RETREATS

Writing in the Wild on Whidbey Island, WA - July 11-13, 2025

The land at Aldermarsh retreat center is one of my favorite places on earth, and Whidbey Island presents a beautiful opportunity for connection with forests, marshes, beaches and seas.

My vision for this retreat is to create an environment of peace, love, and artistry, and to offer you a respite from the world’s chaos among the owls and alders, so you can sense your way into your writing, and yourself. I’ve taught several retreats at Aldermarsh, and it is the privacy of the space and the graciousness of the land that offer deep support for you to claim the kind of experience you’d like to have. The retreat welcomes writing of any form, from beginner to established writers. If this is your first time attending a writing program, we are making a space for you to develop your work with the freedom of your own inclinations.

If you have questions or would like to inquire about scholarships, please contact me. There will be an application process so I can support you in the best possible ways for your work.

  • Friday afternoon arrival and Sunday midday departure.

  • Beautiful private or shared accommodation

  • Small group size

  • Daily meditation

  • Writing prompts and support

  • Communal reading of your work

  • Gorgeous food by a wonderful chef, Jenny Goff

  • Japanese soaking tub

  • Ceremonial wood-fired sauna

  • Walking, hiking, and quiet time

Retreat groups are given exclusive use of the Aldermarsh grounds and your package price includes use of the Marsh House meeting space, the Japanese soaking tub and the fire pit, bed and bath linens, self-serve breakfasts with lots of options, two dinners, and a luncheon, as well as program mentoring throughout the weekend. Aldermarsh is near the Whidbey Institute and its fine grounds for walking and exploring. In the summer, you may also want to take a trip to explore some of Whidbey’s fine beaches, and take a swim.

$500 for non-residential. $700 for those staying at Aldermarsh.

Lineage: Food Writing As Ceremony

Available on request as a group.

One of the most powerful ways to express love is through food. We grow our capacity for love from
hearing other’s stories. In this retreat we eat, write, and listen to each other’s stories about food as a
reclamation ceremony.

Food is culture and community, history and art, lineage and vision, medicine and ceremony, tradition
and experiment. Our stories sometimes lack an awareness of the politics of how food comes to the
table. This retreat will include talks about how we might change this pattern, including attention to
how writing about food has included erasure and appropriation, inattention to agricultural roots and
impacts, and the links with food to environmental justice. If you’re working in narrative nonfiction,
memoir, recipe forms, newsletter writing, literary food writing, or fiction, this will be a good place to
understand how food shapes character. Together, we will explore using the senses, and develop some
research strategies to explore the origins of foodways and our chosen subject. Through generative
writing exercises and sharing of our projects, we not only document impactful food experiences, but
also restore food narratives to a place of relationship and integrity.

You’ll have a chance to read short works of Monica Ali, Laurie Colwin, Barbara Kingsolver, Robin
Wall Kimmerer, and Kevin Young. We’ll read essays on farmers facing climate change, making
sorghum the right way, Houston hip-hop and Chinese chicken, beans and rice, historic lunch
counters, Tennessee tamales, lemon meringue pie, country music cookbooks, and our complicated
love affair with tomatoes. You’ll come away with a short piece about a pivotal food memory in your
life or your character’s life.

This is a retreat that’s focused on craft talks by the instructor and discussion of masterworks, as well
as generative writing. Every writer is welcome, including writers just beginning their practice and
those working on a specific project. You do not have to be a food writer to attend.
There will be material to read in preparation for the retreat. No one is required to share or receive
feedback. Sonya will provide comments for all those wishing to receive feedback.

Contact me for details and to register.