Worth Writing About
a writers’ retreat for tumultuous times

with Karen Hering
July 21-25, 2023

The only thing worth writing about, claimed William Faulkner in accepting the Nobel prize in literature, is “the human heart in conflict with itself.” How do we as writers today, give voice to the turmoil of the human heart? This writing retreat invites you to explore the role of conflict, dissonance, and difference in your written pages, penned in challenging times. Whether you’re writing for publication or for yourself, whether you’re embarking on a new project or continuing to work on a writing piece started long ago, this retreat will provide encouragement, centering, and creative practices for engaging the struggles, joy and compassion of the human heart as you put pen to page or fingers to keyboard.

The retreat is for experienced and emerging writers alike. Designed for writers of fiction, memoir, poetry and other forms, It offers: personal time for your own writing projects; optional daily guided writing sessions to spur your muse; gentle qigong and tai ji to listen to your body; and community meals and daily circles for abundant conversation, insight and laughter in creative exchanges with writing friends, new and old. Attend on your own, or with a writing partner or group.

Together, we’ll share the gifts and challenges of the writing life, supported by the Christine Center’s generous hospitality, delicious and nourishing meals, peaceful natural setting, and opportunities for silent meditation and spiritual direction or unleashing creativity in the arts studio.

Karen Hering is a writer and teacher who has been immersed in the work of words for most of her life. She is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister and author of the award-winning Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within and Trusting Change: Finding Our Way through Personal and Global Transformation. As a consulting literary minister and practitioner of tai ji and qigong, Karen leads guided writing sessions, retreats and programs about living well and fostering creativity in the midst of change. Her fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction has also been published in literary journals, periodicals and anthologies.