Explore
Visual lectures, podcasts, interviews and research selected to open up new ways of thinking about mid-life experience.
“We’re excited to welcome all those who identify as mid-life women to Climacteric. In this compassionate and generative creative sanctuary, we will help you embark upon or continue a writing practice exploring mid-life experience in all its diversity, complexity, and nuance. Whether you’re a professional writer or a complete beginner, our in-person retreats and online community will provide supportive and inspiring spaces for personal expression through a spectrum of literary forms, including poetry, memoir, reflective prose, and lyrical essays. We can’t wait to meet you.”
A space to read, write and connect
Inside Climacteric
Write
Creative invitations, prompts and opportunities to develop and share your writing.
Connect
Meet other members, discover Members of the Month, join events and become part of the wider Climacteric community.
The people behind the practice
Meet your tutors
Writers, researchers and educators bringing their experience, curiosity and creative practice to Climacteric.
Dr Elinor Cleghorn
Writer and cultural historian
Dr Dorothy Lehane
Poet and educator
Eva Bruce
Founder of Climacteric
Fresh from the archive
Latest from Climacteric
Recent lectures, conversations and member features from across the community.
The archive is being gathered.
New lectures, podcasts and member features will appear here as they are published.
Join to read the latestUpcoming events & workshops
Events and workshops
From online conversations to in-person workshops, our events offer new ideas, shared perspectives and space to write together.
No events scheduled
There are no events or workshops scheduled just now.
New online conversations and in-person workshops are added throughout the year. Join the community to be the first to hear when the next gathering is announced.
Join the communityCLIMACTERIC RETREATS
Time and space to write
Step away from the everyday and into dedicated writing time. Stay on-site with a small cohort of fellow writers, daily craft sessions, guided sessions with experienced tutors, quiet hours, and opportunities to share your work and gain feedback in a supportive environment.
About our retreats
Climacteric retreats are residential writing weeks built around a single, generous idea: that good writing needs time, quiet and company. A small cohort gathers in one place, away from the demands of ordinary life, to read closely, write daily and talk honestly about the work. There is no pressure to perform and no expectation of a finished draft — only the steady rhythm of mornings at the page and evenings in conversation.
The experience
Each day holds a shape of its own. Craft sessions open up a particular question of form or voice; guided workshops with experienced tutors offer close attention to your pages; and long, unhurried quiet hours are protected for writing. Evenings are for reading aloud, sharing work and receiving feedback in a supportive, attentive room. Meals are shared, walks are optional, and the pace is deliberately gentle.
The setting
Retreats are held in places chosen for their calm and their character — somewhere with room to think, a landscape to walk in and a table to gather around. Accommodation is on-site so the day stays whole, with space to retreat to when you need it. Everything is arranged so that the only thing you have to carry is your writing.
Upcoming retreats
Every retreat currently open for booking, with dates, tutors and remaining places. Places are limited to keep each cohort small.
10 places remaining
test retreat
- Location
- test
- Dates
- 1 – January 1970
- Duration
- 1 night
- Tutors
- tutors test
- Price
- £0
- Places
- 10 places remaining
Climacteric membership
Become part of Climacteric
Climacteric is free to join. Membership opens the door to our full library of lectures, podcasts, interviews and journals — no fee, no subscription, just a place among readers and writers.
Visual Lectures
Filmed talks and lectures from our community, captured for members to revisit.
Podcasts
Conversations on the shape of narrative, recorded with writers and thinkers.
Written Interviews
In-depth written interviews with the voices shaping contemporary storytelling.
Creative Invitations
Prompts and invitations to write alongside us, wherever you are in your practice.
Research Repository
Essays and findings from the Climacteric archive, gathered for the curious.
Anthology Journals
Our collected journals and anthologies, page by page for members.
Members of the Month
Celebrating the writers shaping our community, one month at a time.
Previous Events
Recordings and notes from past Climacteric events, kept for members.
Free to join, always.
Join the communitySupport Climacteric
Help us keep Climacteric thriving
Climacteric is free to join. If you value what we're creating and would like to help support our community, resources and future programme, you can make an optional donation.
Donations are entirely optional. They do not affect your membership access, status or permissions — Climacteric remains free to join either way.
Every contribution helps us keep the writing, resources and community open to all.
Optional donation checkout coming soon
Considered writing
Essays, fiction, and correspondence chosen for depth and craft — not volume.
A community of readers
Conversations that reward attention, hosted by Shape The Narrative.
A place to belong
Membership that feels like a quiet room with good company, not a feed.