“Four nights will quickly dream away the time…”
~ Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Dream away the time at this inspiring online writing retreat. Join us for challenging and supportive workshops in poetry, fiction, nonfiction and memoir. Enjoy insightful feedback, an encouraging community, open mics, readings and more while savoring summer’s extra daylight. Featured Reader: Kim Addonizio.
“The program was incredibly nourishing, useful and so much fun. Thank you for translating these workshops to an online medium so elegantly.”
~ Nina, New York, NY
Online Writing Getaway
July 7-11, 2021
Spend a few days immersed in the writing life this summer.
Each four-day workshop will meet for 12 hours and will offer craft discussion, writing prompts, writing time, feedback, motivation and inspiration. By spending four days in one workshop, you will venture deeper into your writing, making more progress than you thought possible.
In addition to encouraging workshops, this retreat includes ample opportunities to get inspired and connect with a community, all without leaving home:
- Morning yoga, meditation, freewriting and more will help spark your creativity.
- Midday mealtime sessions and a pre-conference Happy Hour will offer space for casual conversation and connection with like-minded writers.
- Evening activities including open mics and an exclusive reading and Q&A with Featured Reader Kim Addonizio will send you to bed buzzing.
WORKSHOPS
Each four-day workshop is limited to 10 participants. Choose from one of the following:
Poetry workshops
Oh, the Places You’ll Go: Using Poems as Road Maps
Led by Lois Marie Harrod
In this encouraging, intensive workshop, you will learn how any poem can be used as a road map to a new poem. You will examine pieces (by Edward Hirsch, Louise Glück, Margaret Atwood, Chen Chen, Zeina Hashem Beck, Yusef Komunyakaa, Terrance Hayes, Kim Addonizio and others) that will guide you in composing poems that begin with a specific word, image or concept and suggest stops, starts and turns you might take to get to undiscovered territory. You will return from this poetic journey with a discovered truth or two that you didn’t know you knew. You will have time to share your writing, but the focus of the workshop will be on motivating you to create several new poems. All writers—novice day-trippers and seasoned trekkers—welcome.
Repetition and Obsession: A Poetry Workshop
Led by Raena Shirali
Every artist has one: a muse, an obsession, an intimate “you” we cannot not address, a life event we cannot escape. In this workshop, we will explore the state of being transfixed by our poetic subjects, discussing the delicate balance between indulging our obsessions and practicing restraint. Our reading and writing will emphasize craft elements and poetic forms including anaphora, lyric, apostrophe, ekphrasis, the ghazal and poems in numbered sections. Each day, we will encounter a poem, come to understand a new aspect of poetic craft, apply it to our writing and close with space for sharing, feedback and discussion. You may bring drafts to work on or start something new each session. Let’s obsess together.
Word, Rhythm, Sound: Writing Poetry from the Body
Led by Gretna Wilkinson
In this workshop, we will turn to poems by Martin Espada, Patricia Smith, Amanda Gorman and others to guide us over the bridge between writing for the page and reading aloud for the body. We will explore the relationships between word, rhythm and sound, and between our lips and the air that ferries our rhythm to the listener. We will have opportunities to write, deliver, revise, deliver again and hone our voice for the performance of the poem. You will compose a minimum of 4-5 new poems and leave with prompts to inspire you to keep writing after the workshop is through. Leave this workshop creatively refreshed and with a new confidence in your voice both on and off the page.
Filled. Use our online registration form to be added to the wait list.
Prose workshops
Writing Your Story: A Memoir Workshop
Led by Roberta Clipper
Has anyone ever told you, “You should write a book about your life”? Easy for them to say. But maybe you should write a book—or at least a good story. In this workshop, you will learn how to use the events that have accumulated in your life as starting points for compelling memoir. Drawing from the work of contemporary memoir writers such as Joan Didion, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Gilbert and Ta-Nehisi Coates, we will discuss what generates a true story and how to tell it in a way that is engaging to others. Inspiring prompts will lead you to start or build on several stories you have to tell from your life. You will have an opportunity to share what you have written during the workshop among a community of writers who have all thought, at one time or another, “I should really write about this!”
Writing Across Identity: A Fiction Workshop
Led by Jade Jones
To embody a fictional character, you have to get into a mindset completely different from your own, which can be a challenging task. Things can get even stickier when that character has an identity you don’t share. In this workshop, we’ll look at examples from literary greats like Colson Whitehead and Jesmyn Ward to examine the tools writers can use to create characters entirely unlike themselves. We will also learn from less successful examples where authors missed the mark. Through generative writing exercises, we will explore how craft techniques such as voice and language can make the difference between writing a tired stereotype and a fully realized character. After we spend time writing, we will share our work in a supportive, productive environment. You are welcome to use this workshop to develop a novel or short story-in-progress, or start something entirely new.
Hermit Crabs and The Art of the Personal Essay
Led by Nancy Reddy
Just like hermit crabs grow to fill their shells, so can personal essays take on unusual forms: braided essays, essays that use collage and segmentation, essays that borrow the form of something like a syllabus or resume, and more. In this workshop, we will consider exciting examples of essays that experiment with form and come to understand how a story can take on new life when we shake up its shape. Guided prompts will encourage you to explore new forms to revise a piece in progress or write something brand new. A supportive environment will make you feel comfortable coming out of your shell to take creative risks. Beginning and experienced nonfiction writers welcome.
We will also offer optional One-on-one Tutorials, as well as an Add-on Workshop for those looking for extra inspiration! See details below.
FACULTY
Featured Reader
Kim Addonizio will join us for an inspiring reading and Q+A session. Kim is the author of seven poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two books on writing poetry: The Poet’s Companion (with Dorianne Laux) and Ordinary Genius. Her poetry collection Tell Me was a finalist for the National Book Award. She also has two word/music CDs: Swearing, Smoking, Drinking, & Kissing (with Susan Browne) and My Black Angel, the companion to My Black Angel: Blues Poems and Portraits, a collaboration with woodcut artist Charles D. Jones. Her poetry has been translated into several languages including Spanish, Arabic, Italian and Hungarian. Collections have been published in Spain, Mexico, Lebanon and the UK. Addonizio’s awards include two fellowships from the NEA, a Guggenheim, two Pushcart Prizes and other honors. Her latest books are a poetry collection, Mortal Trash (W.W. Norton), and a memoir, Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life (Penguin). A new book of poems, Now We’re Getting Somewhere, was just published in March 2021.
Retreat Host + add-on leader
Peter E. Murphy will host the retreat and lead From Daydreams to Drafts: A Pre-Getaway Writing Workshop. Peter was born in Wales and grew up in New York City where he operated heavy equipment, managed a nightclub and drove a taxi. He is the author of eleven books and chapbooks of poetry and prose including The Man Who Never Was, Mean Time and two books of writing prompts. More than a dozen excerpts of his manuscript-in-progress, Next: A Memoir, have been published as standalone pieces in journals, including “Looking for Thelma,” winner of the 2018 Wilt Nonfiction Chapbook Prize and “Storming the Castle,” winner of the 2019 First Chapter Memoir Prize sponsored by Arch Street Press. The founder of Murphy Writing of Stockton University, Peter has received dozens of awards and fellowships and has led hundreds of workshops for writers and teachers. Read an interview with Peter and an excerpt from his memoir in The Lightning Key Review.
Workshop Leaders
Roberta Clipper will lead Writing Your Story: A Memoir Workshop. Roberta has published two novels-in-stories under the name Robbie Clipper Sethi, The Bride Wore Red (Picador) and Fifty-Fifty (Silicon Press), as well as short stories in The Atlantic Monthly, Mademoiselle, the Philadelphia Inquirer and a number of literary magazines and anthologies. Her fiction has won a National Endowment for the Arts award and two fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Robbie teaches fiction, poetry, expository writing and literature at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ. On a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, she spent a “monsoon semester” teaching creative writing at the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad, India and in the summer of 2019 taught English in Prague, Czech Republic. She is proud to have had a story accepted in More Challenges for the Delusional. To read some of her work, visit robbieclippersethi.com.
Lois Marie Harrod will lead Oh, the Places You’ll Go: Using Poems as Road Maps. Lois’s Spat will be published in May 2021, and her 17th collection Woman was published by Blue Lyra in February 2020. Her Nightmares of the Minor Poet (Five Oaks) and her chapbook And She Took the Heart (Casa de Cinco Hermanas) appeared in 2016, and Fragments from the Biography of Nemesis (Cherry Grove Press) and the chapbook How Marlene Mae Longs for Truth (Dancing Girl Press) appeared in 2013. A life-long educator and writer, she is a Dodge poet who is published in literary journals and online magazines from American Poetry Review to Zone 3. You can find links to her online work at www.loismarieharrod.org.
Jade Jones will lead Writing Across Identity: A Fiction Workshop. Jade was born and raised in Southern New Jersey. A former Kimbilio Fiction Fellow, she is a graduate of Princeton University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Teaching-Writing Fellow. Both a writer and educator, Jade has taught all levels including elementary, college and adult learners. A winner of the 2019 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, her work has appeared in The Rumpus and Catapult. She is currently a staff writer for Dipsea. You can find her on Twitter at @jadereginajones and on Instagram at @jaderjones. Find out more on her website.
Nancy Reddy will lead Hermit Crabs and The Art of the Personal Essay. Nancy is the author of Pocket Universe (LSU, 2022); Double Jinx (Milkweed Editions, 2015), a 2014 winner of the National Poetry Series; and Acadiana (Black Lawrence Press, 2018). She’s also co-editor, with Emily Pérez, of The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood (UGA, 2022). Her essays have appeared in Poets & Writers, Electric Literature, Brevity and elsewhere. The recipient of a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Sustainable Arts Foundation, she teaches writing at Stockton University. Visit her website to learn more.
Raena Shirali will lead Repetition and Obsession: A Poetry Workshop. Raena is the author of GILT (YesYes Books, 2017)—winner of the 2018 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, a long-list finalist for the 2017 Julie Suk Award, an August 2017 Small Press Distribution Poetry Bestseller and #5 on TRACK//FOUR’s list of Ten Most Anticipated Poetry Collections by People of Color in 2017. Winner of a Pushcart Prize and a former Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University, Raena is also the recipient of prizes and honors from VIDA, Gulf Coast, Boston Review, & Cosmonauts Avenue. Her poems and reviews have appeared widely in American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A Day, The Nation, The Rumpus and elsewhere. Shirali lives in Philadelphia, where she is an Assistant Professor of English at Holy Family University and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Muzzle Magazine. Visit her website.
Gretna Wilkinson, Ph.D., will lead Word, Rhythm, Sound: Writing Poetry from the Body. Gretna began her career as a missionary teacher in the jungles of her native Guyana. She has authored five chapbooks and one full-length, Opening the Drawer. A Dodge Poet, she has performed her poems on radio and television. She’s been featured in The New York Times, The Star Ledger, Courier News as well as several magazines. After 17 years as a college professor, she joined Red Bank Regional High School where she ran the Creative Writing Academy. Her magazine, theravensperch.com was awarded Top 10 Literary Blog On The Web (Feedspot). Her honors include: Honorary Eagle Scout, Monmouth Art Educator of the Year and Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction. Visit her literary magazine website or read a few of her poems.
“The workshop leaders are talented and compassionate, pushing you to new levels. The atmosphere is charged with creativity and appreciation for the work of others.”
~ Donna, Willowbrook, IL
How it Works
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
All sessions will take place using the platform Zoom, which you will need a computer or tablet and internet access to use. To fully participate, you will need access to a webcam and microphone. Those built in to a laptop, tablet or smart phone will do.
tentative Schedule – EDT
The retreat will take place July 7-11, 2021. Optional, pre-conference activities will take place during the day on Wednesday, July 7, followed by the Opening Program that evening. Four-day workshops will first meet on July 8 and run through July 11.
Registered participants will receive full schedule information and Zoom links in July.
*ALL TIMES ARE EDT.*
Wednesday, July 7
| 12:45-1:45 pm | Zoom 101 |
| 2:00-5:00 pm | Generative Add-on Workshop |
| 6:00-7:00 pm | Writers’ Happy Hour |
| 7:00-8:00 pm | Opening Program: Welcome, orientation, freewrite |
| 8:30-9:30 pm | Open Mic |
Thursday-Sunday, July 8-11
| 10:00-11:00 am | Morning activity: yoga, meditation, freewriting, TBD |
| 12:45-1:45 pm | Mealtime Social |
| 2:00-5:00 pm | Workshops |
| 5:00-8:30 pm | Various, including Open Mics and Featured Reading by Kim Addonizio |
See our TENTATIVE FULL SCHEDULE (PDF).
Pricing + REGISTRATION
Tuition – Four-Day Workshop Package
Tuition for this program is based on a sliding scale between $375 and $475. If you are able to pay at the higher end of the scale, you will help Murphy Writing offer affordable programming and scholarships for writers.
Tuition for your Four-day Workshop Package includes:
- One four-day workshop of your choice (see choices here)
- Access to a private virtual event system
- Access to an exclusive reading and Q+A with Featured Reader Kim Addonizio
- Morning, afternoon and evening activities, including Open Mics, mealtime socials, Zoom assistance sessions and more
Please note: Tuition does not include the cost of tutorials or add-ons (details below).
Teacher Registration: ETTC
South Jersey teachers may be eligible to have their districts pay their tuition for the Midsummer Online Writing Getaway. See details.
Add-Ons Only Package
If you can’t commit to a full four days of workshop but still want to find some inspiration and community, we are also offering an “Add-ons Only” Package with a sliding scale of $100-$150. This package includes one single-session add-on workshop: From Daydreams to Drafts: A Pre-Getaway Writing Workshop led by Peter E. Murphy, as well as access to all morning, afternoon and evening activities.
The Fine Print
- By registering for this program, you are agreeing to uphold our Code of Conduct
- Full fee due upon registration
Cancellation Policy
- By May 15 — 100% refund minus a $50 processing fee
- By May 31 — 50% of total refunded
- By June 14 — 50% credit for future Getaway
- June 15 or after — Sorry, no refund will be issued
If you have trouble registering online, or if you don’t receive an email confirming your online registration within 24 hours, email us at info@murphywriting.com.
“This is a community that is generous and encouraging while also being honest. A great relief.”
~ Amy, Blue Bell, PA
Add-on Workshops + Tutorials
Tutorials and add-ons are optional, but they will enrich your Getaway experience. They are open to all participants, regardless of which workshop you participate in.
One-on-one Tutorials in Poetry + Prose
Tutorials will be scheduled during the Midsummer Getaway outside of workshop hours.
40 mins, $100 each
For in-depth feedback on a piece of writing, take advantage of a one-on-one 40-minute tutorial conducted over Zoom. Share a work-in-progress, something you think is finished, or both. You can use your tutorial to ask for general feedback or to seek assistance on a specific question or problem. You can also ask your tutor questions you might have about craft issues or about publishing your work.
The piece of writing you wish to discuss should be no more than 1,000 words for prose or 2-3 poems for poetry so your tutor can offer you constructive advice within the 40-minute time period. Our tutors are experienced at providing constructive and supportive feedback in the time allotted. Participants who register for tutorials will receive scheduling information and instructions for submitting their work in July.
Tutorials in Poetry
Led by: Lois Marie Harrod, Raena Shirali, Gretna Wilkinson
Tutorials in Fiction
Led by: Roberta Clipper
Tutorials in Nonfiction + Memoir
Led by Roberta Clipper, Nancy Reddy
From Daydreams to Drafts: A Pre-Getaway Writing Workshop
Wednesday, July 7, 2:00-5:00pm EDT
Led by Peter E. Murphy
Fee: $50
Limited to 30 participants
Dream up new writing and shake it awake in this inspiring workshop for writers of fiction, nonfiction, memoir and poetry. Peter will begin with an inspiring craft discussion that will help you explore new ways to tell a story or write a poem. Then he will lead you through exercises designed to stretch your imagination to compose new work that will surprise and please you. The workshop will include guided goal-setting to help keep you on track in the months that follow.
Scholarships
Robert Hayden Scholarships
The deadline to submit a scholarship application has passed.
Update, 5/27/21: Congratulations to our scholarship recipients:
- Lauren Holguin of Philadelphia, PA
- Chital Mehta of Worcester, MA
- Sneha Subramanian Kanta of Toronto, ON, Canada
We look forward to meeting these recipients online in July. Thank you to all who applied!
Meet our community
View our full collection of writing getaway photos.
Questions?
See our FAQs. If you still have questions, call 609-626-3594 or email info@murphywriting.com.
Write with us.
