Summer & Winter Retreats
An optional week-long summer retreat at a vacation site involves half-day sessions composed of a two-hour writing workshop and two-hour small group discussion of ongoing writing projects. The retreat has been held each year at a resort in Stowe, Vermont. Because the format is designed to allow time for recreation, participants may wish to bring family or friends to the destination. Students beginning the program in the fall of 2007 are welcome to attend the summer retreat in August 2007. For further information about the retreat, please turn to page 16.
Starting in 2006 we held our first winter retreat. This four-day event was focused on writing projects. Each day's work was reviewed both with an individual mentor and in an evening small group.
SUMMER RETREAT
The optional summer retreat offers the students a chance to focus intensively on the development of their writing in a one week writing workshop. The group meets in the mornings in plenary and small group formats. Individual consultations with faculty members can also be arranged. Special emphasis is placed on helping the students with their ongoing writing projects. Afternoons and evenings are free for recreation, independent work, and collaboration with colleagues. Students have found that they have been able to accomplish substantial work in this relatively brief (six day) time frame. Participants are welcome to bring their families to the resort.
The next summer retreat will be held from July 27 August 1, 2008 in Stowe, Vermont. The 2008 summer retreat fee will be $900 plus lodging. About a third of the students have been coming to the retreats and they have described the experience as being extremely useful.
Participation in the retreat is open to incoming students. Please let us know if you are interested.
The faculty leader for the 2008 retreat will be Teresa Conlin.
Teresa received her master’s degree in Elizabethan and Jacobean Theater at Oxford. She has taught comparative literature and creative and analytical writing for twenty-six years in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. While at the National Cathedral School, she created two courses, “The British Hero” and “Page and Stage.” She currently teaches at the Lycée Rochambeau. Tesa has co-created a full-length documentary film, “Teaching in the Times of Terror,” conveying teachers’ and students’ reactions to the terrorist warnings and events in Washington, D.C. She has been a writing group leader for several years for New Directions. Reflecting her broad range of interests, she has taken classes in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, clogging, acting, dancing, silk screening, painting, sculpting, and puppet making!
Teresa Conlin , Martha Dupecher, ,Bob Winer, and Bonita Winer will be leading the writing discussion groups this summer.
WINTER RETREAT
The optional winter retreat, held for the first time in December 2006 at the Tabard Inn in Washington, DC, from Wednesday night through Sunday, is more intensively focused on writing. Participants spend the daylight hours working independently on their writing projects, and meet in the late afternoon with a different faculty member each day to review the day’s efforts. After a communal dinner, the participants break up into small groups, co-led by an analyst and a writing teacher, to continue the discussion of their work. The retreat ends Sunday afternoon with a group reading. The retreat fee in 2008 will be $700 plus lodging.
