Summer Scholars

Writers Retreat

Program Dates: June 25 - July 25, 2026

Applications will be open through February 13, 2026.

APPLY HERE

 

The best writing and the most intriguing art always come from a place of curiosity.

                                                                                 - Jason McBride

Introducing the Summer Scholars Writers Retreat, an opportunity for up to 5 students to develop a writing practice focused on shared reading and writing in a communal living experience in Clancy, Montana. Natalie Goldberg argues, “if you want to become a good writer, you need to do three things. Read a lot, listen well and deeply, and write a lot.” The retreat is designed to give you the opportunity for all three while experiencing “Big Sky Country” with a group who wants to learn and have fun at the same time.

Participating in this small-group experience, guided by Professors Jan Osborn and Bart Wilson, will allow you to develop your craft in a writing community with a shared purpose. The group will move through an iterative process that begins with curiosity followed by inquiry, helping each participant expand their critical thinking and composition skills as part of a team focused on language awareness and rhetorical knowledge in service of ideas.

The shared purpose for the retreat is a project exploring nonsense; yes, nonsense. We sense the world we are in; it is personal and social; therefore, we talk about common sense, a sensing of phenomenon that fits into how we have ordered the world. Nonsense challenges how society has ordered the world, how individuals are shaped by societal sense. If these ideas provoke curiosity, if you are interested in developing as a writer in a community of writers, in thinking about sense and nonsense, order and disorder, organization and reorganization, the Summer Scholars Writers Retreat will give you that chance.

Summer Scholars at the Writers Retreat will receive a fellowship of $3,000, which is meant to cover your airfare to and from Helena, MT.  Thanks to a generous gift by Candace and Vernon Smith, the fellowship also includes lodging in a six-bedroom mountain home in Clancy, MT. Most, but not all meals, will be provided.

Applications for the Summers Scholars Writers Retreat are due by February 13, 2026. Students may simultaneously apply to both the Summer Scholars program at Chapman University and the Summer Scholars Writers Retreat in Montana. 

The Writers Retreat is open to undergraduates of any major at Chapman University and other U.S. Institutions. International students who hold an F1 Student Visa are welcome to apply. Please note that for students who are not US residents for tax purposes, the award may be subject to tax withholding which will reduce the amount of each payment you receive.

To apply, complete the Writers Retreat application which includes

• a brief biography (150 words maximum),
• a writing sample (500-750 words), and
• brief discussion of where you see yourself as a writer as demonstrated in the sample (250 words maximum).

Remember, the retreat is about developing as a writer, so your sample need not impress but, rather, express who you are as a writer now and where you would like to develop your skills, your craft.