word by word, the language of women so often begins with a whisper … .
Terry Tempest Williams
My love for Monhegan is no secret.
Since 2005, the island has become an inspiring place for me to return.
To know myself.
To listen with curiosity.
To find the courage to speak.
To trust my voice.
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For the sixth year, I invite you to join me for an intimate retreat on island ~ to journey and journal through the wisdom and words of Terry Tempest Williams’s poetic memoir When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice and her forthcoming essay collection, The Glorians: Visitiations from the Holy Ordinary.
When Women Were Birds: murmuration, memoir, meditation
September 16-20, 2026
Monhegan, Maine
I’m thrilled to consider how Williams’s storytelling will become a guide to writing our own. When Women Were Birds is a rich contemplation of the ways we find our voice through both silence and speech. In The Glorians, Williams introduces the concept of everyday deities ~ ordinary, often overlooked presences that reveal our shared vulnerability and interconnectedness, and what they can teach us about the radical act of attending to beauty and carrying forward against all odds.
Can you imagine a more perfect pairing, especially now?
Together, we will write through the island's topography, the geography of our senses, and our storied experiences. There will be ample time to observe the autumn monarch and aviary migration, to search for sea glass, to hike the trails through Cathedral Woods to the rocky shores of Pebble Beach, and, of course, there will be lobster! Special guests will share their own creativity as another opening to our own. Through writing, ritual, and restorative yoga, we will meditate, celebrate, and honor the variations of our authentic voices, as can only happen when you find yourself on this artist's island 10 miles out to sea.
When Women Were Birds is limited to eight women of all ages and stages of life ~ I hope you will join me this year!
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REGISTRATION BEGINS FEBRUARY 16