Writers Complete HPMEC Summer Retreat
PIGGOTT – Fourteen talented writers recently participated in the summer writers’ retreat at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center (HPMEC). Throughout the week, the writers came together to hone their skills and to form a community in Northeast Arkansas at the site where Ernest Hemingway penned much of his iconic novel A Farewell to Arms.
Summer Writers’ Retreat participants, Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center, Piggott, Ark.
Front row (from left): Don Gean (Sarasota, Fla.), Laurie Ritchey (Blytheville), C.D. Albin, mentor (West Plains, Mo.), Myra S. Rustin (Hot Springs Village), and Millie Gore Lancaster (Hot Springs Village).
Back row: Debbie Archer (Walnut Ridge), Ethan Baker (Poplar Bluff, Mo.), Patricia Clark Blake (Jonesboro), Linda Wyss (Piggott), Fay Guinn (Jonesboro), Betsy Meyer (Asheville, N.C.), Dennis Humphrey (Beebe), Jeanne Mason (Blytheville), Rhoda Yost (Blytheville), Pat Laster (Benton), and Dr. Adam Long, director of HPMEC (Jonesboro).
Writer C.D. Albin served as mentor for the retreat. Albin was born and raised in West Plains, Mo. He earned a Doctor of Arts degree in English from the University of Mississippi and has taught for many years at Missouri State University-West Plains where he founded and edits Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozarks Studies.
He is the author of the story collection, Hard Toward Home (Press 53, 2016), and his fiction, poems and reviews have appeared in a number of periodicals, including Arkansas Review, Cape Rock, Georgia Review, Harvard Review, Natural Bridge and Slant.
Writers at the retreat began each day writing, and then came together to look at samples of Hemingway’s writing as models for their own. They enjoyed lunch at the Educational Center and ended the afternoon with a group meeting to reflect, share and discuss the processes used by each writer. The format allowed writers time to focus on their own creative interests, to receive feedback on their work, and to form relationships with other writers.
These retreats offer writers the opportunity to work with professional mentors and network with other writers. Throughout the retreats, writers have the opportunity to work in Hemingway’s Barn Studio. Participants come from all backgrounds and experience levels.
Writers’ retreats are held twice annually at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center in PigGott. The next retreat is scheduled for Nov. 6-10, with Pat Carr of Fayetteville serving as mentor. For more information, contact the museum at (870) 598-3487 or through email at adamlong@AState.edu. Additional information may also be found on the website Hemingway.AState.edu.
