JOIN US FOR OUR SPRING RETREAT on the tranquil Scuppernong River on the North Carolina coast! Bring a writing project--songs, stories, memoir, fiction, poetry. You'll be in the company of other creative writers and songmakers. Together we'll share meals, writing prompts, support, and encouragment. On Saturday night we'll present/perform our work in the beautiful Riverview Studio for a local audience.
THE SETTING
On the banks if the Scuppernong River in Columbia, NC, is a small town with a big arts program. Columbia (population 863) is the county seat of Tyrrell County, 45 minutes west of Manteo. Pocosin Arts School of Fine Craft is a place where potters, painters, metalsmiths, woodworkers, and other artists come for workshops and conferences. This part of North Carolina is a territory rich in wildlife, unspoiled rivers, and thick vegetation. It is a place of carving and quilting, of boatbuilding and blacksmithing, of fishing, singing, and storytelling about live along the Scuppernong and Alligator Rivers
ACCOMMODATIONS
We'll stay in the upstairs sleeping rooms--each with a private bath--of the Riverside Studios for three nights. A common room is also available upstairs in the lodge for collaboration and meeting. We have access to the kitchen and a large, light filled studio across the street in the building called Riverside. A balcony inside is also suitable for writing. The Riverside Lodge also has porches and balconies for musicmaking and writing when the weather is warm. There's a boardwalk along the waterfront, a Mexican restaurant for lunch and dinner and a diner for breakfast.
THE RATES
The total for three nights and four days is: Single room $750, Double room $650 per person. One hot meal per day, which we'll prepare together, is also provided in your registration fee, and you can bring snack, breakfast, and lunch items to suit you for other times of day. Please bring your own adult beverages. If you want a triple room, please ask. Most rooms have bunk beds.
THE SCHEDULE
Thursday you should plan to arrive after lunchtime and no later than 4:00 pm. Use the time however you want--for inspiration/reading, revision, drafting, dreaming. We'll have morning writing prompts at 9 am following breakfast and gather in the afternoons to share what we've created. Evenings are available for jamming and additional writing prompts.
WHAT TO BRING
Though linens are provided, we recommend that you bring an extra blanket and a favorite pillow. If you want to bring a friend or a spouse who would want to go fishing, birdwatching or otherwise hang out and relax, that's okay, too--rates are the same. This is a setting full of sensory stimuli, memborable characters, and surprises from nature. Bring musical instruments, your kayak, binolculars, camera, laptop, printer, whatever. We may even organize an excursion to see the legendary Lake Mattamuskeet on Friday afternoon. You may want to take home some local seafoood. If so, bring a cooler.
SEE REGISTRATION PAGE TO SIGN UP NOW! Space is very limited.
