Jayson Coleman
On April 19th, 2025, I attended my first ever writer’s retreat. When I arrived at The Forage in downtown Eau Claire at around nine in the morning, I did not know what to expect. Eleven and a half hours later, when I biked back to my dorm room under the shadow of night, I immediately knew it would not be my last.
I walked into The Forage a few minutes after the event began. Once I found an open seat at one of the four large group tables laid out throughout the space, I was greeted with the retreat’s writer in-residence, Toya Wolfe, giving an energized lecture on starting new projects. At the end of the lecture, we were all given a prompt: imagine a place, any place, an object within that place, then a person, a smell, and a hidden object. Once we had all those, we were instructed to write a scene or story about the world we just created. For many writers at the retreat, the prompt ended up inspiring their day’s work. For me, though, I struggled to imagine a scene knowing I had other projects that I wanted to focus on.
“Since I had never been to a writer’s retreat before this one, I had no idea what I was walking into. ”
Since I had never been to a writer’s retreat before this one, I had no idea what I was walking into. I had originally thought that almost the entirety of the twelve hours would be spent writing. Because of this, I thought I would easily have the time to get multiple projects done. I wanted to plan out and write the ten-minute play that was due the next week for my playwriting class, work on my novel, and revise a short story. I also thought that much of the retreat would be spent in isolation, with each writer having their own little room to lock themselves inside of. Therefore, I brought not one, not two, but three stuffed animals to keep me company.
Not long into the retreat, though, many of my preconceptions were proven wrong. First, only about a third of the day was devoted to writing. Toya Wolfe, in her opening lectures, told us to only focus on one project and focus on the most difficult one. Since I always find starting a piece to be the most difficult part of writing, I chose to devote my time to writing the play. Second, we did not have our own little rooms, the entire day would be spent in the same communal space. We did have the opportunity to sign up for one-on-one chats with either Toya or retreat host BJ Hollars, but since I didn’t have to pay to be at the retreat, I decided to let the other writers fill the schedule first. Needless to say, one stuffed animal was more than enough. Third, the food that The Forage provided was astounding! The blueberry muffin that I had during the first freewriting session, the chicken lentil soup offered during lunch, and the chocolate chip cookies provided during dinner were the culinary highlights, but everything offered was delicious!
Put simply, the writer’s retreat felt like a glorified creative writing workshop, similar to those I’m used to at college. I still get to hear others’ feedback and read what I wrote, but there’s also dedicated freewriting time, free food, and opportunities to talk one-on-one with experienced writers. Therefore, while the writer’s retreat resembled experiences I’ve grown very familiar with, that didn’t detract from its benefits for the other writers in attendance.
“Right now, I’m probably writing maybe once every two weeks,” said David Fields, a former newspaper reporter who describes himself as “semi-retired”. “I’ll never get anything done at that pace. So here we’re focused to write.”
In fact, Fields noted that one of his favorite things about the writer’s retreat was how it differentiated from the creative writing workshops I’m used to.
“It’s like being in college without the testing and without the assessment You can enjoy the learning without the stress of knowing whether you get an A or a D.”
“It’s like being in college without the testing and without the assessment,” Fields said. “You can enjoy the learning without the stress of knowing whether you get an A or a D. It’s relaxing, and with very few demands.”
Colleen McCluskey, a former UWEC grad student and returning attendee of the writer’s retreat, also valued the retreat’s workshop aspect and the people it allowed her to work with.
“I didn’t get a chance to do a one-on-one with Toya,” McCluskey said, “but I did get a chance to do one with BJ. Hearing feedback from other people who have, I wouldn’t say ‘cracked the code’, but have been successful multiple times, it inspires me because there’s only so much you can do on your own. You need other people to look at your work, or else it gets stagnant.”
As for me, by day’s end I’d completed the first two scenes of my ten-minute play, and hearing positive reactions to what I shared of it during workshop had me excited for the final events of the evening. After a delicious taco bar dinner at one big table and manually shifting the room’s layout multiple times, we were finally prepared for the night’s climax… the participant’s reading!
At the participant’s reading, I had the pleasure of hearing each of my peers read what they had devoted their entire day to. I heard people read poetry, emotional memoirs, skin-crawling horror, and seemingly everything in between, all of it incredibly well-written! And, of course, for the first time in the history of a CVWG writer’s retreat, I got to have a scene of my play read out! It was a highlight of my day, calling up two of my fellow unsuspecting writers to read out a role and listening to the supportive audience laugh alongside me. While I had scheduled myself to read early during the show in case I wanted to bike back home before sunset, I knew early on that I wanted to stay for everyone’s reading, and I’m glad that I did!
Overall, the day I spent at the Forage among my fellow writers was incredible! I knew I didn’t have as full of an experience as I could’ve had, missing out on the one-on-ones as well as the alcohol, but that only inspires me to return more! While I am grateful for the time I got to sit down and focus on writing, the entertainment provided by the final reading, and the wonderful food, the highlight of the retreat for me was the people I got to meet and the community I got to be a part of. While being among mostly new faces for the first time did leave me quite anxious, I left The Forage that night with a few extra friends as well as the experiences and interactions I’d been hoping for since I began my internship. Returning to the next 12-Hour Writer’s Retreat would let me reconnect with these now familiar faces, strengthen the friendships I built (while creating a few more), and continue finding my place within the Chippewa Valley writing community.
“It’s a super positive environment, and it’s added a spark to my semi-retirement,” Fields said. “Whether I ever accomplish anything with this, it’s just nice being around all these other creative spirits.”