Malta Writing Retreat

May 16-23, 2026

Join Neal for a week of writing, workshopping, tips and talks, confronting your demons, and sightseeing in the wondrous and relaxing island of Malta, halfway between Africa and Europe. Limited to 20 or fewer guests.

  • Daily writing circles for sharing and critiquing

  • Bring your work to share (20 pages or less) and prepare to revise or start new work in Malta; fiction or nonfiction

  • Send Neal up to 40 pages to review beforehand (longer on request)

  • Inner critic exercises to help keep the work flowing

  • Daily excursions and varied dining

  • All-inclusive: Fee covers classes, meals, accommodations, yoga, meditation, and excursions — everything except your airfare

Sharing the whitewashed architecture of North Africa and the cuisine of Sicily, this English-speaking set of three tiny islands in the Mediterranean holds:

  • The oldest continuously inhabited walled city in Europe

  • The cave where Calypso held Odysseus for seven years

  • The beachfront of Paul’s shipwreck while a prisoner of the Romans

  • Frat houses for Europe’s knights as they awaited the next Crusade

  • Megalithic temple sites older than Stonehenge

  • Beautiful coves and beaches with golden sands

  • Valletta, the 650-year-old fortified city whose walls remain pockmarked from daily attacks by German Luftwaffe as the Allies held onto its airfield, critical for running supplies to North Africa

  • The Blue Lagoon, reached by a short boat ride for swimming and snorkeling

ALL-INCLUSIVE (EXCEPT AIRFARE) $4,000 single $6,400 double

 
 

Walled Cities

Arrive at Valletta, the capital, surrounded by fortified walls

Three small islands in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, with centuries of historical significance as the primary stop-off between Italy and Northern Africa, Malta keeps hold of its slow, family-oriented, rustic traditions.

Twenty-five minutes from Valletta, the walled city of Mdina whose current footprint dates to 1048 CE has been populated for 4,000 years, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe.

BLUE LAGOON

A few minutes offshore from the main island, clear views to the bottom of the Mediterranean

Constantly in sight, the sea is calm and swimmable if chilly in May. Ferries take us from the main island to Comino and Gozo, where Paul was shipwrecked and by tradition Odysseus kept captive.

Stunning Shorelines and Beaches

Golden sands, historic landfalls

Backroads, mostly paved, can take you around the main island in three or four hours. Along the way are charming hamlets with seafood and pasta restaurants, ancient world archeological sites, and remarkable views.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

OUR CLASSES AND ACCOMMODATIONS ARE ALL HOSTED

AT Mulberries Wellbeing CHATEAU

Mulberries, where Maltese architecture meets contemporary comfort and environmental sustainability

As the new millennium began, Jesabel, an estate manager, together with her architect husband Aaron, transformed a once-dilapidated farmhouse into an elegant, 19-room retreat. By preserving its traditional design and enhancing it with modern amenities, they created a peaceful sanctuary away from the island’s busier areas.

Mulberries is directly connected to the town of Żabbar’s rich agricultural past, which once provided essential produce to the Knight’s settlements in the Three Cities and later, Valletta (now 20 minutes away by car). Parts of Mulberries date back to this time period, and in fact the building employs the same medieval water collection systems employed by the Knights of St. John. The history goes ever further back than the Knights, as during restorations, a water cistern believed to date back to the Punic period was repurposed into a meditation chamber.

While technically newer, the parts of the building added onto the original farmhouse have been built from reclaimed limestone, allowing the hotel to be environmentally aware in addition to aesthetically cohesive.

Besides he eponymous Mulberry trees, unique to Żabbar heritage, the gardens at Mulberries flourish with native olive and citrus trees that provide fresh ingredients for the hotel’s kitchen—from homemade jams to freshly pressed olive oil—showcasing the Mulberries commitment to a sustainable lifestyle. Guests can relax in stylishly appointed rooms where eco-friendly elements like whitewashed roofs and natural flagstone floors enhance comfort while boasting environmental consciousness.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Neal Allen is the author of Good Writing: 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences (March 2026), co-written with his wife Anne Lamott, Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic (2023), and Shapes of Truth: Discover God Inside You (2021). He has written for newspapers and magazines, published short stories in literary journals, and taught writing to journalists, lawyers, and non-professionals.