Love Letters from the Future:
An Online Retreat for Writers
With Manda Scott, Vishwam Heckert & Special Guest Rob Hopkins
‘We’ll need writers who can remember freedom — poets, visionaries — realists of a larger reality.’
~ Ursula K Le Guin
Over the course of this special weekend we will nurture our creative gifts, connect with ourselves and each other and grow our capacities to envision flourishing, generative futures. Together we will explore how our writing can help us take steps to bring our visions into being—so that we can help build the foundations for a future where people and planet both flourish.
This online retreat will offer writing prompts and exercises to help you step into a Thrutopian* way of thinking and writing, so that we can shape the stories and road maps to lead from where we are to a future we’d be proud to leave to the generations that come after us. The weekend also includes transformative practices for opening our hearts, bodies and minds to inspiration, plus time to write freely and share with others—and, of course, time to rest and renew.
In what is so often a solitary vocation, writing with others can be deeply empowering and connecting. And when we unite to encourage ourselves and our readers to know, deep in our bones, that another world is still possible, we are changing the future for ourselves and our world.
So why not give yourself the gift of this writing weekend, connecting with your own heart and the hearts of others, as we gather to support, inspire and uplift each other to embrace the challenges of our times?
* For those who may not be familiar with the term Thrutopian, it charts a grounded, wholly practical middle way between the horrors of dystopian writing (which are not, and never will be, useful) and the sunlit uplands of Utopian futures, by providing concrete visions of how to move from the world as we know it, towards a flourishing, connected, enriching future we’d be proud to leave to leave behind.
If you have any questions, please do feel free to get in touch with either Manda or Vishwam.
Pricing ~ Sliding Scale
Low Wage/Student/Pensioner ~ £120
Cost Rate ~ £185
Financially able to support others ~ £225
Course Times (U.K. time)
Friday 7-9pm
Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday 10am-5pm
Together we will stretch and play, write and listen, relax and explore the gift of the word, the power of the heart, and the beauty of being human.
Please note the event (apart from break-out rooms) will be recorded and available to participants for one year from the completion of the weekend together. If you are unable join us live and prefer to join via recording, that’s absolutely fine.
About your Hosts
Best-selling author Manda Scott is host of the Accidental Gods Podcast, a shamanic teacher and feet-on-the-ground smallholder in Shropshire. Her latest Thrutopian thriller, Any Human Power, offers a mytho-political vision of a cultural and political shift away from predatory capitalism and towards a real community of life. Other works include the international bestselling Boudica: Dreaming series, the award-winning A Treachery of Spies, and a crime trilogy set in her home country of Scotland, the first of which was shortlisted for the Orange prize. Her website is mandascott.co.uk
Vishwam Heckert is a yoga teacher, trainer and minister in the Heart Of Living Yoga tradition. Originally from small town Iowa, his childhood gave him rocket fuel to find other ways of being which have, after many adventures, landed him in the Shetland Islands. A student of permaculture, social movements for liberation, and the heart wisdom of indigenous traditions, he completed his PhD in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh twenty years ago which, looking back, was a 100,000 word long prayer asking ‘who am I and how do I be free?’ The answer is still revealing itself. His essays, poetry and short fiction have appeared in various publications. His website is FlowingWithLife.org
Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Network and of Transition Town Totnes, and author of several books including ‘The Transition Handbook‘ and most recently, From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want and Falling in Love with the Future. He is an Ashoka Fellow, has spoken at TED Global and at several TEDx events, and appears in the French film phenomenon ‘Demain’. He holds a PhD from the University of Plymouth as well as 2 Honoris Causas, and hosted 100 episodes of his podcast ‘From What If to What Next’. In November 2022 he was made an Honorary Citizen of Liège in Belgium. His collaborative music project with artist Mr Kit, ‘Field Recordings from the Future‘ will be released soon. In his spare time, he draws and makes drypoint etchings. His website is robhopkins.net.