AWA Facilitators’ Cooperative Writing Retreat

This small generative and cooperative retreat will be based at Casa Mismac in Puriscal, Costa Rica. Arrival is at SJO airport (San Juan Santa Maria airport in San Jose).

You will have two weeks of immersive writing and learning in the camaraderie of four other AWA facilitators and the peace and gentleness of the Costa Rican mountains.

What’s this all about?

Start your morning with stretching on the outdoor deck while the birds twitter and flit in the trees, then join a facilitated craft-focused AWA style write led each day by a different participant, followed by a healthy brunch. The afternoon is yours for writing, swimming, walking or just daydreaming. Each evening one participant will be tasked with creating our evening meal and after we’ve eaten and had a glass of wine (optional, of course), we’ll settle in for an AWA style prompted writing session with gentle feedback.  

One day we will throw the writing out the window (or, more precisely, into the car) and head to the beach for a day of sand, surf and maybe a souvenir or three.

What do you mean by cooperative?

Each participant will agree to:

• Lead one craft-teaching workshop per week (only 90-minutes–keep it simple and fun!);
• Lead one evening AWA prompted group writing session per week (2 hours, after dinner);
• Prepare one simple evening meal per week (all ingredients provided).

Price: $1,000 USD

Includes:

• Round-trip airport transportation
• Private room (two rooms have ensuite and two rooms share a bathroom–rooms will be allocated randomly on arrival). All rooms have a desk, dresser/closet, bathrobe, locking door;
• Brunch all days except beach day;
• Five prepared dinners per week;
• Unlimited coffee, tea, filtered water, etc.;
• Wine with dinner;
• Light housekeeping once per week.

Excludes:

• Flights
• Beach-day lunch
• 4 dinners out (2 per week at approx. $15-$20 each)

How to apply:

Send an email to casamismac@gmail.com and tell me a bit about yourself and your current writing project/goals. Then we’ll have a little zoom chat and then I’ll choose the four participants.

Are you out of practice with facilitation? Haven’t written in months? This is your time to dive in and get back on track.

And why is it so cheap ($500 per week??!!)? When I first began to dream about Casa Mismac, I envisioned a cooperative space where people from around the world could come and work on their writing projects without the trappings of everyday life getting in the way. The AWA method has been my foundation and I’ve now grown the retreat to a place where I can relax a bit and give back. This is my way of doing that–involving others and taking part myself was always part of the plan, but I wasn’t sure exactly how. Let’s see if this works! Come and join this experimental retreat.