Our Story

A Brief History of Wide Open Writing

Wide Open Writing was born in 2014 on a bus in Italy, somewhere between the hills of San Gimignano and Florence. But to take you to that part, we need to back up a few years.

In July 2009, out west in a lush green corner of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, a friendship was blossoming. Regina and Dulcie’s friendship. It was the first night of Goddard College’s creative writing residency. One of those awkward meet and greets. The story, as best they can recall, begins with this – Regina loved Dulcie’s sense of humor and Dulcie loved Regina’s laugh. And that was the start of that. Despite Regina living in Italy and Dulcie living in Maine, they kept in touch when they could, eventually by way of the literary journal, Minerva Rising which Dulcie co-founded with Kim Brown.

They chatted on the phone one day, longing to go away somewhere beautiful to write. Dulcie knew of a place in Maine and Regina knew of one in Tuscany. They weighed their options, looked at a calendar and decided on September in Tuscany. They called it, “Autumn in Tuscany, a Retreat for the Senses.”

The week was more than they could have envisioned. Camaraderie with fellow writers, interesting and inspiring conversations; laughter and dancing and possibly even some skinny-dipping. And of course, there was writing. On the bus ride back to Florence someone piped up with the suggestion that they run retreats as a business. They took the suggestion to heart and got to work. It’s now been an amazing ten years of growing the Tuscany retreat, and others, and of building Wide Open Writing together—WOW!

Wide Open Writing has come about as an answer to our own writerly needs. A retreat is what we made for ourselves when we wanted and needed to get away and write. It’s been our experience that most of the people who come on our retreats are very much like us, trying to find creative ways to nurture and grow their writing life alongside their ‘regular life’ which we all know is no easy feat. Especially when there’s a job, a family, and laundry to consider. Often, to connect to our creative side and get the juices flowing, we need to get away. We believe that seeking the quiet, the time, the space away from the grind to listen to the writer inside us is not a luxury but a necessity.

We’re in our tenth year: We’ve held retreats in the US, Mexico, Italy, Spain, and Morocco. We’ve not done this alone. There’s time, thought, energy and love we’ve had along the way from so many talented writers and healers; people whose desire to create and connect has drawn them to this growing energy center. We believe that the people spark the sparks for connecting and then the magic happens. We thank you for being a part of it. We hope you’ll join a RETREAT, a QUARTERLY MASTER CLASS IN TECHNIQUE, and our MONTHLY WRITING GROUP.