MINING the Story

Previous slide
Next slide

Join us for the seventh annual Writing Retreat at Shake Rag Alley, open to writers of all levels.

Explore storytelling, narrative, flash forms, and working across genres with retreat faculty Patricia Ann McNair (Explorations in Flash Forms; Retreat Artistic Director), Christine Maul Rice (Writing Fiction), and Sheree L. Greer (Memoir & Personal Narrative). These in-depth workshops will challenge you across the three days and are led by award-winning published authors and active, experienced teachers of writing.

Interwoven around these main workshops are optional and inspiring creative activities that will make for a retreat jam-packed with opportunities to learn, share, network, and write. Postcard Poetics with guest faculty Matthew Guenette takes you on an adventure in alternative logic. The Gallery Walk introduces you to the creative community of Mineral Point. The Saturday night reading & Open Mic provides an opportunity to share your work.

Manuscript consultations with the retreat leaders are available on a first-come, first-served basis and at a very affordable price.

We are pleased to work in partnership with Hypertext Magazine & Studio, a social justice writing nonprofit organization

Retreat price $325
includes main workshop selection, optional workshop and activities, and lunches.

Class size limited to 9. Registration deadline is May 8.

Writing Retreat Instructors

Photo of Patricia Ann McNair

Patricia Ann McNair

Patricia Ann McNair’s short story collection, Responsible Adults, was named a Distinguished Favorite by the Independent Press Awards. The Temple of Air (stories) was named Chicago Writers Association’s Book of the Year, Southern Illinois University’s Devil’s Kitchen Readers Award, and Society of Midland Authors Finalist Award. Her collection of essays, And These Are the Good Times, was a Montaigne Medal Finalist for Most Thought-Provoking Book of the Year.…

Read More

Patricia Ann McNair’s short story collection, Responsible Adults, was named a Distinguished Favorite by the Independent Press Awards. The Temple of Air (stories) was named Chicago Writers Association’s Book of the Year, Southern Illinois University’s Devil’s Kitchen Readers Award, and Society of Midland Authors Finalist Award. Her collection of essays, And These Are the Good Times, was a Montaigne Medal Finalist for Most Thought-Provoking Book of the Year. She was named to Chicago’s NewCity Lit 50 list, and A Writer to Watch by Chicago’s Guild Literary Complex. She is on the editorial board of Solstice Lit Magazine, the advisory board of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, and the curatorial board of the Ragdale Foundation. Now associate professor emerita in creative writing, McNair taught at Columbia College Chicago for more than three decades and was nominated for the U.S. Carnegie Professor of the Year. She lives in Tucson with her husband, visual artist Philip Hartigan.

Instructor Website

Workshops

Flash Forms (a cross-genre workshop) – Writing Retreat

Manuscript Consultations – Writing Retreat

Photo of Christine Maul Rice

Christine Maul Rice

Christine Maul Rice’s novel-in-stories Swarm Theory (University of Hell Press) was awarded an Independent Publisher Book Award, a National Indie Excellence Award, a Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year award, and was included in PANK’s Best Books of 2016 and Powell’s Books Midyear Roundup: The Best Books of 2016 So Far.…

Read More

Christine Maul Rice’s novel-in-stories Swarm Theory (University of Hell Press) was awarded an Independent Publisher Book Award, a National Indie Excellence Award, a Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year award, and was included in PANK’s Best Books of 2016 and Powell’s Books Midyear Roundup: The Best Books of 2016 So Far. In 2019, Christine was included in New City’s Lit 50: Who Really Books in Chicago 2019 and named One of 30 Writers to Watch by Chicago’s Guild Complex. Most recently, Christine’s short stories and essays have been published in the anthologies 2020 The Year of the Asterisk (University of Hell Press), MAKE Literary Magazine, BELT’s Rust Belt Anthology, The Literary Review, and online at The Rumpus, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Big Smoke, The Millions, Chicago Tribune, Detroit’s Metro Times, among other publications. Christine is the founder and editor of Hypertext Magazine. Twitter: @ChrisMaulRice

Instructor Website

Workshops

Writing Fiction – Writing Retreat

Manuscript Consultations – Writing Retreat

Photo of Sheree L. Greer

Sheree L. Greer

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 More

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. 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.”

Instructor Website

Workshops

Memoir and Personal Narrative – Writing Retreat

Manuscript Consultations – Writing Retreat

Photo of Matthew Guenette

Matthew Guenette

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 three previous poetry collections, including Vasectomania (2017), American Busboy (2011) and Sudden Anthem (2008). He lives in Madison, WI, with his wife, their two children, and a twenty-pound cat named Butternut.…

Read More

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 three previous poetry collections, including Vasectomania (2017), American Busboy (2011) and Sudden Anthem (2008). He lives in Madison, WI, with his wife, their two children, and a twenty-pound cat named Butternut.

Instructor Website

Workshops

Postcard Poetics – Writing Retreat

Books by Faculty, Panelists & Presenters

Previous slide
Next slide

7th Annual Writing Retreat

May 19-21, 2023

Writing Retreat Details & FAQs

Friday, May 19

10-10:30 am: Welcome & Faculty Introductions

10:45-11:45 am: Craft Talk

  • Narrative Nudges with Sheree L. Greer, Christine Maul Rice, and Patricia Ann McNair: Retreat faculty share their favorite writing prompts.

Noon: Lunch

1:30-4:30 pm: Workshop Groups

  • Sheree L. Greer, Memoir and Personal Narrative
  • Patricia Ann McNair, Flash Forms (a cross-genre workshop)
  • Christine Maul Rice, Writing Fiction

4:35-5 pm: Manuscript Consultations | Registration required ($40)

5-6:30pm: Meet & Greet | Cafe 43, 43 High St. 

Free Evening to Explore Mineral Point and/or Write

Saturday, May 20

9-10 am: Morning Pages with Patricia Ann McNair

9:30-9:55am: Manuscript Consultation Session II | Registration required ($40)

10:15-11:15am: Pop-up Workshop: Postcard Poetics with Matthew Guenette | open to the public ($15)

11:30am-12:30pm: Lunch & Participant Open Mic

12:45-3:45pm: Day Two Workshop Groups

4-6pm: Mineral Point Gallery Crawl (optional)

7:30pm: Faculty Reading + Open Mic (optional) | Republic of Letters | open to the public (free)

Sunday, May 21

9-10am: Morning Pages with Patricia Ann McNair

10:15-10:40: Manuscript Consultation Session III | Registration required ($40)

11 am-Noon:  Lunch & Participant Open Mic

12:15-3:15pm: Final Workshop Groups

3:30-3:45pm: Closing Remarks & Toast

Select the genre you would like to focus on: (Details coming soon!). 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 25-minute one-on-one manuscript consultation with select faculty members. You may submit one piece no longer than 12 pages.

Open Mics will be held during lunch Saturday and Sunday on a sign-up basis.

Writing Retreat Workshops

select one to register for the retreat

(workshops meet simultaneously)

Only Registered Workshop Participants May Purchase Manuscript Consultations

narrative nudges

retreat participants

Craft Talk | Friday | 10:45-noon

Retreat faculty Sheree L. Greer, Christine Maul Rice, and Patricia Ann McNair share their favorite writing prompts.

morning pages

retreat participants

Silent Writing | Sat & Sun| 9-10 am

Meet in the Lind Pavilion to write in quiet camaraderie with fellow retreat participants.

Pop-up postcard poetics

open to the public

gallery crawl

retreat participants

Saturday, May 20 | 4-6 pm

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. Meet at the Lind Pavilion by 4 pm.

faculty reading & open mic

Open to the Public

Saturday, May 20 | 7:30 pm

Join us for a night of lively literary readings by Writing Retreat faculty and local authors at Republic of Letters (new bookstore opening in April)! Consider sharing your own voice during the Open Mic. Free admission; open to the public.

Campus Map: Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts

Coach House
18 Shake Rag Street

1 of 33

Art Café

2 of 33

Ellery House

3 of 33

restrooms

4 of 33

restrooms

5 of 33

restrooms

6 of 33

Open Air Parking

7 of 33

Lind Pavilion Parking

8 of 33

Roadside Parking
allowed on Commerce Street

9 of 33

Smejas’ Studio parking

10 of 33

Smejas’ Studio
30 Doty Street

11 of 33

Curbside Parking
as indicated

12 of 33

Accessible Parking
with curb cut

13 of 33

Accessible Parking
with curb cut

14 of 33

Alley Stage

15 of 33

Cabinet Shop

16 of 33

French Cabin

17 of 33

1830 Log Cabin

18 of 33

Potter’s House

19 of 33

Blacksmith Barn

20 of 33

Federal Spring

21 of 33

Monarch Garden

22 of 33

Lind Pavilion
411 Commerce Street

23 of 33

two blocks to

High Street & Commerce Street
Restaurants, Shops & Galleries

24 of 33

To Grocery Store
Point Foods
622 Dodge Street

25 of 33

Street Parking with Additional Parking behind Smejas’ Studio

26 of 33

The Green
open air park

27 of 33

Stair Steps
between
Cabinet Shop & Lind Pavilion

28 of 33

Stair Steps
to Alley Stage

29 of 33

Stone Bridge
over
Federal Spring

30 of 33
The Sardeson
223 Commerce St.
The Sardeson is home to the
Sardeson Pottery Studio,
Roland’s Loft,
and Tuckpoint. 31 of 33

Weaving & Fiber Arts Studio

Cannery Row Arts Incubator
121 Water St.

32 of 33

Footbridge

33 of 33

ADA accessible buildings: Lind Pavilion, Coach House (first floor), Smejas’ Studio