an island (with a bridge) and the Alvar Aalto building is designed around a quadrangle like a cloister. And I live around the corner…

Best to keep going – little and often online. If there’s some thing I really don’t want to work on, I save it for a Write on Wednesday. Our conversations after our writing hour are essential to my writing practice. And the company is excellent.

So when and where do you write best?

Help me choose our writing retreat dates for next year.

* Northern Lights over Säynätsalo, March 2022, photo by Zama Ferin

new retreat dates – seuraavat retriitit