This year the notice in the Science Media Centre of Canada‘s December 9, 2025 notice is earlier than last year’s, which I saw three days before the deadline.
The Wilderness Writing Residency is a ten-day, in-person residency in Port Renfrew, British Columbia, for non-fiction writers working on a magazine feature or book project on a theme related to the natural world.
Surrounded by inspiring jagged coastline and old-growth forest, writers will use the solitude for uninterrupted work while also partaking in group work with fellow writers and faculty editors.
…
Write the wild
Writers will critique and challenge ideas of wilderness and nature, and examine our complicated relationships within these complex, thorny terms.
Faculty editors
Harley Rustad is the bestselling and award-winning author of Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas (2022) and Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees (2018), both of which were nominated for and won several awards. He has written for publications including Outside, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, and Geographical. As a senior editor at The Walrus magazine, he was awarded Editor Grand Prix at the 2024 National Magazine Awards. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Harley is originally from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, and lives in Toronto with his family.
Kate Harris is the author of the bestselling travel memoir Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road (2018), which won the RBC Taylor Prize, the Boardman Tasker Prize, the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and the Edna Staebler Award, among others. Her writing has appeared in Granta, Outside, The Walrus, and The Georgia Review, with citations in Best American Essays and Best American Travel Writing. When she isn’t away reporting on United Nations environment and development negotiations for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, she lives off-grid in a log cabin on Taku River Tlingit territory in Atlin, British Columbia, with some stints in Toronto with her partner.
Accommodation will be provided by the residency at no cost to the writer in the form of a self-contained, one-bedroom cabin within the Wild Coast Cottage development in Port Renfrew.
FOOD
Residents will need to cover most of their own food costs but some group meals will be provided by the residency. More details will be provided.
TRAVEL/CHILD CARE SUPPORT
Residents will be reimbursed up to $500 (CAD) of travel expenses to and from Port Renfrew. This can be used for flights, ferries, car rental, gas, electric charging, etc.
This support can also be used for childcare expenses to help writers with young children take the time to attend the residency.
Receipts are required for reimbursement. More information will be provided upon acceptance.
GROUP WORK
Residents will partake in at least one group session to workshop work-in-progress with peers and faculty, offering and receiving feedback within the group.
BIG TREE TOUR
A guided excursion to some of the most storied forests and trees in the area, as well as other group excursions.
WHO SHOULD APPLY
The Wilderness Writing Residency is open to applications from writers of all levels and backgrounds, but preference will be given to emerging writers.
ELIGIBILITY
Residents must be 18+ at the time of the program start date.
PROGRAM FEE
$200, due upon acceptance into the residency.
…
“Big Lonely Doug” By Ryan Cutler – Reddit / Imgur, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=145127049
If that image looks familiar, I’ve copied it from my January 7, 2025 posting about the residency.
This is a little late (I’m sorry) but, on the plus side, it’s not a complicated application process. The residency is offered by the Port Renfrew Writers Retreat, from their About webpage,
Founded in 2019 on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Port Renfrew Writers Retreat is a space for writing that relates to the natural world.
Through in-person residencies and year-round self-directed retreats, we support the development and craft of writing projects in one of the most spectacular and storied corners of Canada.
Many of our residents have gone on to publish books and articles based on work done at Port Renfrew Writers Retreat.
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Why Port Renfrew?
The story of Port Renfrew Writers Retreat starts with the story of a single tree. Big Lonely Doug is a 20-storey, 1000-year-old Douglas Fir that was saved from the saw by a logger named Dennis Cronin. The tree—the second largest of its kind in Canada—was left standing in the Gordon River Valley, a short drive from Port Renfrew, while the entire old-growth forest around it was cut down. The tree has since become an environmental icon, drawing tourists from around the world to glimpse both the spectacular capacity of what nature can create in stark contrast with the reality of industrial logging of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island.
It was this one tree that brought Harley [Harley Rustad] to Port Renfrew in the summer of 2015 to report a magazine article about Big Lonely Doug and Dennis Cronin and then later a book. It’s a corner of Canada with an undeniable magic in the mist coiling through the forests and in the whales breaching off the coast, in breathing the salt-tinged air and spotting a black bear or a cougar or an elk—or stumbling upon one of the largest trees in the country.
…
“Big Lonely Doug” * By Ryan Cutler – Reddit / Imgur, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=145127049
The Wilderness Writing Residency is a ten-day, in-person residency in Port Renfrew, British Columbia, for non-fiction writers working on a magazine feature or book project on a theme related to the natural world.
Surrounded by inspiring jagged coastline and old-growth forest, writers will use the solitude for uninterrupted work while also partaking in group work with fellow writers and faculty editors.
…
Write the wild
Writers will critique and challenge ideas of wilderness and nature, and examine our complicated relationships within these complex, thorny terms.
ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation will be provided by the residency at no cost to the writer in the form of a self-contained, one-bedroom cabin within the Wild Coast Cottage development in Port Renfrew.
FOOD
Residents will need to cover most of their own food costs but some group meals will be provided by the residency. More details will be provided.
TRAVEL
Residents will be required to arrange travel to Port Renfrew at their own expense. Grants through the Canada Council for the Arts are available to support travel to attend residency programs.
GROUP WORK
Residents will partake in at least one group session to workshop work-in-progress with peers and faculty, offering and receiving feedback within the group.
BIG TREE TOUR
A guided excursion to some of the most storied forests and trees in the area.
WHO SHOULD APPLY
The Wilderness Writing Residency is open to applications from writers of all levels and backgrounds, but preference will be given to emerging writers.
ELIGIBILITY
Residents must be 18+ at the time of the program start date. International applications are welcome but we are unable to assist with visas.
PROGRAM FEE
$200, due upon acceptance into the residency.
…
Apply for 2025
The Wilderness Writing Residency 2025 will run from February 24 (arrival) to March 7 (departure).
Applications are due Friday, January 10 [2025] at midnight Pacific Time.
Use the form below to submit your application, which must include both a short bio as well as a one-page outline of your project. Application is free.
