"One session is worth the entire price of membership. This is unreal."
— Karen, Member Since 2023
Most of our sessions take place after standard working hours, which lets you dive into the workshops and community events without sidelining your daytime commitments. Join this week-long creative incubator to recommit to your craft and amaze yourself with what you can create.
This is it! Our kickoff session is hosted by Writing Room's co-founder, Claire Giovino, who will guide you through exactly what to expect during this invigorating week.
Ready to pitch to agents but stymied by the query letter? Debut author Carly Vair takes you step by step through the query that netted her seven agent offers for her novel The Devil Knows Her Name, explaining each part of and guiding you through exercises to write your own.
Debut author Mary Berman examines how to use self-reflection to make our characters feel real. Based on her forthcoming novel, Until Death, Mary reveals how to bring your characters to life — without simply becoming thinly-veiled versions of the writer.
Study Hall offers structured periods for researching, outlining, organizing, and editing in a focused & studious setting.
A dedicated, structured time where writers gather in a supportive, accountable environment to write together — silently.
In some stories, the setting essentially is the story. In others, it underscores themes, shapes the plot, or sets the terms of what is possible for its characters. In this session, professor Andrew Steiner will examine both.
Brilliant literary figures Anne Lamott and Maggie Smith take your questions and engage in an heartfelt, enlightening conversation on the craft of writing. This unique event allows you to be a fly on the wall as they share stories, insights, and creative inspirations.
Study Hall offers structured periods for researching, outlining, organizing, and editing in a focused & studious setting.
A dedicated, structured time where writers gather in a supportive, accountable environment to write together — silently.
Your writing practice can bring up tough emotions, difficult memories, and harmful habits. In this session, therapist Emily Schreter guides you through the process of goal-setting, giving you the tools to set yourself up for success.
Agent Eric Smith provides feedback on your submitted query letters (selected by lottery), giving you the inside track to an effective query letter that will catch an agent's eye.
Have you ever dreamed of building an audience so engaged that a publisher asks you to write a book? That's exactly what Amie McNee did, and she's here to show you the mindset and strategies that built the platform that led to a six-figure book deal.
Study Hall offers structured periods for researching, outlining, organizing, and editing in a focused & studious setting.
A dedicated, structured time where writers gather in a supportive, accountable environment to write together — silently.
Live Editing offers a unique opportunity to watch a professional editor at work, providing insights into the editing process and personalized feedback. You'll have the chance to have your own writing reviewed in real time (selected by lottery).
Voice is one of the most important craft elements, something that can make or break a story's chances with an agent or editor — and it's also one of the most complex. In this deep-dive, Writing Excuses co-host and award-winning writer Erin Roberts helps you understand, develop, and hone your story's voice.
A dedicated, structured time where writers gather in a supportive, accountable environment to write together — silently.
Deep Memoir author Dr. Jennifer Selig reads and provides feedback on submitted pieces, offering her best tips, strategies (selected by lottery), and methods for memoir writing in the process.
Finish the day with this innovative writing game, designed to free you from perfectionism in real time and get you writing subjects you've never written before.
A dedicated, structured time where writers gather in a supportive, accountable environment to write together — silently.
In this session with poet and visual artist Luke Daly, attendees will examine and practice a variety of metaphor types, from the straightforward, inexorable type, to the oddball, unexpected, weirdo type. Designed to help writers think about metaphors in some new ways, you'll leave having written something that surprises you with its imagination or force.
This is your opportunity to share what you've written throughout the retreat. Whether you're a seasoned sharer, or this is your first time, all levels are welcome. If you've always wanted to share at an Open Mic, let this be your sign.
You've dedicated a full week to your writing — more than many ever will. Now it's time to celebrate all that you've learned and accomplished, and plan for what's to come next. Are you ready to query? Ready to submit for publication? We'll chart out next steps while acknowledging all your progress.
The beloved author of ten New York Times bestselling books, California Hall of Fame Inductee, and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Anne Lamott is a living literary legend.
Anne partnered with A Writing Room at our very first retreat in 2022, and shortly after became a full-time artist in residence at A Writing Room. She brings her passion, humor, and skill as a writer — and human — to this year's cohort, as well as a little “benevolent pressure.” Through her guidance, you will learn how to stop not writing and officially be able to call Anne a mentor who is in your corner.
Maggie Smith is the author of seven award-winning books, including Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Lamp of the Body, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, and Good Bones, named by the Washington Post as one of the Five Best Poetry Books of 2017. Her most recent poetry collection, A Suit or a Suitcase, is forthcoming from Washington Square Press in 2026. The title poem of Good Bones was called the “Official Poem of 2016” by Public Radio International and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages.
For more than a decade, Amie McNee has been challenging the idea that art is frivolous or indulgent, particularly in difficult times. She's creative coach to over half a million writers on her online platform, The Inspired Collective, and through her Substack. Her first nonfiction book, We Need Your Art, was released in 2025, and her course, Getting Published: From Self to Traditional, is exclusive to A Writing Room only and charts all the ins and outs of both the self-publishing and traditional publishing worlds for our members.
Erin Roberts is a speculative fiction writer, game designer, and narrative podcaster whose award-winning work spans short stories and interactive fiction. A host of the Writing Excuses podcast, she’s known for her rich world building and character-driven storytelling. Erin has taught writing as a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Southern New Hampshire University, and Gotham Writers Workshop. She’s also the recipient of the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Diverse Worlds and Diverse Writers grants and a Provost’s Early Career Fellow at UT Austin.
If you love to read, you’ve almost certainly loved a book that Jake Morrissey helped bring into the world. From Calvin and Hobbes to The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store to Bird by Bird, Morrissey’s taste has largely defined the modern bookshelf, and he has a deep love for making a writer’s work shine, even if his own influence is invisible. Jake is an editor at Penguin and one of Writing Room’s industry experts where he offers his unique insight gained through an editor’s lens.
Jake Lancaster is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was awarded the Henfield Prize for Fiction. His short stories have appeared in The Common, TriQuarterly, Heavy Traffic, Forever Magazine, Adroit Journal, Bellevue Literary Review, Cutbank, and elsewhere. He's a lecturer in the English Department at the University of Minnesota, where he lives with his family.
After a long career on the faculty at Pacifica, professor and author Dr. Jennifer Selig wrote the book Deep Memoir: An Archetypal Approach to Deepening Your Story and Broadening Its Appeal. After joining one of our Author-Led Book Clubs, Jennifer joined the Writing Room staff to offer Live Editing sessions focused on memoir. Members have the opportunity to submit their writing for her review to help perfect and finish their manuscript.
Mary Berman is a Philadelphia-based author. Her debut novel, UNTIL DEATH, is forthcoming from Little, Brown, and her short work has been published in PseudoPod, Fireside, Cicada, and elsewhere. She has taught fiction workshops at the University of Mississippi, the MetroWest Writers’ Guild, and the Philly-based non-profit Blue Stoop.
Therapist and creative coach Emily Schreter (M.S.Ed, LMHC, LPC) regularly uses writing as a therapeutic tool to help clients reclaim their past and reimagine their future. In our Story & Self series, Emily will guide you through the power of writing as a therapeutic tool by focusing on a different methodologies for writing.
As a teen dad, college dropout and ex-meth-head, Jack alchemized his origin story into art and emerged as a creative leader. Creator of the award-winning podcast Hello Humans and life-long advocate for recovery and mental health, Jack channeled years of artistic collaboration into his role as Creative Director and co-founder of A Writing Room. He’s excited to lead a brand new offering at this year’s retreat, Ink & Improv.
Sign up for Digital Retreat by purchasing an annual membership to A Writing Room (here), then RSVP to each Digital Retreat event in "Event Gatherings."
Or you can sign up for just the retreat here, and you'll receive the emails with links to each event.
$399 = Retreat only: Access to all 7 days + replays (buy now)
$499 = Retreat + membership: Access to all seven days + replays + one year of membership (buy now)
Replays will be available within 24 hours for all sessions except Silent Writing and Study Hall.
Absolutely! This year there are three opportunities to get your writing reviewed by authors, editors and agents. Although not guaranteed, we encourage you to submit your writing to as many of these sessions as possible so you have the highest chance possible to be selected (selections are made via a lottery). All writing must be submitted by April 20th to be considered for selection.
This year, these sessions include:
1) Live Editing with Penguin Editor Jake Morrissey
2) Query Letter Review with agent Eric Smith
3) Live Editing with writing professor Dr. Jennifer Selig
Do you have questions, comments, or need extra assistance? Reach out using the contact form and we'll get back to you shortly, or email support@awritingroom.com.
