All About You--Ten Highlights Foundation Writer Retreats for 2014

A Ten for Tuesday Post

by Susan Chapek


Conferences are invigorating, inspiring, occasionally career-changing. Above all, they are sociable. But sometimes a writer needs more—stretches of uninterrupted time to give that special manuscript the attention it deserves. 

Sometimes it needs to be all about you. 

Highlights Foundation workshops offer both the guidance and fellowship of a conference . . .

and the privacy and concentrated writing-time of a retreat . . .





with meals, snacks, wifi, printer, jogging trails, beautiful vistas, and even morning yoga classes close at hand. (Look here for more details about what the programs offer.) 

Highlights will host more than three dozen workshops in 2014. The Highlights site lists them in calender order, so here I'll group them in interest categories:

1. For every writer: Unworkshops—offered eight times between January and November; you choose the number of days you need; $99 / day gets you all the benefits of your own private writer's cave (with food and fellowship close at hand). 
2. Or choose a Guided Retreat with Jillian Sullivan or delve into Everything You [personally] Ever Wanted to Know with Donna Jo Napoli,  Eileen Spinelli, and Jerry Spinelli.
3. Early readers: Writing from the Heart
   
4. Educational/Nonfiction:
   Writing about Science;Writing About Nature; A Concentrated Course in Nonfiction; The Craft of Writing
   Short Nonfiction; Writing for the Educational Market;Writing for Magazines.
5. Picture Books: Super Children's [Picture] Book Boot Camp; Picture Books and All That Jazz.
6. Religious/Inspirational: Writing for Religious and Inspirational Markets; Writing Jewish-Themed Children's Books.
7. Novels: Whole Novel Workshop in Fantasy & Speculative Fiction; Breathing Life into Minor Characters and Transition Scenes; The Plot Thickens; Writing the Historical Novel; Building a Novel from Sentence to Scene.
   
8. Poetry: Rhymes with Reason; Poetry for the Delight of It; Autumn Poetry retreat & workshop.
9. Experienced/published/returning writers may qualify for a Master Class with Patti Gauch or Carolyn Yoder; or explore Opportunities After Publication.
10. Conferences and collaborations: Chautauqua East; or an E-book/Interactive Media retreat (with Dust or Magic); or one of two Power of Picture Books (with the Eric Carle Museum).