Our Retreats
Weekend writing retreats for women in Cooperstown, NY and Brookline, MA
What a Retreat Weekend Looks Like
Find Time to Start Writing Again
If you can’t find the time to write during the week, a retreat will give you a whole weekend away from work, errands, and all of the other things tugging at the sleeves of your life. Come to a retreat to start writing again, or finally shape the story you've been carrying inside of you.
You'll write alongside other women, eat nutritious meals, read your work aloud (with no caveats or apologies), and hear what resonated. Messy, imperfect pages are welcome here.
Every retreat is shaped by the season and place we’re in. Previous retreats have included reading our work at The Brookline Booksmith and Cherry Valley, visiting the Oneonta Literary Festival, tasting cider and local cheese at the farmers’ market, plus visiting local museums and photography exhibits.
Retreats are open to new and returning students.
“It filled my soul.”
Every Retreat Includes:
Guided writing sessions and small group feedback
Seasonal home-cooked meals
Museum, bookstore, and nature outings
Yoga breaks
Time to gather in community
Upcoming Retreats
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Enjoy the glorious fall foliage of Upstate NY and share home-cooked meals crafted from my organic vegetable garden. Activities usually include a visit to the local farmers’ market, fall foliage walks, and a stroll in charming downtown Cooperstown, home to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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Write inside a cozy Brookline apartment, do yoga with Enzo the dog, then take a walk down to the Brookline Booksmith or the local boutiques. Activities have included visits to Liz Linder’s photography studio and MFA Boston.
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After some creative writing work, take a walk in a Brookline park, or wander to the local sushi restaurant. Summer activities have included visits to photography exhibits, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a trip to the local ice cream store.
Our retreats do not include lodging, but many members of the group make arrangements to share hotel rooms, bed and breakfast accommodations and AirBnBs with each other.
Retreats are small, and I like to get to know each writer before she joins us. Tell me a little about yourself and what you're working on, and I'll be in touch within 48 hours. Ask me about pricing and payment plans.
ALISON'S STORY: FROM GRIEF TO PUBLISHED AUTHOR
Alison came to a retreat in Cooperstown soon after her husband died, looking for a safe place to work through her grief in writing.
Years earlier she'd been told to stop daydreaming and be practical, so she set her writing aside.
At the retreat, free writing and prompts gave her permission to trust her own voice, without worrying about how grief "should" sound. She kept going to weekly classes and workshopped her stories with the group.
Her book, The Bad Widow's Guide to Life After Loss, became an Amazon bestseller in its category. Alison now coaches others through grief and is experimenting with poetry.
“Do you have a story that's aching to be born, and do you want to tell it the best way possible? If that's what you want, go to Leslie." — Alison P.
“At home, there was a lot going on. But once I had space, a desk, and no other distractions, that's when I finally got unstuck and finished the draft."
—Laurel C.
LAUREL'S STORY: FROM WRITER'S BLOCK TO A FINISHED DRAFT
Laurel started taking classes while launching a business with her partner. Between building a company and the distractions of her home life, the road trip novel she always meant to find the time to write was constantly on the back burner, and she became creatively blocked.
But retreats got her moving again. On a retreat in Vermont, she had space to spread out at her own desk in front of the fireplace, while meals were taken care of and no distractions got in her way. By the end, she'd written 15,000 words and had finished much of her research. At a later retreat, she finally completed a full draft. The manuscript now stands at 50,000 words.
It’s never too late to shape your story.
Give it a weekend.
“I’m leaving transformed.”