Storytelling

Writing Retreat in Kenya: How to Make 2026 Your Wildest Story Yet

Writing Retreat in Kenya: How to Make 2026 Your Wildest Story Yet

Cindy McCain

When my friend Dee and I heard about the passing of Robert Redford, we immediately watched him again in Out of Africa. We love the film and the memoir by Karen Blixen on which it is based. Living in Africa stretched her and made her a better storyteller. She left forever changed. So did we. After Dee lived in Kenya and I lived in Morocco, we wrote memoirs and other publications about our experiences. Of the 58 countries we’ve explored between us, nowhere has transformed us more as writers and women. Seeing Karen Blixen’s farm and doing a safari in Kenya topped my Bucket List, so when Dee suggested a writing retreat there in 2026, I was on board! We’re taking only 8 explorers with us, so read on and sign up soon!

Full Disclosure: Robert Redford (Denys in Out of Africa) won’t be your pilot, but we’ll fly over Kenya to Tsavo for an authentic safari experience. We’ll be inspired by epic beauty and adventure for creative inspiration and future writing material.

Robert/Denys won’t be there to wash our hair, either, but we’ll read travel literature from master writers to improve our craft. We’ll relax and recharge with kindred spirits … refreshing.

Kenya will give you a love story. You’ll fall in love with your life.

If you’re a writer not writing … an explorer not exploring … or someone who longs to try both…

If you long to wake up in a new world full of wonder and possibility…

If you’re tired of being tired, restless, or overwhelmed…

Listen to the whisper: There’s more to life. It’s the Call to Adventure that Joseph Campbell described in The Hero’s Journey. Taking the first step to changing your narrative is the hardest for some because it means choosing YOU.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined. — Henry David Thoreau

Write what should not be forgotten. —Isabel Allende

IS THIS WHAT YOUR SOUL NEEDS?

See videos, photos, and details of our Kenya adventure HERE.

Download the Brochure or See Below Information on the Writing Workshop, Testimonials, Retreat Leader Bios, Package Costs, How to Register, and Deadlines. Share the brochure and this blog post with novice or pro writing friends!

To hold your spot, contact Cindy McCain at cindylmccain1@gmail.com for registration forms and payment information. Completed Registration Forms and Fee Due DECEMBER 15, 2025.

Contact Cindy at cindylmccain1@gmail.com with questions about the writing workshop. Contact Dee at deeflower@mac.com with questions about Kenya. Download .PDF below.

Kenya Writing RetreatDownload

Make Authentic Connections with Beautiful People

Take a Peek into Cindy’s Morocco Writing Retreat to Know What to Expect

Join Novice and Pro Writers As We Gather Around the Table

Cindy McCain Writing Retreat
Artist dates in Africa inspired us with beauty, rest, and adventure. At the Morocco Writing Retreat, we enjoyed lunch, playing in multiple pools, and riding camels at the iconic Jnane Tamsna.

The Kenya Writing Retreat includes:

  1. Inspiration (see link to Origins itinerary description above)
  2. Workshop sessions for crafting a compelling, poignant travel tale (personal essay/blog post/memoir chapter) in one week
  3. Prompts for journaling your journey in Kenya for writing material
  4. A supportive writing community
  5. Practices for sustaining a creative life in 2026 and beyond

*You’ll have access to workshop materials online before, during, and after the retreat.

Please see the Bios of hosts Cindy McCain and Dee Flower in the brochure above.

Cindy McCain (Southern Girl Gone Global)

I’m a university writing and literature instructor, writer, editor, and photographer. Living in Marrakesh inspired my memoir, travel articles, personal essays, and podcast. Nothing makes me happier than exploring the world and empowering writers to tell their best stories. I’ve been leading Travel Tales workshops/writing retreats in the US and Morocco since 2018.

Cindy McCain (Southern Girl Gone Global)

More About Dee Flower and a Preview of the 2026 Kenya Retreat

(Photos Below from Dee Flower’s Exhibitions, Publications, and Life in Kenya)

I’ve never known anyone with more energy, love for travel, and a way of making anywhere an adventure than author/retired park ranger/safari guide trainer, Dee Flower. See her photography from six continents on her website. See more of her INCREDIBLE author bio on Amazon, where you can also get her memoir on living in Kenya, Where the Wind Wills (available on Kindle, Audible, and Spotify free with a Premium Spotify account). She’ll share her writing process, publication journey, and vast understanding of Kenya as our Resident Master Guide.

Dee’s podcast interviews are HERE and below:

Dee Flower and Jane Goodall

Photo Credit: Dee Flower
Dee Flower in Kenya
Dee Flower in Kenya

The World needs the travel tales you have to offer.

Where I create, there I am true. — Sylvia Plath

Morocco Writing Retreat in Marrakesh and Essaouira

Morocco Writing Retreat in Marrakesh and Essaouira

Cindy McCain

Your heart knows the way. Run in that Direction.–Rumi

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Write what should not be forgotten. —Isabel Allende

Travel to have more you must remember. —Cindy McCain

Do you need time away to jumpstart or finish a writing project? Do you have travel tales you need to tell?

Did you vow in 2020 pandemic lockdown that you would make travel a priority? Do you need to feel alive on new adventures…  meet kindred spirits… fulfill new or old dreams? 

Whether you’re a novice writer or pro honing your craft, on this retreat you’ll journal your journey with proven tools, inspiration, and a creative, supportive community in an exotic land. You’ll tell your best story and leave with the ultimate souvenir (remembrance). Your personal essay or memoir chapter will transport others and you back to Morocco (or whatever place you need to write about and never forget). 

Though I’ve journeyed across 27 countries, nowhere like magical Morocco provides me as much rest, adventure, creative energy, and beauty. While living there, I fell in love with diverse landscapes, rich cultural experiences, and wonderful people. For me, the time was a life reset. If you follow this blog, you know that I returned to Marrakesh during the summer of 2018 and began planning this retreat. The pandemic placed it on hold, but in 2023 it finally happened! See the video here and stay tuned for the next one!

Is this what your soul might need?

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Imagine yourself with a journal or laptop perched on the ramparts of the Atlantic coastal town, Essaouira, formerly known as the Port of Timbuktu. Anything’s possible here, where goats (not pigs) fly.

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Imagine wide, open spaces to breathe … like the mountain terrace of a Berber village overlooking Toubkal, highest peak of the Atlas Mountains and northern Africa.

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Here Martin Scorsese filmed Seven Years in Tibet starring Brad Pitt.

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Free your inner child (creative unconscious) to play in pools and secret gardens on a week-long artist date. 

We’ll have lunch, then scatter to write or relax in multiple secluded pools and gardens at Jnane Tamsna (followed by a camel ride).

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Authentic meals with new friends and rooftop views of the Marrakesh Medina, UNESCO World Heritage Site founded in the 11th Century.

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Riad Mur Akush

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Dinner in a former Pasha’s Palace.

Photo walks. Cooking classes. Discovering ways to volunteer/support Project Soar, Center for Abandoned & Disabled Children, The Amal Center, and Jarjeer Mules.

Journaling to the sound of courtyard fountains and on outdoor terraces of a private riad.  Reading your work at a literary salon by the sea.  

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Truly, Morocco has been a creative hub for generations of artists, each meeting his or her respective Muse there. Edith Wharton, Tennessee Williams, Paul Bowles… Josephine Baker, Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens … Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, George Lucas.  Here, Laurence of Arabia, Indiana Jones, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones came to life. Teaching, writing, and wandering there, my life felt epic, too.  

Join me in Morocco for some of my favorite local experiences from the Atlas Mountains to Marrakesh to the African coast. Choose what your soul needs.

Package Includes:

  • 4 Workshop Sessions: Craft Study & Workshop with Feedback
  • Inspiration & Free Time for Writing
  • Copy Edit by Instructor
  • Literary Salon Reading by the Sea
  • 7 nights Accommodations in private rooms w/ baths (5 in Marrakech medina riad and 2 in Essaouira with sea view ) 
  • Airport Transfers
  • Private Transportation to Essaouira, High Atlas Mountains, and Palmeraie  
  • Mule trek and lunch in a Berber village
  • Luxury Resort for Lunch, Botanical Gardens, Pools, and a Camel Ride
  • Medina Guided Tour, Bargaining Assistance, Photo Walk, and Entrance to Bahia Palace and Ben Youssef
  • 7 Breakfasts, 2 Lunches, 2 Dinners
  • Tips
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  • *Does Not Include: 
  • Flights
  • Travel Insurance (required)
  • 3 Group Meals (order from menu): Rooftop Lunch in Medina, Dinners in a Former Pasha’s Palace and on a Rooftop by the Sea
  • Alcohol
  • Free time options and transfers (Suggestions: Amal Cooking Class, Lunch at Museum of Confluence, Hammam/Spa Day, Jardin Marjorelle, Lunch at other locations with gorgeous pools and gardens, volunteering if possible) 

Deposit Due to Reserve a Space

Contact cindylmccain1@gmail.com for all details.

*FEEL FREE TO SHARE RETREAT BROCHURE BELOW.

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