Bridging: A One-Day Online Writing Retreat

Hedgebrook and the SMC MFA in Creative Writing program at Saint Mary's College invite you to join Bridging: a one-day online writing retreat for woman-identified, non-binary and genderqueer writers.

Saturday, June 13, 2020
9:00 am - 9:00 pm PST

Choose from the following options:

Option 1: $100.00 all-day pass (recommended if you wish to participate in more than three sessions).

Option 2: $30.00 per session for up to three sessions.

Retreat Schedule

More Info

Keynote Speaker

Natalie Baszile

Natalie Baszile's novel, Queen Sugar, has been adapted for television by writer/director Ava DuVernay, and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey for OWN, Oprah’s television network. Her new book, We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Black Farming, Land & Memory, is forthcoming from HarperCollins (October / November 2020).

Full bio

Buy Baszile's book through Bookshop

Workshops

Playwriting: Discovering Character through Action & Conflict with Amy Wheeler

9:00-9:50am

Playwright Amy Wheeler is an alum of Hedgebrook and Yaddo. Her plays have been developed and produced at theatres around the country. Two plays (Two Birds & A Stone and Wizzer Pizzer: Getting Over the Rainbow) are published in Rain City Project’s Manifesto Series, and her first play Intersections was also produced as a short film by Bright Pictures (New York).

Full bio

Resilience: Creating and Maintaining a Strong Personal Foundation for a Writing Life with Joyce E. Young

10:00-10:50am

Joyce E. Young is a poet whose work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and California Book Award. Her work has appeared most recently in WORDPEACE, and The Smith Alumnae Quarterly. Nomadic Press published her poetry collection How it Happens in 2018.

Full bio

Buy Young's book through Bookshop

Making a Writing Habit: The Spiral Notebook Technique with Devi S. Laskar

11:00-11:50am

Devi S. Laskar is the author of the novel The Atlas of Reds and Blues—winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature and the Crook’s Corner Book Prize. It was selected by The Georgia Center as a book “All Georgians Should Read,” long-listed for the DSC Prize in South Asian Literature, and long-listed for the Golden Poppy Award presented by the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.

Full bio

Buy Laskar's book through Bookshop

T.V. Writing from Start to Series with Emilia Serrano

12:00-12:50

Emilia Serrano is currently a Co-Executive Producer on the High School Musical series for Disney+. She previously wrote on Boomerang on BET, Gentefied on Netflix, Jane the Virgin on CW, and others.

Full bio

Compassitional Reseeing: Using Cardinal Points to Generate New Directions in Your Writing with Arisa White

1:00-1:50pm

Arisa White is a Cave Canem fellow and the author of Perfect on Accident, You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened, Black Pearl, Post Pardon, A Penny Saved, and Hurrah's Nest. Her chapbook “Fish Walking” & Other Bedtime Stories for My Wife won the inaugural Per Diem Poetry Prize. Forthcoming in 2021 from Augury Books is her autopoetic narrative, Who's Your Daddy?

Full bio

Buy White's books through Bookshop

Elements of Revision: From First Draft to Submission with Mary Volmer

2:00-2:50pm

Mary Volmer is the author of two novels: Crown of Dust (Soho Press, 2010) and Reliance, Illinois (Soho Press, 2016). Her essays, reviews, and short stories have appeared in various publications, including Mutha Magazine, the Farallon Review, Women’s Basketball Magazine, Fiction Writers Review, Historical Novel Society Review, The New Orleans Review, Brevity, and Ploughshares.

Full bio

Buy Volmer's books through Bookshop

Elements of Scene: The Essential Building Block of Fiction & Memoir with Sands Hall

3:00-3:50pm

Sands Hall is the author of the memoir Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology (Counterpoint), finalist for the Northern California Book Award, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book in Religion and Spirituality. She is also the author of the novel, Catching Heaven (Ballantine), a Random House Reader’s Circle selection and a Willa Award Winner, Women Writing the West; as well as a book of essays and exercises, Tools of the Writer’s Craft.

Full bio

Buy Hall's books through Bookshop

Christine O'Brien interviews Vijaya Nagarajan, author of Feeding a Thousand Souls: Women, Ritual and Ecology in India—An Exploration of the Kolam

4:00-4:50pm

Vijaya Nagarajan writes and teaches on Hinduism, gender, ritual, ecology, climate, the commons, energy, and ethics. Her book, Feeding a Thousand Souls: Women, Ritual and Ecology in India— An Exploration of the Kolam, is a deep exploration of a popular women’s ritual art, the kolam, and the multiple ways in which beauty embodies ethics.

Full bio

Buy Nagarajan's book through Bookshop

Christine S. O'Brien

Christine S. O'Brien, BA, MFA, grew up in Manhattan and Beverly Hills. Her writing has appeared in The Seneca Review and The Slush Pile Magazine. CRAVE, a Memoir of Food and Longing, is her first memoir.

Noon O'Clock: A Brief Study of Narrative Time with Marilyn Abildskov

5:00-5:50pm

Marilyn Abildskov is the author of The Men in My Country, a memoir set in Japan. Her short stories and essays have appeared recently in Sewanee Review, Southern Review, StoryQuarterly, Epoch, and Best American Essays. She lives in the Bay Area and teaches in the MFA Program at Saint Mary's College of California.

Full bio

Buy Abildskov's book through Bookshop