Writers In The Mountains
Literary Retreat
Nov. 15 - 17, 2024
506 Main Street
Andes, New York 2023
This project is partly funded by
The A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation and
Delaware County Economic Development Advisory Board.
Program
Friday, November 15, 2024
Saturday, November 16, 2024
02:00 pm - 04:00 pm Arrival, Welcome, and Refreshments
04:00 pm - 6:00 pm The Amherst Method Workshop with Sharon Israel
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm DINNER and CONVERSATION
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm Open Writing Time
08:00 am - 9:00 am Breakfast
09:30 Am - 11:30 am From Idea to Essay to Book: Climbing the Ladder from Small to Big, Step by Step with Melissa Holbrook Pierson
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm LUNCH
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm Open Writing Time
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm Modern Love with Elizabeth Koster
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Dinner at the Andes Hotel
7:30 pm - 8:30 pm Reading at the Andes Hotel
8:30 pm - 9:30 pm Film Screening at the Andes Hotel
Sunday, November 17, 2024
08:00 am - 9:00 am Breakfast
09:30 Am - 11:30 am The Magic of Metaphor, Vocabulary and Craft with Anique Sara Taylor
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm LUNCH
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm Poetry Forms with William Duke
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm Feedback and Good Byes
Course Description
The Amherst Method
Never written before? Want to write but haven’t yet been able to put words to paper and reach your creative core? Are you already a writer, but need to further access your authentic voice and develop your style? This generative workshop will help poets and writers dive deep through compelling prompts and effective, positive feedback. Be in the moment, find the space between thought and feeling, and access what may be just below the surface.
From Idea to Essay to Book
There are untapped riches in an idea. And raw gemstones in an essay. The minerals that make up a book are present in both, but first they must be mined, then cut and polished. The essay is a critical step between idea and book. We will explore how to move the essay from destination to waypoint on a longer journey, and how to see beyond it. Bring your ideas, bring your essays, and we’ll map the route to book.
Modern Love
In this workshop, we will analyze The New York Times Modern Love column (including Tiny Love Stories), generate and share writing with supportive feedback, and start to develop the story that you need to tell and the world needs to read.
The Magic of Metaphor
With compelling prompts, we’ll brainstorm exciting new forms to break open possibilities of diction, vocabulary and metaphor. We’ll access material that can give us tools to explore techniques and help us mine new writing material, sharpen imagery, connect with inner vision, and incorporate dream-thought into deepening creativity.
Poetry Forms
This workshop will present the major forms of poetry. It will include a discussion of how forms came into being, and why they continue to hold an important place in contemporary poetry. Syllabic forms: haiku, tanka, and cinquains will be shown, as well as the major metric forms: sonnets, villanelles and sestinas. Concrete poems and free verse will also be discussed. The end of the workshop will be a collaborative writing exercise where the group will write its own villanelle.
Instructors' Bios
Sharon Israel
Sharon Israel is a Sephardic-American poet, performer and teacher. Sharon hosts the bi-weekly radio show, Planet Poet-Words in Space, on WIOX Radio in the Catskills and on podcast. She was an early recipient of Brooklyn College's Leonard B. Hecht Poetry Explication Award. Her chapbook Voice Lesson was published by Post Traumatic Press (2017). Sharon is certified in the Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) method and currently conducts an on-going AWA workshop in Roxbury, NY. She is also a member of the poetry/soundscape duo OrphicMix with composer Robert Cucinotta.
Melissa Holbrook Pierson
Melissa Holbrook Pierson is the author of five books, including The Place You Love Is Gone and The Perfect Vehicle. A freelance book critic, essayist, and editor, she has taught writing at the Cape Cod Writers Conference and Gotham Writers’ Workshop. She has an MA in English Literature from Columbia University and is a submissions reader for the literary magazine The Common.
Elizabeth Koster
Elizabeth Koster’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Fourth Genre, Split Lip, River Teeth, Hobart, Lost Balloon, Five Minutes, and The New York Times Modern Love column. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University and has taught creative writing in public schools, nonprofits, and a program for incarcerated women on Rikers Island.
Anique Sara Taylor
Anique Sara Taylor's Civil Twilight is Blue Light Press Prize winner 2022 and Feathered Quill Award Finalist 2023 in best Poetry and best Book Cover. Where Space Bends (2020 Finishing Line). Books chosen Finalist in 2023: When Black Opalescent Birds Still Circled the Globe (Harbor Review), Gathering Feathered Strips of Prayer Before Morning (Minerva Rising), Cobblestone Mist (Longlisted/ Small Harbor). Earlier Finalists: Under the Ice Moon (2015 Blue Light Press), Where Space Bends (2014 Minerva Rising & Blue Light Press). She holds an MFA in Poetry from Drew University and a Diplome from The Sorbonne.
William Duke
William Duke is a poet, painter, yoga instructor, and host of Spiritual Solutions on WIOX Radio. He is a co-founder of the Andes Academy of Art. William has been a featured reader at Word Thursdays at the Bright Hill Literary Center, as well as at Catskill Cabaradio at the Pine Hill Community Center, and Live on WIOX Radio.
To register, email writersinthemountains@gmail.com
Register by August 31 to benefit from the early registration fee.
SPACE IS LIMITED
FEES
Full Price Early Bird
Meal Plan* $225 $195
Workshops Fee* $100 $85
Private Room $575 $490
Shared Room $375 $320
*All participants are required to purchase the meal and workshops plan.
Refund Policy: 75% by Sept. 1, and 50% by Oct. 1.