Monterey Writers Retreat in 2015

A Retreat for Fiction Writers, Authors, and Memoirists 

November, 2015

The Mission of The Monterey Writers Retreat in California

Writers, poets, authors and aspiring authors have journeyed for over a century to this most scenic and literary location on the California west coast known as the Monterey Peninsula. They come in search of inspiration, individuality, purpose and vision, but more importantly, they all eventually come to share an understanding that art has preceded their arrival in the form of a brutally beautiful sea and windswept white shore, in the poetry of the twisted cypress, and in the kaleidoscope of abundant wild life. It is this setting that inspired the poet Robinson Jeffers to pen:

Fresh as the air, salt as the foam, play birds in the bright wind, fly falcons
Forgetting the oak and the pinewood, come gulls
From the Carmel sands and the sands at the river-mouth, from
Lobos and out of the limitless
Power of the mass of the sea ...

Steinbeck found the material for his dozen volumes of California fiction in the Salinas and neighboring valleys, along the shores of Monterey Bay, in the Corral de Tierra, and on the Big Sur. Even the Monterey sunsets illuminate the secrets of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" which served as a stage for the lives and times on which Jack London and George Sterling composed their allegories. Don Blanding, Henry Miller, Mary Austin, Ambrose Bierce, Upton Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis, Nora May French and countless others have nurtured their creative intellect here for years on end, all of them fondly recalling their Monterey days in the years to come.

In keeping with their spirit, and the spirit of the place, you can be as goal-focused at the retreat, or as hesitant in approach as you wish. You can talk novel, memoir, or short story publication with us, show us your manuscript, improve your skills, clear your head, have your work read by our onsite writer mentors, whatever you wish, whatever helps you grow and find your vision as a writer. You tell us ahead of time via the Monterey Writers Retreat Application about the goals you wish to focus on and we'll work with you to make it happen. Do you wish a review of your memoir, short stories, or flash fiction? Do you need to discuss the reality of the market, your plot and characters, your prose narrative, or perhaps get feedback on the opening hook and sample chapters from your novel? Or would you simply like a relaxed and productive dialogue about your goals as an aspiring author?
 
Twelve hours of one-on-one morning sessions will take place each day of the retreat for five days. In other words, the on-site writer professionals Michael Neff, Paula Munier, and Andrea Hurst will meet with each writer, based on each writer's needs.

More information can be found on the Monterey Writers Retreat home page. 

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