Ignite your imagination on this unique writing adventure that will inspire your writing and teach you skills to grow your craft! Join writers Lauren Carter and Ariel Gordon for their annual autumn trip to Carman, Manitoba where golden leaves and glowing prairie light will illuminate the nooks and crannies of your creativity!

This four-day Manitoba writing retreat combines unique accommodations in a 19th-century church full of books, antiques, and stained glass windows with guided writing sessions and group explorations (writing-related, of course!) of the charming town. 

Scroll down to view the itinerary and see what we have planned! 

"The setting was serene, and the food was delicious. I felt welcomed and encouraged at every moment by participants and session leaders alike!" - Heidi 

Built in 1898 in the Gothic revival style, this church-turned-B-and-B is full of art and antiques, not to mention stained glass windows originally shipped from Scotland in crates of molasses! 

Upstairs are six writing-themed bedrooms (the Hemingway, Manderley, Zhivago, Limberlost, Gable, and Britannia with its nod to Agatha Christie) while the library and parlour invite with their cozy seating and shelves full of books.

Delicious meals (friendly to dietary restrictions) are served in the charming dining room by generous host Barbara.  

Listed as one of the 23 Most Unique Places to Stay in Manitoba on Road Trip Manitoba, Bell Aura is custom-made for being creative! Find out more about Bell Aura at www.bellaura.ca 

Lauren Carter (she/her) founded Wild Ground Writing Retreats to fulfil her twin passions of travel and helping writers. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and a certificate in teaching and training adult learners. Her last book, the short story collection Places Like These was recommended as a Spring 2023 read by the Globe and Mail while her last novel This Has Nothing To Do With You won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, while she also received the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. Her sixth book, The Longest Night, will be published by Freehand Press in Fall 2025. Find out more about Lauren at www.laurencarter.ca 

Ariel Gordon (she/her) is a Winnipeg/Treaty 1 territory-based writer, editor, and enthusiast. She is the ringleader of Writes of Spring, a National Poetry Month project with the Winnipeg International Writers Festival that appears in the Winnipeg Free Press and the poetry editor for The Goose. Her work has appeared recently in Best Canadian Essays 2025 and Prairie Fire’s 50 Over 50 special issue and is forthcoming in Best Canadian Poetry 2026 and Fiddlehead magazine. Her seventh book, Blood Letters, will be published Winnipeg's Great Plains Press in fall 2025. This epistolary sci-fi novel was written in collaboration with graphic novelist GMB Chomichuk. Find out more about Ariel at www.arielgordon.ca

Check-in and settle into your unique room before supper in the dining room and an evening spent getting to know one another and connecting with our words. 

Wander a riverside trail, curl up in the parlour, and visit Carman’s cute art gallery  in the town’s historic train station—all while writing, of course! 

Today's sessions will include: 

Dispatches from the World (Ariel): What does it mean to slow down and pay attention to the natural world? What lives there? What’s moving? We will be focusing on close observation of urban nature, writing poems about what we see/hear/smell/taste. 

Ekphrasic Experimentation (Lauren): The term ekphrasis means to describe with vivid detail. During this workshop, we’ll visit the Golden Prairie Arts Council  gallery, read some examples of ekphrastic poetry and prose, and try our hand at the form or just see what writing emerges in response to viewing their latest exhibition. 

Visit the local thrift store for inspiration, go out for lunch on your own or with new friends, write some more and prep for our evening open mic and bonfire (weather permitting).

Today's sessions will include: 

Thrifting Poems (Ariel):  We’ll walk over to the Carman MCC Thrift Shop, where your goal is to find an object (or objects) to write to. We’ll chat about writing strategies on the way back to Bell Aura, where you’ll spend an hour exploring the lost and found, the now and then, of your finds.

Strategies for Editing Poetry (Ariel): How do you take your freewriting, your first drafts, to the next level? We’ll explore techniques to refine your poems: leaning on line and stanza breaks, amplifying the soundwork, and using the page like a canvas. We’ll also look at web tools that will help you loosen up while editing. 

Embroider and Embellish (Lauren): You have some words on the page… now what? In this workshop, you will play with what you’ve made over the weekend, discover what has energy, and explore ways to intuitively enrich and deepen what you've discovered. 

Spend the morning writing before a delicious brunch. We'll round out the weekend with some final writing and intention-setting before a delicious brunch. Closing ceremonies include final reflections and the chance to win hand-crafted gifts before  check-out around 2 pm