Type: Open Retreat
Registration Fees: $450
Our aim for this retreat is to provide a safe and intimate environment for serious dialogue about the craft of writing and the writing life. The daily schedule will emphasize workshops and plenary sessions with ample opportunity for conversation and recreation.
Guests of the Writer’s Retreat are expected to attend ONE of the following workshops. However, due to limited space, guests are asked to rank their top three choices. We will do our level best to provide your first choice.
Workshop leaders will be present at all plenary sessions and meals. One-on-one tutorials with Stephen Lawhead will be offered outside of the workshop time slot and can be signed-up for separately if you are interested (appointment slots are limited).
Online registration is not available for this retreat. To register, please complete the registration form found here. Return the completed form by email, post, or fax (830) 792-1237. Be sure to include your first, second, and third preference choices for workshop placement. Registrations will not be confirmed and finalized until full payment is received. If you have any further registrations, please contact our registrar, Ann Jack, at annjack@laitylodge.org or (830) 792-1230.
Please direct questions about individual workshops to Purcell@laitylodge.org.
In this seminar we will workshop one another’s pieces of submitted writing, look at a few samples of published prose (in part in an effort to learn to read as writers), and we will do 1-2 writing exercises each day. We hope each will grow as readers and writers. The specific aspects of craft we work on will be dictated by the pieces themselves—does the dialogue/plot/character development present itself as an area to which many of us in the group need to attend?
Each participant will submit a piece of 10 double-spaced pages of writing (spiritual non-fiction) to the Laity Lodge office by August 15. Class limit 10.
Lauren has published three books of non-fiction, has written for various national magazines and journals, and speaks regularly at conferences and events around the country. She lives in Durham, North Carolina and teaches at Duke Divinity School.
We will begin the morning with a look at exemplary poems “written with scripture,” and take care to notice how they are not “written about scripture,” and not simply “repeating the story.” We will then move into a discussion of a conversational mode of reading and writing that is “dialogic,” midrashic,” and “generative” of new insights into scriptural texts, During the final hour of the workshop, we will each select a difficult, ambiguous, or otherwise troubling passage in scripture, attempting to engage it imaginatively, and trusting that our attention to language will lead us into fresh talk, new insight, maybe even a poem.
No writing sample is required. This is not a poem-fixing class, although students will write poems in class. Limit 10.
Scott is a poet and essayist. He has authored six collections of poetry and his writings have appeared in literary journals including The Atlantic monthly, The Paris Review, The New Republic, Image, etc. He is Professor English and Director of Creative Writing at the University of Missouri.
This workshop is on the Art of the Parable: Telling Stories That Kindle Questions. Christ’s parables are often retold as simple morality narratives that lead us to familiar lessons. But they were not like that at all. They were subversive, shocking, and they left their listeners with questions to wrestle. What can we learn from those examples? How might our own plots be transformed by a greater understanding of Christ’s storytelling method. Class limit 10.
Jeffrey Overstreet is a prolific blogger, film-reviewer, culture-critic, novelist, and writer of non-fiction. He is a frequently invited speaker and workshop leader at conferences and events around the country. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife, Anne, and works for Seattle Pacific University.
Musicians and music lovers of varying backgrounds and proficiency are welcome to participate in the songwriting workshop. Workshop participants will be invited to perform acoustic versions of their material at the workshop (at the piano or acoustic guitar). The rest of us will listen, discuss, and possibly help rework the songs presented. We will strive for camaraderie, laughter, and the occasional surprising insight. Along with discussions of the songs presented, we will listed to recordings of notable songwriters, and explore a wide range of topics related to music and words, writing and creativity, recording and performing. We will also attempt to do some songwriting and collaborating.
Participants are not obligated to sing or perform. If you are interested in performing at the workshop, please submit recordings of three original songs, preferably recent works, to Laity Lodge by August 15, to help the instructors prepare for class, Simple sparse recordings are welcome. Limit 16
Husband and wife duo, Linford and Karin, have been writing and performing great music together for 20 years under the name, Over the Rhine. If you’re already familiar with their music, you understand what a wonderful opportunity this is. If you are not familiar with Over the Rhine, meet your new favorite band.
This workshop is for anyone who wants to explore how business skills and wisdom about the personal life can help advance a writing career rather than hold it back.
Kathleen will address the business aspects of writing:
Preparing a Book Proposal: Almost nothings in gets “over the transom” anymore, and a cogent and persuasive proposal is both the professional and respectful way to get an editor’s attention. This 45-minutes seminar will focus on essential components of a proposal. I twill also deal with getting the attention of a literary agent to submit your proposal to appropriate publishers.
Preparing a Platform: What is a “platform” and why has it become almost a buzz word in publishing circles? How do you get one? What are the elements, and how does an author come by these?
Alice will discuss aspects related to personal life:
The Spirituality of being a writer: Is the writer a priest? Or obedient servant? Embracing spiritual support and accountability.
The Psychology of being a writer: Harnessing your ego. Handling rejection. Dealing with praise and criticism.
The Sociology of being a writer: Writing and friendships. Writing and the family life (Workable rhythms, privacy issues, dragging your loved ones into the fray, questions around freedom and responsibility within the family) Loneliness, Support networks.
Limit 10.
Kathleen Davis Niendorff is a publishing consultant and literary agent, having previously worked in scholarly editing, medical editing, and legal editing.
Alice Lawhead is a published author, a non-executive director of Lion Hudson publishing (UK), and has managed her husband’s (Stephen Lawhead) writing career for over 30 years.
Internationally acclaimed author, Stephen Lawhead, will be available for one-on-one sessions to discuss a writer’s work-in-progress. The writer should be clear about the kind of help he or she wants, such as general manuscript evaluation, plot or character development, stylistic questions, what to do with a troublesome story or thematic element, etc. Sessions will be 45 minutes long. Space is limited. Attendees should submit 10-15 relevant mss pages that help Steven understand the issue; alternately, a synopsis of the work might be appropriate.
Submit writing samples to Laity Lodge by August 15. Tutorial space is limited and will be granted on a first come, first registered basis.
