MONADNOCK PASTORAL POETS & WRITERS RETREAT XVIII

THE RETREAT

For over a quarter of a century this group of writers has gathered annually to celebrate new work and publications as the New Pastoral Poets and Writers. These award-winning writers have been anthologized in China for over a decade including a book On the Monadnock: The New American Pastoral Poets (Chinese Drama Press: Beijing, 2006). They have spent decades staying true to language written beneath the shadow of the mountain Emerson, Thoreau and Kinnell made famous—Mount Monadnock.

Please join us for the annual gathering of the Monadnock New Pastoral Poets & Writers as they host their weekend poetry retreat at the Barbara C. Harris Conference Center in Greenfield, NH.

The weekend will be low-key, collegial, but full with small group (6 maximum) workshops (a primary workshop which meets twice and an optional single-session secondary workshop that meets once), an individual conference with mentors, readings by participants, writing time, social time, optional activities such as Saturday night acoustic folk music by The Grumbling Rustics. The conference concludes with the 30^th annual reading of mentors followed by a closing banquet.

There will also be opportunity to enjoy the almost 350 acres of hiking trails at the Harris Center on Otter Lake. See: www.bchcenter.org or e-mail [email protected] for additional details.

 Registration is limited to maintain small workshop size.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Friday Evening (April 21):
Wine and cheese reception 7 p.m.
American renga ceremony 7:30 p.m.

Saturday (April 22):
Breakfast (buffet style) : 8 a.m.
Primary Workshop 9:30–11 a.m.
Lunch (buffet style): noon
Participants reading 1–2 p.m.
Optional workshop//Indiv. conf./
Leisure activities: 2–4 p.m.
Dinner (buffet style): 6 p.m.
Participants reading 7– 8:30 p.m.
Acoustic music trio: 8:45 – 10 p.m.

Sunday (April 23):
Breakfast: (buffet style) 8 a.m.
Primary Workshop 9:15—11:15 a.m.
Lunch: (buffet style) noon
Indiv. conf./writing
Optional presentation workshop 1–2 p.m.
27th Pastoral Poets Reading 2:15—3:45 p.m.
Closing Banquet: 4 p.m.

REGISTRATION

Registration deadline: 3-24-23 
Includes meals and private or semi-private cabin lodging, two workshops, individual conference with mentor, readings, and closing banquet, Adult Friendly Cabin (4 guests) $440, Lodge Double: $480, Lodge single: $580. Day Rate: $340 (meals but no lodging). Late fee (space available) add $50 (after 3-24-23) (Online payment option, add $15 processing fee)

Primary Workshop (Meets twice)
Fiction/Drama (T. Farish, D. Mulligan)
Prose/Personal Narrative: (Becky Rule, Maura MacNeil )
Poetry: (J. Hodgen/J. Beschta; S. Roney-O’Brien, H. Walters, Henry Walters [R. Martin, Sat. p.m. Indiv.])

Please include with application 3 poems or 3-5 pages of fiction or prose you’d like to workshop.

The Mentors:

Award-winning poet Jim Beschta, author of Cutting the Cemetery Lawn and North From Yaounde, (Adastra Press: 2009) and teaches on the poetry faculty of the Worcester Art Museum.

Novelist Terry Farish’s seventh book, The Good Braider, won the 2013 Lupine Award. Her children’s book The Cat Who Liked Potato Soup won the NH Reading Association’s Book of the Year and been released in Japan. She has written three adult novels and three novels for adolescents.

John Hodgen’s latest poetry collection, What We May Be, will be published by Lynx House Press in the fall of 2023. John has been the recipient of AWP’s Donald Hall Prize, and the Grolier Poetry Prize among his many awards. , The Univ. of Pitt. Press released his 4th book of poetry, Heaven and Earth Holding Company in 2010.

Maura MacNeil is the author of the poetry collections Lost Houses,  A History of Water, and This Last Place. She is the founder and editor of Off the Margins and is a Professor of Creative Writing at New England College.

Rodger Martin, co-editor of The Granite State Poetry Series, has an Appalachia award for poetry He has three poetry books: The Battlefield Guide, The Blue Moon Series and The Nemo Poems.

Diane V. Mulligan has written two novels for adults, What She Inherits (2017), which was named an Honorable Mention for Mainstream Fiction in Writers’ Digest’s 25th Annual Self-Published Book Awards, and The Latecomers Fan Club (2013), which was named a 2014 IndieReader Discovery Award winner. Her first novel Watch Me Disappear (2012), which was for young adults, was a Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book Award finalist in 2013.

Susan Roney-O’Brien, winner of Nightshade Press’s William and Kingman Page Poetry Book Award and NEATE’s Poet of the Year, she has published two books of poetry, Farmwife and Earth. Her poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Diner.

Rebecca Rule is a full-time writer, humorist, storyteller, host for ten years of the NH Authors Series on NHPTV, currently host of Our Hometown on NHPTV. The author of a dozen books for children and adults, her latest is That Reminds Me of a Funny Story: a memoir, how-to, and compendium of yankee humor. For New Hampshire Magazine she writes a monthly humor column called “Ayuh.” Her daughter, Adi Rule, is also a writer.

Henry Walters’ Field Guide A Tempo (Hobble- bush: 2015) became the ninth title of The Granite State Poetry Series. His poetry won The Better Magazine poetry award for 2013.

USE THE BUTTONS BELOW TO REGISTER AND PAY ONLINE WITH PAYPAL

	Adult Friendly Cabin (4 guests)
	Double
	Single
	Day Rate (meals but no lodging) Late fee (space available) add $50 (after 3-24-22) (Online payment option, add $15)
	GO TO SHOPPING CARD AND CHECK OUT

To register/pay by mail, make checks payable to:

Monadnock Pastoral Poetry Retreat
Mail to: 30 North Rd., Hancock, NH 03449

Questions please call (603) 525.4715
Cancellation fee: $100 through 3/24/23.  $225 after 4/7/23

Comments or questions are welcome.

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