Harvest Writers Retreat

Friday, October 25 – Sunday, October 27 at Santosha at the Hillholm Estate in Kingfield

The 2024 Harvest Writers Retreat is a long weekend of workshops, seminars, readings, and writing at the stunning and historic Santosha, an inn and retreat center in a newly renovated Gilded Age estate in Kingfield, two hours from Portland and ninety minutes from Bangor. Hillholm Estate, formerly known as the Inn on Winter’s Hill, includes an outdoor cedar barrel sauna and barrel jacuzzi as well as optional healing arts services and yoga sessions that can be added on to the weekend writing retreat. Kingfield is nestled in the foothills of the Western Maine mountains, and there are trails nearby for walking, hiking, and biking.

In addition to the intensive workshops in a variety of writing genres, the weekend will include faculty and participant readings and small-group sessions between faculty and students.

Workshops meet for three-hour sessions on Friday afternoon and Saturday and Sunday morning. In our workshops, instructors use a variety of teaching techniques, including: guiding group critiques of works-in-progress; leading exercises for generating new material; and offering strategies and suggestions for revision.

For 2024, Susan Conley will lead a fiction and nonfiction workshop and Julia Bouwsma will lead a poetry workshop. See below for more information and to register for one of the workshops.

2024 Information

In partnership with the Maine Community Foundation, the MWPA is proud to offer the Martin Dibner Memorial Fellowship for Maine Writers. The Dibner Fellowship will cover the full cost of those chosen to attend the Harvest Writing Retreat. Every applicant must submit an application, statement of intent, and work sample. You do not have to be a member of MWPA to apply- for full eligibility guidelines please follow the link below.

Submissions Due on September 18th at 11:59 PM

Want to reserve a workshop slot?
If you’re concerned that a workshop might fill up before you have time to register, just contact us and we’d be happy to hold you a workshop slot for one week. Contact: director@mainewriters.org / 207-200-7180

Payment
The MWPA is not able to accept installment payments. Workshop space will not be reserved until we receive full payment. If an agency, business, school, or other organization is paying student fees, payment is still due at the time of registration. Purchase orders or intent to pay are not accepted. The MWPA accepts checks, money orders, cash, and Visa or MasterCard through our PayPal account, printed registration forms, or over the phone. If you would prefer to pay with American Express or Discover, payment can be made through out PayPal account. If you are unfamiliar with PayPal, we will be happy to assist you. A $25 fee is assessed for bad checks.

Cancellations
A nonrefundable fee of 25% of the workshop cost is included in each registration. Partial refunds (75% of the workshop fee) will be granted for cancellations made more than a month before the writing retreat. Cancellations made after that cannot be refunded, no matter how compelling the reason. We cannot refund participants for missed workshops.

CEUs
The MWPA is proud to offer Continuing Education Units (CEU) for this workshop. The CEU is a nationally recognized method of quantifying the time spent in the classroom during non-credit learning. Ten hours of instruction equal one (1) CEU. (*Please note that by definition, CEUs are non-credit continuing education and therefore not transferrable as academic credit.)

Retreat Cancellation
Workshops that do not meet a minimum enrollment may be canceled up to two business days (48 hours) prior to the first class meeting. If a workshop is canceled by the MWPA for any reason, all registrants will receive a full refund.

Bad Weather Policy
Weather-related cancellations are extremely rare. Call/email to check on the status of your workshop if you are concerned about inclement weather. If a workshop is canceled for weather-related reasons, the MWPA will announce the cancelation as soon as possible, the workshop will be rescheduled, and all registrants will be notified of the new date. If a registrant cannot attend the rescheduled workshop due to scheduling conflicts, the registrant will receive a full refund.