Writers Participate in Fall Retreat
PIGGOTT — Eleven talented writers recently came together to hone their skills at the annual Fall Writers’ Retreat at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center (HPMEC). The HPMEC is the site where acclaimed novelist Ernest Hemingway penned much of his iconic novel A Farewell to Arms.
Andrea Hollander of Portland, Ore., was the mentor for the retreat. Her focus for the week was “memory and imagination.” Hollander is the author of four full-length poetry collections, including Landscape with Female Figure: New and Selected Poems, a finalist for the Oregon Book Award; Woman in the Painting; The Other Life; and House Without a Dreamer, which won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize.
Other honors include an Oregon Literary Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes (in poetry and prose memoir), the D. H. Lawrence Fellowship, the Runes Poetry Prize, two poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and two from the Arkansas Arts Council.
Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous anthologies, college textbooks and literary journals. For 22 years she served as the writer-in-residence at Lyon College, where she was awarded the Lamar Williamson Prize for Excellence in Teaching. She teaches workshops at the Attic Institute and Mountain Writers Series.
Writers began each day with time to write and later came together to share and discuss their work. They enjoyed lunch together 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.
Writers’ retreats are held twice annually at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum in Piggott. The next retreat is scheduled for June 5-9, 2017, with Craig Albin of Springfield, Mo., serving as mentor. For more information, contact the museum at (870) 598-3487 or email the director of HPMEC, Dr. Adam Long, at adamlong@AState.edu.
