“Before I retired, I felt guilty if I spent time reading fiction. When I got home from work, I had to clean the house, tend the garden etc. Now I’m all about reading,” says Sue Manley from Liverpool. “My house is full of books, towers of them. This holiday combines two things I love: Greece and psychological thrillers.”
We met Manley, 72, last week in Syntagma Square, in the center of Athens, waiting, along with 10 other people, most of them between 35 and 50 years old and originally from the US and Britain, to board the bus that would take us to the coastal village of Tolo in Argolida, in the eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. All of them had signed up for Imagine Greece Retreats, a private initiative that organizes retreats in various locations around Greece, focused on literature, reading and creative writing.
“I learned about it from an email from my favorite author, Clare Mackintosh, informing her group of readers about the book launches she would be doing, as well as a writing retreat on Amorgos, the first one I had participated in. It was an ideal opportunity to visit a Greek island,” Manley tells us excitedly as we board.
In recent years, a network of reading and writing retreats has developed in Greece, operating mainly off-season, on islands such as Naxos and Santorini, but also in areas of Evia and the Peloponnese, with most organizers being foreigners.
Reading retreats are, quite simply, vacations at a summer resort focused on reading books. Participants travel to meet their favorite authors, and to discuss and share the experience of reading within “a Greek landscape.” In contrast, writing retreats are aimed at aspiring writers and include masterclasses, workshops, and detailed feedback on their writing, with the goal – as is often stated – “of participants reaching the point of publishing their book.”
“I have been involved in retreats for 20 years. I was invited to many countries in Europe and the US as an instructor. When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and I was isolated in Athens, I began to see things differently,” Canadian author Jonas Saul, the founder and leader of Imagine Greece, tells Kathimerini on the way to Tolo.
“When travel began to reopen, my wife, Rania, who is Greek, and I thought, instead of continuing to travel around the world to teach, we should ‘bring the world here.’”
He opened his mobile phone to show us some of his books, all with vibrant covers, large fonts and titles such as: “The Woman in the Woods,” “The Immortal Gene,” “The Kill,” and others. Saul said he specializes in psychological thrillers and has written 60 books over three decades. However, despite his love for Greece, he believes that “writing in Greek has no future; it is a small language.”
On the way, he shares with us what he considers the secrets of modern storytelling. “When you know the right technical elements – short chapters, how to build suspense and tension – you keep the reader close to you. If a book is slow, you’ve lost them. That’s why I find ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ a bit boring,” he says.
‘We offer the experience’
The retreats they’ve been organizing for the past three years don’t operate like a travel agency. “We’re not allowed to book flights or ferries. Everyone has to find their own way to Athens’ airport. We just offer the experience,” he says.
For €1,799 per person, Manley and the other participants traveled to Greece to spend a week with best-selling psychological thriller author Ruth Ware, best known for “The Woman in Cabin 10,” which last year was turned into a drama series for Netflix. She was also accompanied by Mark Edwards, a British psychological thriller writer with millions of sales worldwide and a steady presence on the best-seller lists. All the way to Tolo, they answered questions from their fans about their next book and about the “secret of their inspiration.”
“We were thinking about the ‘rock stars’ of the literary world. What if we brought them here? Everyone who reads them would love to spend a week on a Greek island, drinking wine and dining with them,” says Saul, explaining that the invited writers are not burdened with travel or accommodation expenses.
“I was invited to Amorgos in 2024, where Jonas and Rania are also holding retreats. I had a really great time. I loved meeting so many readers and having the opportunity to hang out with them in such a relaxed setting,” Edwards tells Kathimerini.
We met him at the hotel pool, along with Ware, just before they got ready for the day’s swim, accompanied of course by the rest of the group. Edwards’ schedule also included excursions to Hydra and Spetses.
The loneliness of the writer
“Being a writer is a strange, often lonely job. You spend so much time sitting at your desk, trying to hear those voices in your head – and sometimes it’s hard to understand what they’re trying to tell you. But coming here and meeting readers reminds you why you’re doing it. It’s great to meet people who have read your books and loved them. You think it’s worth it,” Ware tells us, repeating often that she “feels lucky” to have accepted the invitation to the retreat.
This year, however, the number of participants was smaller than in previous years. This is due, according to Saul, to global turmoil and wars. Nevertheless, there were quite a few who returned for a second or even third time, like 39-year-old Courtney from North Carolina. “I look forward to it every year; it’s an outlet and an alternative way to vacation,” she told us, with many of the participants commenting that the cost is very affordable for what the experience entails.
Two hours after our arrival, the program began with a relaxed get-together, where participants shared personal stories to break the ice. Natasha, 57, from Texas, started with the short fun facts shared by everyone sitting around a large table, glancing occasionally at the staff preparing their Greek dinner. “I think I’ve moved about 25 times. I’ve lived in eight or nine different states in the US, Canada, and Germany. That’s probably the most characteristic thing about me: I really like moving. Maybe I’ll come here one day, who knows.” For her, this particular retreat was an experience that was delayed by a year. “I wanted to come last year, but work prevented me and I had to cancel. But this year I said: ‘There’s no way I’m missing it.’”
The retreat network
Most retreats in Greece have websites that list the program, the amenities, and the cost of participation, which usually includes the instructor’s fee.
One of these is the Writing Workshops in Greece, another English-language creative writing program that takes place on the island of Thasos every two years. “We started the program 14 years ago; we start in Thessaloniki and then move to the island of Thasos,” says Christopher Bakken, poet and professor at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. “We’re one of the oldest writing workshops, although there are now several in various locations around the country. We appeal to different types of writers and attract different audiences.”
The program includes accommodation, daily writing time, access to evening literary salons, as well as Greek language and culture classes. The cost of participation is $3,450 per person, while – as the official website of the program states – customized options are also offered.
“I came to Greece as a young writer in the 1990s and the experience had a profound impact on me. The goal of the program is to bring other writers to the country, so that they can experience what it has to offer – nothing less than personal and creative transformation,” he says.
Kathimerini searched for similar events throughout Greece. Our contact requests were answered by one retreat in Evia, which takes place in different locations, such as Daphne and Agios Ioannis, villages with few or even no permanent residents. That service, unlike the majority of writing retreats, is not aimed at organized groups, but at individual clients. The cost of participation ranges from €900 to €2,300, depending on the accommodation chosen by each interested party. As the organizers told us, they offer “a quiet place, with a view of the sea and the lush green landscape of the area, with the aim of being a source of inspiration for the writers who choose it.” Activities are not included.
