Dear Reader, I'm so excited to be teaching my first in-person writing retreat in a long time...and this is going to be a really special one! I speak from experience when I say that group retreats, like this one, can be truly transformative. Several years ago, I was feeling I'd hit a plateau; I wasn't sure what was next— I cleared my schedule and set up a solitary writing retreat—but not much happened. Then, I went away with some friends to a group writing retreat, and something magical happened: I had a real turning point in the project I was working on and new insights into myself and my direction forward. Sometimes, when we're in the company of other people, we're able to get out of our own way and dive deeper. When we have supports, community, and guided practices, we're able to let go enough so that our true vision can shine through. I'm deeply honored to facilitate a Five Day Writing Retreat of magic and unexpected breakthroughs with my dear friend, the wonderful poet and teacher, Holly Wren Spaulding, at Omega Institute in beautiful Rhinebeck, New York, this fall. The retreat, Finding Joy through Writing Poetry in Challenging Times, will be an extended period to focus on your creative vision. It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the world around us and to lose our way. We'll use poetry as a guide, but you can write in any genre. You don't need to be working on a writing project—you don't need to even think of yourself as a writer. All you need is a desire to explore. We'll move together, meditate, and write. You'll generate new work and connect with community. We'll be inspired by the natural world around us, and there will be plenty of time and space for reflection and the transformative power of joy—whether you're in a period of loss and mourning or a period of celebration, we'll tap into wonder with a gentle spaciousness. This is the ONLY in-person retreat I'll be leading in 2024, and I really do mean it when I say that something special happens when we come together in person like this :). Omega is a beautiful center with trails, lovely single-person rooms, delicious food, yoga classes, and more. It's a place that thinks deeply about impact, community, the environment, and I'm truly honored to be teaching there, where so many teachers I admire often teach. The week is designed to leave you feeling energized, with a greater sense of direction.
Sign up here and learn more below! It would be so much fun to work with you in person! Don't hesitate to reach out to me with any questions. Just hit "reply" to this email. :) with love, Visionary Writing:
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Five Day In-Person Writing Retreat (Sep. 29-Oct. 4): An Overview
From personal crises, such as illness and loss, to the global climate crisis, threats to democracy, and war, we exist in a suffering world.
This poetry workshop will give you creative tools to meet your life with greater openness, to embrace both pain and joy, and to find your own powerful voice amidst it all. Come immerse yourself in the restorative power of poetry.
Nadia Colburn and Holly Wren Spaulding, two beloved teachers and acclaimed poets, together have more than 40 years of experience as writers, meditators, and activists.
We’ll guide participants in close readings of work by poets such as Joy Harjo, Rainer Maria Rilke, Audre Lorde, and Mary Oliver to fill our creative well with rich language.
We’ll share our own work and inside tips from lives in writing.
And we’ll offer prompts paired with improvisation, meditation, and embodied practices, including yoga and movement, so that you create not only from the head, but from a place of integration and insight.
The majority of our time together will be spent in interactive activities: in meditation, gentle movement, writing, sharing, and discussion. Together, we will enjoy the connection, presence, consolation, and healing powers of poetry.
The workshop is appropriate for all levels.
Poets, secret poets, memoir writers, personal essayists, therapists, healers, activists, earth-workers, and teachers will be at home in this retreat.
Go home with greater awareness, deeper understanding, new skills and techniques as a writer, and a revitalized sense of creativity and agency that you can incorporate into your personal practice or share with students and clients.
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More than half of our time together will be experiential!
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Learn more & Register here |
At Align Your Story Writing School, we bring traditional literary and creative writing studies together with mindfulness, embodied practices, and social and environmental engagement. Join a community of over 25,000 other mindful writers. Get the tools and community to write your best work.
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