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Join us for the eighth annual Writing Retreat at Shake Rag Alley, open to writers of all levels.
Explore storytelling, research, poetry, experimental forms, and working across genres with retreat faculty Sheree L. Greer, Matthew Guenette, Raki Kopernik, B.J. Best, and Kim Suhr, with immersive workshops, manuscript consultations, and engaging talks. This weekend of writing in community will challenge you to explore new forms, deepen your writing practice, and are led by award-winning published authors and active, experienced teachers of writing.
Choose your writing workshop with a focus on research in writing (Greer), poetic forms (Guenette), or generative fiction (Kopernik) and join a community of writers for a three-day intensive with prompts, sharing, and feedback. Interwoven around these main workshops are morning writing time, pop-up talks with B.J. Best (interactive fiction) and Kim Suhr (next steps with your writing), as well as social events, a faculty reading, and open mics. The community of Mineral Point will be sure to inspire with its galleries and local artists. Shake Rag Alley’s campus provides bio-breaks and quiet spaces to write as well.
Manuscript consultations with all faculty are available on a first-come, first-served basis and at a very affordable price.
Retreat price $325
includes main workshop selection, Morning Pages, optional workshops and activities, and lunches.
Class size limited to 10. Registration deadline is May 6.
A Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native, Sheree L. Greer is a text-based artist and educator living in Tampa, Florida. In 2014, she founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of Black women and women of color writers and is the author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms.…
Read MoreA Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native, Sheree L. Greer is a text-based artist and educator living in Tampa, Florida. In 2014, she founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of Black women and women of color writers and is the author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms. Her work has been published in First Bloom Anthology, LezTalk Anthology, VerySmartBrothas, Autostraddle, The Windy City Times, Bleed Literary Journal, and the Windy City Queer Anthology: Dispatches from the Third Coast. Sheree has received a Union League of Chicago Civic Arts Foundation award, earned her MFA at Columbia College Chicago, and is a VONA/VOICES alum, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice grantee, Yaddo fellow, and Ragdale Artist House Rubin Fellow. Her essay, “Bars,” published in Fourth Genre Magazine, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and notably named in Best American Essays 2019, and her latest essay, “None of This Is Bullshit” was published at The Rumpus and featured in “Memoir Mondays.”
Workshops
Intersections: How Research Informs Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry
Raki is a first generation American, queer, Jewish writer. She is the author of The Things You Left and The Memory House, both Minnesota Book Award finalists. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and has been shortlisted and nominated for several other awards, including the Pushcart Prize for Fiction and the Pen Faulkner Award in Fiction. Her queer travel novel, No One’s Leaving, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2025. She lives in Minneapolis and teaches creative writing at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Workshops
Matthew Guenette grew up in New Hampshire. He earned an MA in English from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA in creative writing from Southern Illinois University. He is the author of four poetry collections: Doom Scroll (2023), Vasectomania (2017), American Busboy (2011) and Sudden Anthem (2008). He lives in Madison, WI, with his wife, their two children, and a couple of mischievous cats.
Workshops
B.J. Best is an award-winning writer and educator. His interactive fiction And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One won the 2021 Interactive Fiction Competition, the most prestigious annual competition in the field. In 2023, he finished second in the same competition with LAKE Adventure. B.J. has published seven books of poetry, most recently Everything about Breathing from Bent Paddle Press. He is also the author of more than fifty children’s nonfiction titles for grades K-2 through Cavendish Square. B.J. is a Professor of English and Interactive Arts at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Workshops
Introduction to Interactive Fiction
Kim Suhr is Director of Red Oak Writing and author of Nothing to Lose (Cornerstone Press, 2018) and Close Call (forthcoming from Cornerstone Press, 2024). She leads Roundtables, teaches craft & publishing workshops, and provides manuscript critiques/developmental edits and coaching for individual clients. Her work has appeared in many journals including at Midwest Review, the Stonecoast Review and Wisconsin People & Ideas. She holds an MFA from the Solstice program at Lasell University where she was the Dennis Lehane Fellow in Fiction.
Workshops
Friday, May 17
10-10:30am: Welcome & Faculty Introductions
10:45-11:30: Retreat Faculty—Getting Started with our Favorite Prompts
11:45-12:45: Lunch
1-4pm: Workshop Groups
4:15-4:45pm: Manuscript Consultation Session I | Registration required ($40)
5-6:30pm: Meet & Greet | Eliza’s Lounge, 52 High St.
Free evening to explore Mineral Point and/or write.
Saturday, May 18
8:15-9:15am: Morning Pages
9:15-9:45am: Manuscript Consultation Session II | Registration required ($40)
9:30-11:30am: Introduction to Interactive Fiction with B.J. Best | open to the public ($15)
11:45am-12:45pm: Lunch & Participant Open Mic
1-4pm: Day Two Workshops
4:30-6:30pm: Mineral Point Gallery Crawl (optional)
7:30pm: Faculty Reading + Open Mic (optional) | Republic of Letters | open to the public (free)
Sunday, May 19
8:15-9:15am: Morning Pages
9:15-9:45am: Manuscript Consultation Session III | Registration required ($40)
9:30-11:30am: While the Iron’s Hot: Forging a Post-Retreat Plan with Kim Suhr
11:45am-12:45pm: Lunch & Participant Open Mic
1-4pm: Final Workshops
4:15-4:30: Closing Remarks & Toast
Select the genre you would like to focus on. Register for that workshop.
All workshops meet simultaneously. All retreat participants meet jointly in the Lind Pavilion for craft talks, readings, and lunch.
Add a manuscript evaluation if you would like to meet one-on-one with an instructor to receive feedback on work submitted prior to the retreat. The instructor you meet with does not need to be the one teaching your workshop.
Writing Retreat participants may sign up for a 30-minute one-on-one manuscript consultation with select faculty members. See details about submitting your manuscript ahead of the retreat when you register for your consultation..
Open Mics will be held during lunch Saturday and Sunday on a sign-up basis. There’s also some Open Mic time at the Saturday Faculty Reading at Republic of Letters Books.
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Meet in the Lind Pavilion to write in quiet camaraderie with fellow retreat participants. Optional prompts & exercises provided.
Join writer B.J. Best to explore how interactive fiction allows readers to make decisions about where the narrative of a work should go next.
Join Kim Suhr, the director of Red Oak Writing Center, to explore practices, people, and publication opportunities to ground your writing life and make your aspirations come to fruition.
Soak up local inspiration while taking a walking tour of nearby Mineral Point galleries. Meet working artists and take in (or home!) an impressive array of art and craft works while socializing with fellow writers.
Join us for a night of lively literary readings by Writing Retreat faculty and local authors at Republic of Letters (151 High St.). Consider sharing your own voice during the Open Mic. Free admission; open to the public.
Coach House
18 Shake Rag Street
Art Café
Ellery House
restrooms
4 of 33restrooms
5 of 33restrooms
6 of 33Open Air Parking
7 of 33Lind Pavilion Parking
8 of 33Roadside Parking
allowed on Commerce Street
Smejas’ Studio parking
10 of 33Smejas’ Studio
30 Doty Street
Curbside Parking
as indicated
Accessible Parking
with curb cut
Accessible Parking
with curb cut
Alley Stage
15 of 33Cabinet Shop
French Cabin
1830 Log Cabin
Potter’s House
Blacksmith Barn
Federal Spring
21 of 33Monarch Garden
22 of 33Lind Pavilion
411 Commerce Street
two blocks to
High Street & Commerce Street
Restaurants, Shops & Galleries
To Grocery Store
Point Foods
622 Dodge Street
Street Parking with Additional Parking behind Smejas’ Studio
26 of 33The Green
open air park
Stair Steps
between
Cabinet Shop & Lind Pavilion
Stair Steps
to Alley Stage
Stone Bridge
over
Federal Spring
Weaving & Fiber Arts Studio
Cannery Row Arts Incubator
121 Water St.
Footbridge
33 of 33ADA accessible buildings: Lind Pavilion, Coach House (first floor), Smejas’ Studio
18 Shake Rag St.
Mineral Point, WI 53565
(608) 987-3292
