"From Memory to Meaning" Weekend Writing Retreat on Kent Island

INFORMATION UPDATED with pricing for packages. See below under DETAILS. Questions and registration, email Gwen Mayes, organizer, at mayesgwen@gmail.com or call/text 978-821-4662.

No matter how long you've been writing, turning the experiences and memories of your past into engaging, personal essays and creative nonfiction can be challenging. At this retreat, you'll have more than a couple of hours to twist and turn with your piece(s) in progress or jump into something new.

We'll share inspirational, witty, upbeat writing techniques and a little critique that will enable you to look beyond the memory to the meaning of those stories you know you want to tell, but have often set aside.

http://photos2.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/7/0/3/3/600_441088723.jpeg

Words on Water's first overnight, weekend writing retreat will be held at the beautiful and charming Kent Manor (http://www.kentmanor.com/) on the Thompson River just a few steps from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The location and time of year -- late fall -- invite you for adult playtime, good connections, leaf kicking, lots of laughter, good wine and food, and lots of writing and reading for writers of all levels.

http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/6/f/c/6/600_441088614.jpeg

Our guest instructor will be -- Marion Winik (http://marionwinik.com/index.html)

Marion Winik is the author of FIRST COMES LOVE (Random House, 1996) and THE GLEN ROCK BOOK OF THE DEAD (Counterpoint, 2008.) Her other books are TELLING (Random House, 1994); THE LUNCH-BOX CHRONICLES (Random House, 1998); RULES FOR THE UNRULY (Simon and Schuster, 2001); ABOVE US ONLY SKY (Seal Press, 2005) and HIGHS IN THE LOW FIFTIES: HOW I STUMBLED THROUGH THE JOYS OF SINGLE LIVING (Globe Pequot Press, 2013). She has also published two books of poetry, NONSTOP and BOYCRAZY.

Winik's "Bohemian Rhapsody" column appears monthly at BaltimoreFishbowl.com (http://www.baltimorefishbowl.com/), and her essays and articles have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, The Utne Reader, O, Salon, and Real Simple, among others. Her commentaries for All Things Considered are collected on thenpr.org website (http://www.npr.org/), and she regularly reviews books for Newsday andKirkus Review. A professor in the MFA program at the University of Baltimore (http://www.ubalt.edu/cas/graduate-programs-and-certificates/degree-programs/creative-writing-publishing-arts/), Winik was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Non-Fiction and has been inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. She has appeared on the Today Show, Politically Incorrect and Oprah.

#### DETAILS............

• Day Guest package (up to 10 spaces) includes 6-7 hours of guided instruction, a welcome reception. dinner with cash bar, late night campfire s'mores, free wifi, access to leisure activities (volleyball, hiking, biking) and parlor rooms, free parking, and signature journal. Cost $195.

• Overnight Guest package (up to 10 rooms) includes all of the above and a uniquely decorated king or double queen historic room for the night of Friday, October 23, (most with balconies and/or wood burning fireplaces), all taxes, and full breakfast. Two rooms are 2-room suites. Adult companions welcomed (breakfast is included, no additional fees for "double" occupancy). Cost ranges from $365-395 for single occupancy. Double rooms share by 2 writers $570 and $585.

• Choice of room made at time of reservation.

• There is a bar on the premises open to 10 p.m.

• There is no elevator, however, two guest rooms have been reserved on the main floor for those unable to climb stairs. All functions are on ground level.