The countdown has started. Only 8 days before it all begins! All classes are in the Faculty of Humanities and Education, UWI. Still room in the Zine workshop–so hurry and sign up!

Shani Akilah’s talk is on the 28th, 3 pm, Faculty of Humanities and Education, SLT 2a

In addition to our slate of stellar writer-tutors, PREE Writing Studio also offers special sessions with remarkable writers such as Joseph Earl Thomas. May 28, 7 pm, Senior Common Room, UWI…Be there…

PREE Writing Studio 2025

From May 26-29, 2025, PREE Writing Studio, a 4-day residential workshop will take place at the University of the West Indies. Aimed at emerging writers, the Studio will bring together acclaimed Caribbean writers and literary professionals for an immersive literary experience in Kingston, Jamaica. Spending 3 days in the classroom with world-class writer-tutors in small, intimate groups we will spend the fourth day in a unique outdoor setting allowing tutors and participants to mix and mingle.

This year PREE Writing Studio is innovating by adding a songwriting module. After all! A Jamaica dis, nuh true? Is there a writing workshop anywhere else in the world with a songwriting option?

Basically you get to polish your writing skills with some of the best Caribbean writers in gorgeous Jamaica for the modest sum of USD1000 (or its Jamaican equivalent). This does NOT include accommodation. For USD500 more you will be provided with accommodation on the UWI campus for five nights. Caribbean residents pay USD750 denominated in their local currency, USD1250 if accommodation is needed.

Participants will select one tutor/module they wish to work with during the course of the studio. Each tutor will have no more than 8-10 students. A very limited number of scholarships are available for young writers with limited means.

PREE is grateful to the Prince Claus Fund, the Hawthornden Foundation and the University of the West Indies for their support.

More Information available at the links below:

Tutors and Modules. Fees and Accommodation.

To apply please click the Submit button below.

An Author Prepares:  Keeping it Organic

In addition to five substantive modules PREE is proud to announce that our industry professional this year will be publishing veteran and novelist Carole DeSanti who will give a public talk titled An Author Prepares:  Keeping it Organic.  DeSanti will offer comments on strategies for navigating the transitions between writing and publishing, turning conventional wisdom upside-down and always leading with the creative process. Carole will also be available to answer queries from participants during the first two days of the Studio. Please find DeSanti’s bio below:

About Carole DeSanti

Carole DeSanti is a writer and publishing professional.  As Vice President and Executive Editor at Viking Penguin (1997-2018), she oversaw publication of a range of fiction and nonfiction, including the works of bestselling authors Terry McMillan, Dorothy Allison, Deborah Harkness, and Ruth Ozeki.  She has been recognized for her commitment to women, to debut writers, and for bringing forward marginalized voices and points of view.  Her bestselling nonfiction titles include It Didn’t Start with You, a landmark work on inherited family trauma; and Anticancer, A New Way of Life.  Carole’s first novel, The Unruly Passions of Eugénie R. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), was a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection.  Her second, Plunder, the Exploits and Adventures of the Notorious Pyrates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, is forthcoming from Zando Projects in 2026.  Currently a Research Affiliate at Smith College, Carole was the Elizabeth Drew Professor of English Language and Literature, 2019–23.

Calabash Literary Festival will conveniently take place
immediately before our Writing Studio for those interested in attending it.