Writing Retreats
Writer’s Retreat in Merida, Mexico
Merida, Mexico, a 450-year-old colonial city, built on the site of the Maya city Tho, a center of Mayan culture for centuries. Mayan archeological sites dot the countryside along with 200-year-old haciendas. It is today a modern city with a vibrant cultural life, featuring numerous museums, art galleries, opera houses, theaters and restaurants.The Gulf of Mexico is 25 minutes to the north where many locals enjoy the water and delicious fish and other seafood. To the west in Celestun you can find exotic bird watching in a Bioreserve, and Mayan ruins in nearby Tulum. Here in Merida, the old Spanish colonial has been woven into the indigenous culture to create a unique culture all its own. This blending is most apparent in Yucatecan food with its influences from Mayan, Caribbean, Mexican, European and Middle Eastern cultures.
Come stay for a week, retreat from the cold, enjoy the local offerings, and immerse yourself in the art & craft of writing. For beginners and experienced writers alike, this five-day Writing Retreat in Merida is designed to deepen, support, refine, and inspire your writing. In order to allow time and space to address individual needs and interests, each session is limited to ten people. The first five-day retreat will begin January 13th, 2012. We’ll take our moveable writing feast to a variety of locations in the city and the surrounding area.
Like the sculptor who brings life to his medium by working with a living model, so a writer brings life to his or her writing by being present in the living moment. This is not always easy to do in our laundry-list lives: feed the dog, wash clothes, chop celery. We move on automatic pilot, failing to see beauty in the moment. What happens when you break out of that pattern?
Find out with us in Merida, Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. Pack your writing tools and fly away to Mexico. Return home with a heart full of the excitement, color and life of Mexico and a journal full of stories and characters infused with your intense “being present in the moment.”
