Bestselling author Dani Shapiro to lead popular Tutka Bay Retreat Sept 2-5. Registration opens early March.

We're very excited to announce the leader of our second annual Tutka Bay Writers Retreat: Dani Shapiro, bestselling author of the memoirs Devotion and Slow Motion, and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, and has been widely anthologized. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, The New School and Wesleyan University, and she is co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. She is a contributing editor at Travel + Leisure. She lives with her family in Litchfield County, Connecticut.  

Join 49 Writers at one of Alaska’s most pristine wilderness lodges for a weekend of inspiration, relaxation, camaraderie, and instruction. Our retreat brings a world-class author to an inspirational Alaska setting where wilderness and luxury meet. Nine ocean miles from the seaside town of Homer along Kachemak Bay, the Tutka Bay area boasts rugged coastlines, deep fjords, dramatic mountains, quiet beaches, old growth Sitka spruce forests, and amazing tidal fluctuations. To get to Tutka Bay Lodge, either fly or drive to Homer and then take a twenty-five minute water taxi south across the bay. Along the way, you might observe various shore and water birds, sea otters, orcas, humpbacks and other marine mammals.

At the lodge, a seasoned Within The Wild staff offers full-service lodging and award-winning cuisine. After settling in at your well-appointed guest cabin, we’ll welcome you at our unique retreat center – a whimsical crabbing boat dry-docked on a tidal lagoon.  Walk the beach, hike the forest trails, slough away stress in the outdoor hot tub, enjoy an invigorating sauna, or simply lounge on the spacious oceanside deck. In addition, retreat guests may opt for fee-based amenities including massage and yoga, cooking classes, and guided adventures such as ocean kayaking and boating.

Between festive and plentiful meals, we’ll juxtapose thought-provoking instruction in style, language, and craft with ample opportunities to create and relax.  Shapiro writes, "In this weekend long, intensive retreat we will delve deeply into the craft of fiction and memoir--which really is, in the case of both genres, the craft of story-telling. How do we create believable characters? A sense of place? Of atmosphere? What makes a good beginning? Good dialogue? Does plot matter? How does structure emerge out of story? How do stories unfold in ways that are both realistic and compelling? How do we make room for the reader in our work? In four 90 minute sessions, we will spend our time reading closely the works of masters of both forms, using short pieces (to be distributed in advance of the retreat) as our guides to explore some of these questions. We will also spend some time talking about the creative process itself, and how to contend with the impediments and challenges all writers face: self-censorship, habits, discipline, solitude, distraction, resistance and the list goes on. This will be an engaged, interactive retreat in which participants will gain clarity about their own work through the reading of others."

RETREAT FEES: 

Early bird, before May 1

Members $495/ nonmembers $545

Regular, after May 1

Members $595/ nonmembers $645

Does not include $80 water taxi from Homer to Tutka Bay Lodge.

Note that this year's retreat is one day longer than last year's.

ACCOMMODATIONS (based on last year's retreat with more updates once registration opens):

Retreat registration is limited to fourteen participants. Accommodations are in shared cabins; view details at the Tutka Bay Lodge site.  Rooming and cabin requests may be made at the time of registration, but we reserve the right to place participants according to availability.  There is no private room option for this year's retreat.

 

Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion. Visit her website at www.danishapiro.com