Food Writer’s Retreat in Alaska

July 11-15, 2013, Tutka Bay Lodge, Homer, Alaska

Surrounded by vast wilderness, writers will have the opportunity to hone sensory experience, language, and metaphor and use this retreat to create engaging, originefal personal narrative. Whether seeking to write richer blog posts or deepen memoir writing, this immersion in the 49th state combines luxury accommodation and world-class dining at Tutka Bay Lodge (winner of Fodor’s Top 100 Hotels 2012!), superb instruction, and a guidance toward a better awareness of each writer’s unique experience and voice. Eat well, soak up nature, and hone your craft.

Email us at events@cooknscribble.com to reserve your spot!

Retreat Itinerary
Subject to change due to weather or the needs of this group.

Your trip begins with a participant conference call meeting and podcasted talks by the retreat leaders. Next stop, Alaska.

Day 1: Arrival at Tutka Bay Lodge
Molly O’Neill will welcome you, then you’ll jump right in to Tutka Bay’s famed wine and cheese hour, featuring house wines and selections from Murray’s Cheese. Enjoy a craft talk on personal narrative with writer Carolyn Forché, followed by dinner — will it be reindeer tenderloin with fingerlings or wild mushroom ragout with seared Kodiak Bay scallops? — at the Lodge.

Day 2: Writing Workshop and a Cooking Lesson
Choose between breakfasts like sourdough waffles and salmon bacon or slices of brioche French toast with birch tree syrup, then start exercising your mind (and your pens) with food writer Molly O’Neill. Relax with a yoga stretch, recharge with a coffee break, and get back to your craft. A writing workshop and talk on writing from your senses will follow, but not without refreshment. Enjoy lunch, cocktail hour, and — the best way to end a day — a cooking lesson starring Alaskan cuisine at the acclaimed Cooking School at Tutka Bay.

Day 3: Alaska Adventure
Your writing today is intertwined with a guided Alaska adventure, complete with a picnic as you take in the breathtaking Alaska scenery. Afterward, soak up a workshop, then join Carolyn Forché and other notable guests for One Big Table Food Revival — an evening celebration of poetry readings, with a local seafood slam dinner by acclaimed chefs from near and far.

Day 4: Write the Day Away, Wine and Cheese Hour, and Farewell Dinner
Start the day off on the right foot with writing exercises led by Molly O’Neill and Carolyn Forché, then a quick yoga and coffee session. (In Alaska, you’ll never be tense, or under-caffeinated.) Break for lunch with the Tutka Bay Lodge chefs, then regroup for a reflective workshop. End the day with wine, cheese, and a farewell dinner.

Day 5: Departure Day
 Or stay for a few more personal days of rejuvenating Alaska air, stunning views and tranquility. (No one says you have to go home just yet.)

Hosts

Molly O’Neill
Molly O’Neill is a longtime food writer and bestselling author. She is the author of the memoirMostly True: Family, Food and Baseball and four cookbooks including The New York Cookbook and One Big Table. A longtime journalist and food columnist with the New York Times Magazine, she was the host of the PBS series Great Food and edited the Library of America’s American Food Writing. O’Neill is the founder of cookNscribble, the online classroom, resource, and community for food writers.

Carolyn Forché
Carolyn Forché is a bestselling American poet and memoirist. A passionate home cook, Forché is a regular contributor to Saveur Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, and Mother Jones and is a professor and the Director of the Lannan Center for Poetry at Georgetown University. Known as the “poet of witness,” Forché’s work focuses on the intersection of personal narrative, politics, human experience and culture. Her books include Gathering the Tribes, The Country Between Us, The Angel of History, and Blue Hour. Currently at work on a memoir, Forché is thrilled to return to Alaska, where she lived and taught early in her career.

Cost

Double Occupancy $2,400

Single Occupancy $2,800

Price includes luxury accommodations, daily breakfast, lunch, dinner and wine, all instruction and workshops, cooking lesson, Alaskan nature exploration and admission to LongHouse Food Revival.

Email us at events@cooknscribble.com to reserve your spot!

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