Since 2017
Upcoming: October 9-15, 2022
Host: Jordan Hartt
Location: Lahaina, Maui
Registration: $3,500. Postponed from 2021, this retreat is full
The Retreat
Very short fictions are nearly always experimental, exquisitely calibrated, reminiscent of Frost’s definition of a poem—a structure of words that consumes itself as it unfolds, like ice melting on a stove. ~Joyce Carol Oates
Happening the second full week of each October, the Maui Writers’ Retreat is a blend of generative writing time and private retreat time, with a particular focus on the short-short story.
Whether you’re writing fiction, poetry, nonfiction, cross-genre, or un-genre work, short work is one of the most technically involved forms in our literature.
To that end, we spend a week studying and writing the form. Our goal is to complete one new written work of 1,000 words or fewer.
[W]here the poem and story meet. Maybe brevity—on sight—alerts a reader’s expectancy […] But the form costs—it sacrifices most of itself. Experience borders perilously on nothing. ~H.E. Francis
You’ll leave with one new written piece ready for advanced revision or submission, with new community and memories, and with new inspiration in the writing life.
A really good short-short, whatever else it may be, is a story we can’t help reading fast, and then re-reading, and again, but no matter how many times we read it, we’re not quite through it yet. ~John L’Heureux
Daily Schedule
Sunday
4 pm-onward: arrivals, getting settled, initial writing session.
Monday
10 am-noon: craft discussion and generative writing session
Tuesday
10 am-noon: craft discussion and generative writing session
Wednesday
Writing day
Thursday
10 am-noon: workshop sessions
Friday
10 am-noon: workshop sessions
Saturday
Departure by 10 am
Our Purpose
Since our inaugural session in 2017, the Maui Writers’ Retreat has served as a restorative way to create new work during a final-quarter writing retreat.
Known as the Valley Isle, and surrounded closely by three other major islands, Maui is one of the planet’s most stunning and beautiful landscapes.
In addition, our specific location of Lahaina, on West Maui, places you in one of the most historic and inspiring towns in the world: this retreat always feels like a week-long dream from which you don’t want to awaken.
Host
Jordan Hartt is the author of two collections of narrative poems: “Leap” (Tebot Bach, 2015) and “Drifting,” (Tebot Bach, 2018).
Hartt’s lifework is creating experiences where people find the writing craft to reach for their best artistic and human selves, find the writing community to connect with others, and find the ongoing inspiration of the writing life.
To do this, he edits Kahini Weekly and hosts five annual writing retreats: one each in Poʻipū, Kauaʻi; Negril, Jamaica; Las Vegas, Nevada; Waikoloa, Hawaiʻi Island; and Lahaina, Maui. A little more about his ethos, if interested.