Coastal Maine Writing Retreat: Fiction, Memoir & Food Writing

August 20 – 24, 2017

Led by Kate Christensen, Kate Moses & Mary Pols

Experience Maine’s summer bounty as you take your work-in-progress to the next level during this retreat on glorious Casco Bay. Three acclaimed writers will guide you, feed you, and inspire you during intensive individual manuscript consultations and small group workshops.

THE RETREAT

Led by three notable, award-winning writers of fiction, memoir, and food writing, this retreat will offer participants targeted individual and peer critique and professional advice on their works-in- progress as well as daily workshop-style feedback from the group, dynamic conversation about literary life, and time for writing and sampling Maine’s summer flavors and dramatic beauty. Spend four intimate days in the company of supportive, like-minded writers and refuel your imagination and spirit.

THE SETTING

The retreat will be held in a rambling 1875 farmhouse and barn in Brunswick, a historic college town at the mouth of Casco Bay, 30 minutes north of Portland. Some bedrooms are available on site and others are available (with retreat discount through June 1st; just mention Mary’s name) at the magical Brunswick Inn on the town common a short walk away. See the Inn's website here.

Day participants are also welcome.

We’ll take breaks from group sessions and individual consultations for yoga in the barn and high tide swims or hikes nearby. This town is rich with literary inspiration, having been home to Harriet Beecher Stowe (she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in a house a block from the inn), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Pulitzer Prize winners Anthony Doerr, Susan Faludi and Elizabeth Strout. Meals will showcase local organic farm-to-table ingredients – or sea-to-table in the case of lobster -- and the renowned cooking and baking of Kate, Kate, and Mary.

REQUIREMENTS

This retreat is ideal for writers who are already working on a memoir, fiction, or food writing project. For the workshop, participants will submit a manuscript of 20 pages for group feedback. For the individual consultation, up to 50 pages may be submitted. Let us know if you have questions about whether this retreat would be helpful for you!

WHAT IS INCLUDED

The retreat includes individual manuscript consultation, group workshops, a paired critique partner and all meals. For those staying at the farmhouse, lodging is included in the retreat fee.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Sunday August 20:

Late Afternoon Arrival (airport pickups as needed)
Cocktail Introductions & Group Dinner
Project Sharing over Fire Pit

Monday August 21:

Morning Yoga & Stretch (optional)
Breakfast
Morning Writing Workshop with Daily Prompt, Mid-morning Break
Group Lunch
Afternoon: One-on-One Consultation, Peer Critique, or Free Time for Writing or Relaxing
Group Dinner followed by Candlelight Readings in the Barn

Tuesday August 22:

Morning Yoga & Stretch (optional)
Breakfast
Morning Writing Workshop with Daily Prompt, Mid-morning Break
Group Lunch
Afternoon: One-on-One Consultation, Peer Critique, or Free Time for Writing or Relaxing
Group Dinner followed by a Conversation about Craft

Wednesday August 23:

Morning Yoga & Stretch (optional)
Breakfast
Morning Writing Workshop with Daily Prompt, Mid-morning Break
Group Lunch
Afternoon: One-on-One Consultation, Peer Critique, or Free Time for Writing or Relaxing
Beach Cocktails & Final Group Dinner

Thursday August 24:

Breakfast
Closing Writing Prompt
Departure/drop off at airport

WORKSHOP LEADERS

Kate Christensen is the author of seven novels, including The Great Man, which won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, and The Last Cruise, forthcoming from Doubleday in the summer of 2018. She is also the author of two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. She has taught fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as well as short workshops in both memoir and fiction at several residencies and MFA programs. She has published essays and articles in many magazines, including Vogue, Elle, Bookforum, O, the Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, and Food & Wine. She lives in Portland, Maine and the White Mountains of New Hampshire with her husband and dog. Visit Kate at katechristensen.net and on Twitter @aquavita.

Kate Moses is the author of the internationally acclaimed Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath, published in sixteen languages, and Cakewalk: A Memoir, chosen by National Public Radio as one of their favorite memoirs of 2010. Recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Best Fiction by an American Woman, an American Book Award, and a Prix des Lectrices de Elle, Kate is also co-editor of two bestselling anthologies of essays on motherhood, Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood and Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About Children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race & Themselves. A founding editor of Salon, her literary essays and food writing have appeared in many publications in the U.S. and U.K. Learn more about Kate’s books at katemoses.com.

Mary Pols is a Maine-based author and award-winning journalist. Her memoir, Accidentally on Purpose, was turned into a CBS sitcom starring Jenna Elfman. Her literary book criticism appears regularly in national publications, including The New York Times and People. For more than a decade she was a film critic, first for newspapers in the San Francisco area and then for Time Magazine. A member of the National Society of Film Critics, she’s been a staff writer at the Seattle Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Los Angeles Daily News. Her writing has appeared in magazines ranging from the late great Gourmet to Marie Claire and Parenting.

COST

$950 for Retreat (lodging not included)
$1650 for Retreat plus farmhouse lodging (limited availability, first come first served)