The Female Experience Weekend

A woman once described a friend of hers as being such a keen listener that even the trees leaned toward her as if they were speaking their innermost secrets into her listening ears.

—Linda Hogan

How often do you sit and listen to the birds and the wind? How often do you sit with a group of women and listen deeply to their words? Four times a year I bring a group of women into the woods for a time of listening, both to the trees and to each other. We meditate. We read Lucille Clifton and Joy Harjo and Naomi Shihab Nye. We eat nourishing and delicious food. We laugh. A lot. We make new friends. We grow deeper into relationship with friends we already have.

I believe having empathy toward another person is one of the greatest gifts we can give to the world. I have seen over and over again the powerful results of spending an entire weekend connecting and empathizing with the lives and experiences of others. My hope is that you leave the weekend feeling loved and listened to. My hope is that you return to your life with a renewed confidence in your voice, buoyed and strengthened by the memories of our special weekend.

What to Expect

You will read poetry. A lot of it. You will hear women share their stories and expose their vulnerabilities. And you will, hopefully, feel comfortable enough to share your stories, too. This isn’t a retreat where your writing will be critiqued. This is a retreat for anyone who wants to celebrate writing and female community, to experience how writing can nourish you, whether you never do it or you do it daily. Like Chapter One Workshop, we will do timed exercises and I ask that you be willing to share your first drafts. We aren’t striving for perfection, we are striving to go deeper in our relationships with our writing and with the women in the room.

For more information or to begin the enrollment process, please fill out the form below. Theodosia Sparks Partial Scholarships available for financial hardship, for all workshops and retreats. Please indicate your interest for details on how to apply.