Annual Writers Retreat: Your Voice Beyond the Noise
Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society
Dates: May 29 to June 1, 2026
Location: URSA Retreat Centre, Cochrane AB
Cost: Non-Members: $750, AWCS Members: $650
Registration is now open for AWCS’s Annual Writers Retreat.
Join us for a long weekend at the beautiful URSA Retreat Centre and step away from the noise of expectations, pressure, and distraction. This intimate retreat is designed to give writers time, space and support to focus on the work they feel called to write.
Learn more and register at alexandrawriters.org.
About the Author-in-Residence
Bradley Somer is the author of four novels, as well as many works of short fiction, which have appeared in tens of literary journals over the years.
His most recent novel, We Are All of Us Left Behind (Freehand Books, 2025), is a queer coming of age story about the powers of truth and lies, of what a family really is, and the persistence of hope when there’s nothing else left.
His debut novel, Imperfections (Nightwood Editions, 2012) earned a starred review from Quill & Quire magazine and was one of the Canadian Bookseller’s Association Top Picks for 2012.
His second novel, Fishbowl (St. Martin’s Press US & Ebury UK, 2015) has been published in over twelve countries, in more than five language translations, as well as being optioned for film and produced in audio format in several languages. Fishbowl was awarded the Georges Bugnet Award for fiction and was long listed for the Alberta Readers’ Choice Awards. The novel was well-reviewed in the Globe and Mail, The Wall Street Journal, The Toronto Star, Cosmopolitan UK, among many others. It was also selected as one of The San Diego Union Tribune’s Best Books of 2015.
Bradley’s third novel, Extinction, was acquired by HarperCollins (Commonwealth, 2022) and Blackstone Publishing (North America, 2022). It was a pick of the month for best sci-fi/fantasy by The Guardian UK and has appeared on several similar lists since. Bradley also penned the screenplay for Extinction, which has been acquired jointly by two Los Angeles based production companies and is currently in development.
Bradley has nearly 40 short stories published in various literary magazines and collections. He was a recipient of the 2016 Alberta Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Emerging Artist, and more recently was the writer in residence at: The Banff Centre for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society, and the W.O. Mitchell URSA Retreat Centre.
He holds degrees in archaeology and anthropology, and has worked in the oil patch as a heritage resource manager, living in camps so remote they could be only reached by helicopter. He’s worked dark-night shifts at Pizza Hut, and in landscaping, and as a real estate agent, all the while writing and writing and writing some more. He’s been married to his husband for 18 years and they live a mostly happy life with friends and family around, having adventures and all the amazing things that come with sharing that amount of time together and sharing the realizations that these years are too short.
