The Motherlode Retreat Mastering the Art of Writing About Our Mothers
A Five-Day Writing Retreat by KindWrite Studio April 28–May 2, 2027 The Barns at Boyds Mills · Milanville, PA
Welcome to The Motherlode Those of us who have tried to write about our mothers know how hard it can be. The material is complicated, unsettling, and can trigger us — we get too close, or we can't get close enough, and often we just give up. We — Val and Diana — built The Motherlode Retreat because we've been in that place too, and we've worked with many writers who get stuck here as well. Whether you write memoir, fiction, poetry, or song, join us as we tackle this tough material together, with honesty, compassion, and strategies to move you forward.
Why This Retreat? Over five days, you'll learn how to: Interpret and work through your mother wound Shape tough material on the page Use point of view to access memories and recollections Recreate what's been lost Move between a voice of innocence and a voice of experience Come if you´ve ... been thinking about writing about your mother but haven’t started anything yet got scraps in notes and journal entries and you want to start pulling them together made good progress with a project, t and want some support getting across the finish line got something you want to say/write about your mother and a desire to learn new ways to express it
The Motherlode Retreat
The Experience Boyds Mills sits in the Upper Delaware River Valley, tucked into the Pocono Mountain foothills — cabins among the trees, a lodge on a small hill, and a beautifully restored barn at the center of the property. We chose it for the feeling it evokes: open vistas, hiking trails, and rustic roads for walks, with books and literature surrounding us in the barn, and coffee and tea always brewing. The writing vibe is everywhere.
Mornings open with generative writing and exploring the "motherload" together; afternoons are yours — write in a nook in the barn, take a yoga class, stroll the hills, or meet with us one-on-one — before we regroup to focus on craft. Evenings bring happy hour, a carefully curated dinner (always attentive to food allergies and special diets), and relaxed lounge discussions on publishing, writing, and whatever's on our minds.
Sample Schedule 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. Breakfast 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. Motherlode discussion/generative writing Noon - 1:00 p.m. Lunch 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Afternoon writing time/free time 2:00 p.m. Yoga sessions (alternate days) 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. Craft discussion and facilitated writing 5:30 - 6:00 p.m. Happy Hour 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. Dinner 7:30 p.m. Informal group chats
The Motherlode Retreat
What We Explore We’re ambitious and cover a lot of material at The Motherlode Retreat. Here are just a few of the topics we delve into: What is the mother wound, how does it manifest for each of us and how does it influence our approach to writing about mothers? What have we received from our mothers — what treasures do we carry, what weighs on us, and how do we manage the cognitive dissonance of bearing both? How do we write truthfully about our mothers when we’re still involved in the relationship with her? How do we write about her after she’s gone? How do we render someone we love, feared, or lost as a character on the page— fully human, not flattened by our difficult feelings about them? How might we move, when we’re ready, from the “motherload” to the “motherlode?”
What We Mean by Craft All writing starts as self-expression, but when we’re ready to share it and have our work resonate with others, we need to craft and style our words and structures. Here are some of the techniques we use to help us access and shape our material: Readings: How have other writers navigated the mother material and how can we apply their techniques to our own? Writing through the tough material: How can we use varying forms and styles to open doors to new ways of telling your stories? Writing from the ceiling: How do we create enough distance between the younger person who lived the experience and the adult writer shaping it? Characterization: How do we bring mothers to life as threedimensional characters, using tools from fiction and memoir?
The Motherlode Retreat
Is the Retreat Right for Me? "My mother is still alive. Can I write honestly about her?" Yes, and you're far from the only one asking this question. Writing about a living person is one of the most common challenges in memoir and personal essay. We work directly on how to write truthfully about your experiences and how to navigate your feelings for your mother and anyone else you're writing about. "My relationship with my mother was really painful. Is this going to be too much?" This is an important question. The Motherlode is a writing retreat and our work focuses on how to render difficult material on the page. While it's not a therapy group, we know the material is difficult and emotionally fraught, so we come prepared with boxes of tissues and supportive words. Although we're not therapists, as writing coaches we know how to create a safe and supportive environment, so when those tough moments come, we and the group are there to support you. "I loved my mother. I’m afraid of writing mean things about her.” At The Motherlode, we leave room for the full range of emotions we carry for our mothers. Some of the most profound writing from past retreats has emerged when writers explore the distance between who their mother was and who they needed her to be. If you loved her and lost her, or loved her and couldn't reach her, that's material we cover at the Motherlode too.
"I don't remember enough. My memories are fragmented." Missing bits of memory is common in memoir. Our craft discussions focus specifically on how to recollect, recreate and re-vision your story when parts of it are missing. At the end of five days, you will have at least double the material you started with. "I'm not really a writer." Many people who come to the Motherlode don't call themselves writers. Some are coming back to writing after years away. Some are starting for the first time. Some don't even come to write, but to process. If you've got something you want to say about your mother and the willingness to work on it, this is the right place for you.
The Motherlode Retreat
The Place The Barns at Boyds Mills sits in the Upper Delaware River Valley, surrounded by 1,300 acres of forest and near Calkins Creek. There are cabins among the trees, a lodge on a small hill, and a beautifully restored barn where we eat meals, do yoga, and find quiet spaces to write in between sessions — open around the clock for snacks and coffee, with beer and wine served with dinner. The chefs take great pride in their food, which is sourced locally: herbs from the garden, eggs from nearby farms, bread and pastries from local bakeries. All guest rooms — cabin and lodge — include private bathrooms. Afternoon yoga sessions will be led by Rebecca DeRosa. Boyds Mills is a few hours from New York City and Philadelphia. For a small additional cost, we offer shuttle van transporation from both Scranton and Port Jervis to/from the retreat cente
What Motherlode Writers Say “All the women who attended this retreat, and especially the women leading it, were committed, present, kind, accepting, and focused on making each other better writers. I cannot say enough about how the leaders conceptualized, organized, and facilitated this special time spent writing about The Motherlode. It was a heavy topic, but it never felt overwhelming or unsafe, thanks to the carefully crafted flow of instruction, easy socialization, and dedicated processing/writing time.” –Eden S. “The Motherlode Retreat was the perfect blend of craft education, thoughtprovoking prompts and exercises, and conversations to process it all. Diana and Val have a wonderful style that encourages clarifying questions and can make complex concepts easy to understand. Diana incorporated many examples of great writing that illustrate the concepts, along with a highly relevant reading list. The location was the perfect place to unplug and allow my mind to expand and creativity to flow.” –Molly W. “Attending the Motherlode Retreat was a fantastic jumpstart to my writing and creativity. Diana and Val provided an encouraging environment, offering valuable tools and unique prompts to help writers of all experience levels put pen to paper. This was my first writing retreat, and it offered a good mix of instruction, relevant readings, writing time, and opportunities for relaxation and fellowship. My only regret is that it didn't last a bit longer!” –Lindsey W.
The Motherlode Retreat
Meet Your Retreat Facilitators The Motherlode is led by Diana and Val, two writers who've done this work themselves — wrestling with the same hard material in their own writing. Both are mothers too, with children now grown and out in the world of their own, which shapes how personally they understand what you're working through.
Diana is an award-winning author, editor, and writing coach whose work has appeared in New Letters, The Huffington Post, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun, Gargoyle, and Brevity Blog, among others. She is the recipient of the Alexander Patterson Cappon Fiction Prize and a Pushcart Prize nomination, and has held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Cill Rialaig (Co. Kerry, Ireland), and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She received her MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and has taught at the University of Maryland, Writopia Lab, and the Washington/Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis. She is the founder of Pyrenean Writing Retreats and author of the Substack newsletter Under the Red Pen. Her own writing has taken her deep into the territory of family and motherhood.
Valerie is an editor and writer who brings clarity to both the big picture — what is your story telling? Are your characters compelling? Does your dialogue ring true? — and sentence structure and word choice. After a career in journalism and communications, including speechwriting and leading communications teams at four government agencies, Val turned to creative writing and editing full time. She works as a proofreader at Cleaver Magazine and mentors emerging writers at Girls Write Now. Her recent essay "Hasty Exit" appears in the B Cubed Press anthology Alternative Liberties II, and her Lost Connection memoir was published in Adelaide Literary Journal.
"Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown. In my heart it don't mean a thing." — Toni Morrison
The Motherlode Retreat
The Details
Dates: April 28–May 2, 2027 Location: The Barns at Boyds Mills, Milanville, Pennsylvania, a few hours from New York City and Philadelphia. Shuttle service available (for an additional fee) from Port Jervis, NY (NJ Transit train station) and Scranton, PA (bus station and airport)
Price: $2000, all-inclusive — lodging (all rooms with private bathrooms), all meals, writing instruction, and craft sessions. Shared room options available at a reduced rate. Manuscript reviews available for an additional fee. What's included: Yoga sessions (optional) · Three meals/day; allday snacks, coffee, and ice cream · Generative writing sessions and craft sessions · Discussions on publishing and research · Individual meetings with facilitators to discuss your work Register or ask a question: team@kindwrite.com
I´m Ready The Motherlode Retreat