Registration covers attendance to all seminars, panel discussions, and reading during the week. This year we've expanded our annual conference to include classes in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Attendees get to choose from up to 6 classes a day in any genre; evening readings from visiting faculty; panel discussions on the writing life; seminars on publishing and editing, along with our attendee reading celebration at the end of the week. For attendees who would like a one-on-one manuscript meeting with our visiting writer we offer Manuscript Sessions ($200) which can be added during registration. Registration does not cover travel/lodging/food on the island.

No!  MVICW believes in the importance of cross-genre, hybrid, and experimental work! Attendees are encouraged to take classes outside of their genre and to explore all the options available to them while at MVICW.

Absolutely!  We have had many returning attendees over the year. Our visiting writers and classes change every year, and one of the greatest parts of our program is the diversity of attendees who attend from around the world.  By returning to MVICW, attendees get the opportunity to continue to deepen their craft and their writing community. 

Check out our handy guide for travel to the island. There are many options including flying to the island, bus and ferry transportation, fast ferry travel (from RI, NY & NJ), and driving your car onto the boat for the island. 

Unlike other programs, MVICW's focus in generative, and we aim to reduce the feeling of pressure or trying to pitch/sell your work during your time at the institute. While the process of preparing work for submissions and publishing and editing is covered at the end of the program, we do not have agent-pitch meetings, etc. so that you can focus entirely on the writing and creative process.  

We allocate every dollar we receive in application fees to creating more fellowships for writers of color, queer writers, parent-writers, and educators. And so with each fellowship application you're not simply expanding your own chances of attending MVICW on a funded fellowship, but you're supporting increased opportunities for other deserving writers.

If you attended the 2021 conference, all class recordings are available in Whova under the Video Gallery. They will be available to view as many times as you'd like until December 13, 2021. 

Hopefully not this year!  We've been looking forward to the world becoming safe enough to gather again in person, and our hope is to bring everyone together on the island this summer (see our Health & Safety policy). For this reason, we will be focusing on our in-person summer conference for 2022 and would only consider moving virtual if it proves necessary to do so. That said, our 2021 Virtual Summer Writers' Conference was an enormous success, and we are looking at ways to bring it back in the future! 

Authors and poets who are interested in becoming a visiting writer should send a copy of their book/s to Alexander Weinstein. Please email him at director@mvicw.com to indicate your interest in teaching at MVICW and to request the mailing address. 

We’re very excited to keep growing, and thanks to all the incredible feedback from our amazing community members, we have lots of ideas on what you would like to see from us in the future, including increased online classes and workshops, and more island opportunities for community building. As we’re still a very small operation, expanding our organization does take time and we can always use more help! If you are interested in helping us expand, you can donate here or inquire about potential volunteer opportunities for future programs by emailing us at director@mvicw.com.