PHOTOS by 

MM Leigh Photography  (Thanks for your professional photo services, Monica!!!)

https://mmleighphotography.shutterfly.com

Back L/R: Natalie, Manjushree, Pamela, Deborah, Mary, Anne-Marie, Kristin, Faith, Debby, Irene.              Front L/R: Monica, Ana, Margaret, Dawnn.  

          “Memory & Imagination”  

     April 2017 Writers Weekend Retreat 

Mt. Ararat, the 200-foot cliff where the Donaldson Brown mansion is located, overlooks the Susquehanna River and Port Deposit, Maryland (top right).

2017 Retreat Hospitality/Activities

THE WRITING WAS INTENSE.  The readings were intense.  The writers were inspiring.  The weather was perfect and the accommodations grand. Hospitality (Friday through Sunday) included 7 meals, 2 social hours, and 2 nights lodging (single-occupancy bedroom suites)–with 3 days of workshops, discussions, and open mic readings led by poet Mary Azrael and fiction/nonfiction writer Margaret Osburn.

James Magruder was this year’s guest writer (Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall, Queen’s Ferry Press, 2016; Worth Our Breath, Literary House Press, 2015; Let Me See It, University of Wisconsin Press, 2014; Sugarless, University of Wisconsin Press, 2009; and The Triumph of Love, original play produced on Broadway, 1994).  Jim, who had a career as a dramaturg and playwright–and who is, at present, working on a Broadway musical, began writing autobiographical fiction in 2002.  To learn more about this Baltimore writer, including what he does when he’s “stuck, really stuck” in a story of his own, visit: http://www.jamesmagruder.com/blog/

2017 Participant Evaluations

For details on our 2018 “Memory & Imagination Writers Weekend Retreat,” please check back. . . Sponsored and supported by the Odyssey Program at The Johns Hopkins University, the retreat is open to writers throughout the U.S. Participation is limited to 13 writers.  Enrollment is on a first-come, first-registered basis.  …fyi: 2017 COST, $595,  included tuition/hospitality: (with discounts for early registration and further discounts to Johns Hopkins employees). 

For interior views of the mansion–and more–visit this post:  2016 RETREAT: “Memory & Imagination”: https://margaretosburnwebsite.com/2016/05/06/about-last-weekend-writers-retreat-2016/

View of the back of the mansion.

Highway 95 as viewed from Mt. Ararat.