Writing with Ros at the Osprey Nest
A week or two devoted to your writing, in Key West.
Perhaps there is something you have been meaning to write. Or something you have begun and would like time, and an attentive reader, to help you stay with.
This season, I am inviting a small number of writers to come to Key West and work with me individually, one at a time, for a week or two.
Twice a week, we will sit down together for an hour. You might bring poems, a story, a chapter of a novel or memoir, or something you are only beginning to find your way into. We can look closely at your pages, talk through a question, read something together, or find a starting point for new work.
When you have pages to share, I will read them before we meet. Our conversations will follow what interests you, what is coming alive in the writing, and what you would like to explore or develop.
Between our meetings, your days are your own. Write, read, walk the island, rest. There will be time to try things out and see what develops.
You will stay in the Osprey Nest, the small studio above my house. I will be downstairs at my own work, which I think is part of the pleasure: two writers under one roof, each with their own days, meeting over the words.
You do not need to be published or arrive with a finished manuscript. Bring your curiosity, your wish to write, and a willingness to spend time working independently.
What we might explore together
- Poetry
- Line, image, sound, and the discoveries that come from reading aloud.
- Fiction
- Voice, character, scene, or a chapter finding its shape.
- Memoir
- The shape of an experience, the telling detail, where a story begins.
- Beginning something
- An opening, an approach, a small experiment.
- Returning to a draft
- What feels alive, what needs room, what can fall away.
Some meetings may centre on submitted pages. Others may begin with a conversation, a reading, or an invitation to write something new.
The rhythm of a visit
- One week
- Seven nights, with two private, hour-long writing sessions.
- Two weeks
- Fourteen nights, with four private, hour-long writing sessions.
Meeting times are agreed in advance, leaving plenty of uninterrupted time for your own work.
Stays of up to a month may also be arranged for writers immersed in a longer project.
For sessions based on existing work, you may send up to 2,500 words of prose, or up to five poems totalling no more than ten pages, three days before we meet.
Our time together centres on reading and conversation. You are also welcome to arrive with a question or the wish to begin, without submitting pages.
The Osprey Nest
The Osprey Nest is the small studio above my home in Key West, with its own private entrance, a place to settle into your writing for a week or two.
If this appeals to you, write and tell me a little about what you are working on, or hoping to begin, and when you might like to come (including if you are drawn to a longer stay). I will reply with possible dates, details of the Nest, and fees.