Hi All,

Big news! I’m hosting the Wild Mountain Memoir Retreat, a memoir writers’ retreat in the

Cheryl Strayed, Keynote Speaker at Wild Mountain Memoir Retreat

Washington’s Cascade Mountains, March 15th-17th.  The keynote speaker for the memoir extravaganza will be Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild (read my post about Wild), Tiny, Beautiful Things, and Torch.  When I asked Cheryl about her talk, she said it would be about the “Big, Deep Things” of memoir writing, including how meaning is made within a memoir, how memoirists use intuition and excavate the layers of a narrative.  The words “I can not wait” have just taken on new meaning.

The classes at the retreat will range from topics to How to Write a Killer Scene to Writing about Sexuality and Sexual Identity (more on this soon, I promise) and will be taught by a dream team of literary and feisty writers who are what I very inarticulately call “pro-other writer,” a community-minded, sympatico lot who are as committed to advancing the work of their students as they are to developing their own ability, wisdom, and craft.  I promise to be back here later in the week and tell you all about them, but for now….drumroll….the list:

Candace Walsh

Ariel Gore

Suzanne Finnamore

EJ Levy

and

Um, me, Theo Pauline Nestor

Did I mention that all this will be happening in a place that looks like a Northwest version of heaven?  Sleeping Lady Resort is what you might create if you had a nice chunk of land in the Cascades, a nice stack of money, and a desire to create a groovy resort.  In fact, if you watch the video of the history of the resort on this page, you’ll see that’s pretty close.  No time for that?  Just picture: a big outdoor hot pool in which you can stare at the mountains and the stars, a maze of outdoor paths studded with random works of art, elegant dining room overlooking a pine-lined creek, a cozy little bar….

Here’s the scoop on the retreat if you want to share the news on Facebook, Twitter (#WildMountainMemoirRetreat), or at your mom’s retirement center (no link).  Check it out and sign up. Earliest bird prices are now in effect.