Exclusive Writing Retreat on the Maine Coast
June 1-8, 2024 Sol's Cliff House, Bar Harbor, Maine
Limited to 12 Writers
SORRY - THE RETREAT IS SOLD OUT
You're Invited to Attend the Retreat!
IMPORTANT INFORMATION – PLEASE READ BEFORE BOOKING!
Congratulations! You've been invited to attend the retreat—can't wait to see you!
Your registration covers full tuition for all retreat activities: ample writing time; access all week to our author-in-residence C. Hope Clark, the award-winning novelist and FundsforWriters founder; a private coaching session with Joan; readings; craft lessons; and downtime for relaxation and rejuvenation.
Your registration also includes seven nights at the exclusive Sol's Cliff House and all meals prepared by our private chef, Chef Paulette, (excepting one free day for you to dine out in Bar Harbor or rustle up leftovers in the kitchen). In addition to meals, you'll enjoy coffee/tea anytime, wine, sparkling water or soda, and plenty of snacks and leftovers whenever you'd like them. We have a "do not bother" policy, which means if someone is obviously working in a common space, they are not to be disturbed—writers have been extremely appreciative of and respectful toward this policy.
PLEASE NOTE: Transportation to and from the retreat is not included; you are responsible for getting to and from the retreat house. There is plenty of parking.
Your room is on the second or third floor of the retreat house and includes either ocean-facing or garden-facing rooms with king, queen, double or twin beds. Please note that the rooms with twin beds are cozy (aka tiny)—some writers have loved that monk-like environment and have used lap desks (provided), while others have found private corners in the common areas or out on the terrace to do their work. Most rooms do not have desks, so working in common areas is usual.
All bedrooms have windows that open, and linens are provided. You'll share unisex bathrooms with one other retreat-goer.
PLEASE NOTE: There is no elevator in the old house, and bedrooms are on the 2nd and 3rd floor, so unfortunately the house is not accessible if you're not able to navigate stairs.
IMPORTANT: Because this private house is so old (built in 1914!), please do not expect hotel-like accommodations or services: bathrooms have clawfoot tubs and some have only hand-held showers; hot water can take time to get to your bathroom, so patience is important; radiators are temperamental, so bring warm clothes; you might find peeling paint in places; and you won't get maid service (towels are yours for the whole week, or you can wash your own in the laundry room . . . plus, there are no maids).
However, the house has so much charm, and the private setting on the water is phenomenal, so most people understand and accept and love the quirks of the house. Again, though, this is not a hotel, so if you love plush hotels, please understand that the Sol's Cliff House might not be your cup of tea.
Limited to 12 Writers
Only 7 Spaces Left
Give yourself the gift of time to finish your novel.
Meet Our Special Guest, Monica Wood
"There is no such thing as wasted writing."
Our guest for dinner one evening at this retreat is Monica Wood, novelist, memoirist, and playwright. Her most recent novel, The One-in-a-Million Boy, has been published in 22 languages in 30 countries and won a 2017 Nautilus Award (Gold) and the New England Society Book Award. She is also the author of When We Were the Kennedys, a New England bestseller, Oprah magazine summer-reading pick, and winner of the May Sarton Memoir Award and the 2016 Maine Literary Award. Her novel Any Bitter Thing was an ABA bestseller and Book Sense Top Ten pick. Her other fiction includes Ernie’s Ark, which has been excerpted on NPR's "Selected Shorts" and selected by several towns and cities as their "One Book, One Community" read; My Only Story, a finalist for the Kate Chopin Award; and Secret Language, her first novel. Her widely anthologized short stories have won a Pushcart Prize and been featured on public radio. Her nonfiction has appeared in Oprah, The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Parade, and many other publications. Her first play, Papermaker, debuted at Portland Stage in an extended run, its bestselling play ever. Her second play, The Half-Light, debuted at Portland Stage in 2019. Monica is a lifelong Mainer and lives in Maine with her husband.
Meet Our Special Guest, Robin Talbot
"One of Stonecoast’s fundamental values is to foster culturally diverse writers who have a clear understanding of the role writers play in social activism ... We are very proud of our program ... as one of the nation's top five low-residency programs."
Our guest for dinner on Sunday, June 7, is Robin Talbot. Robin is the associate director of Stonecoast MFA at the University of Southern Maine where she is also the faculty advisory to the Stonecoast Review. Robin has written two scripts for documentary films: A Call to Action: A Community's Dream, which outlines the struggle for civil rights in Maine; and Starting Over: Understanding and Supporting Refugee and Immigrant Experiences. Robin holds an MA in arts administration and is an expert in the area of writing for social justice.
She has served as a board member for Black Education and Cultural History, the NAACP Excellence in Education (Portland Branch), the University of Southern Maine’s Multicultural Curriculum Sub-committee, Women’s Resource Center Advisory Board, Festival of Arts and Scholarship committee, and People of Color, Voices in Unity Conference.
Meet Our Special Guest, Susan Conley
"I realized with certainty, half-way through the book, that I was going to have to write my own darn novel, because the novel that I’d wanted to read—the novel I’d bought and was holding in my hand—was not the novel I hoped it would be."
Our guest for dinner on Thursday, September 3, is Susan Conley. Susan is a Mainer and the author of four books including her new novel Elsey Come Home. Her memoir The Foremost Good Fortune, was the first book she published and it was an Oprah Magazine Top Ten Pick, an Entertainment Weekly Memoir to Read, and the winner of the Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Her novel Paris Was the Place was a People Magazine Top Pick, a Slate Magazine Summer Read, and an Elle Magazine Readers Prize Selection. Her third book was a whole other animal: a photography collaboration called Stop Here This is the Place, which was a Real Simple Magazine Must Read and also won the Maine Literary Award for Publishing Excellence.
Susan's writing has appeared in other places like The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Harvard Review, The North American Review, The New England Review, Ploughshares, and other magazines. She's received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Maine Arts Commission, and the Massachusetts Arts Council. She grew up in Maine and loved living in Vermont, California, Boston and China before she moved back to Portland, Maine, where she lives now.
Susan is on the faculty of the Stonecoast Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine and is the co-founder of the Telling Room, a creative writing lab for kids in Portland.
Meet Our Special Guest, Lily King
"There are very few things I would love to do other than a life of writing."
Our guest for dinner on Tuesday, October 20, is Lily King. Lily grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.A. in English Literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several universities and high schools in this country and abroad.
Lily’s first novel, The Pleasing Hour (1999) won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second, The English Teacher, was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award. Her third novel, Father of the Rain (2010), was a New York Times Editors Choice, a Publishers Weekly Best Novel of the Year and winner of both the New England Book Award for Fiction and the Maine Fiction Award. It was translated into various languages.
Lily's novel, Euphoria, won the Kirkus Award for Fiction 2014, the New England Book Award for Fiction 2014 and was a finalist in the National Book Critics Circle Awards. Euphoria was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times Book Review. It was included in TIME's Top 10 Fiction Books of 2014 and the Amazon Best Books of 2014. Reviewed on the cover of The New York Times Book Review, Emily Eakin called Euphoria, “a taut, witty, fiercely intelligent tale of competing egos and desires in a landscape of exotic menace.” The novel is being translated into numerous languages and a feature film is underway.
Her new novel, Writers and Lovers, is forthcoming in March 2020.
Lily is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Whiting Writer's Award. Her short fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and several anthologies.
