Tongass Mist Writing Retreat April 13th - April 16th, 2023 with Visiting Writer Rita Banerjee

Retreat Overview

Original Registration Extended Through March 30th! E-mail tongassmistwritingretreat@gmail.com for more information or text (309)310-8572. 

We would love to write in beautiful Sitka with you Arrive April 12th and settle into our Sitka Fine Arts Campus private lodging with a warm supper on campus. Write and enjoy excursions April 13-16th. 

In this retreat you will find a new creative community. You'll experience life as a guest in the Tongass National Forest, our largest forest in North America which is also a temperate rainforest. The Tongass is often referred to as the  "lungs of the Pacific". Enjoy comfortable accomodations in a beautiful setting on Sitke Fine Arts Campus in downtown Sitka. Have accessible wilderness adventures, enjoy evening fireside readings and refill your inspiration tank! 

Join Tongass Mist Writing's Ruth Underhill and visiting writer Rita Banerjee for this four day creative writing retreat in Sitka, Alaska. Writers are responsible for their own travel arrangements and the retreat is otherwise all inclusive. 

The retreat is located in the heart of the Tongass National Forest and on Tlingit Aáni land. This is a life changing opportunity for writers and creatives who wish to write from a fresh perspective of wildness and freedom. It is sure to be full of inspiring community and encounters with incomparable Sitkan wilderness during the start of spring and Sitka's celebrated Herring season. During this retreat, Sitka will have many other events celebrating the herring season in town. It's a gorgeous time to visit and still before crowded cruise ship season. As a writer, you will recieve excellent literary craft instruction from visiting writer Rita Banerjee. www.ritabanerjee.com 

You will also be ushered through wilderness unlike almost anywhere else in North America. This is a location where you need only leave your door to encounter wildlife. The air is clean. The whales, brown bears, eagles, sea otters, mink, sea lions, orcas, seals, and ravens are free here. Low tide rocks and pools are a wealth of food at each turningof the tide and teaming with wildlife. The rain is persistent and the ancient forests glow green in a way that is unique to the Tongass National Forest. 

 This retreat provides a space for writers to inform their writing directly and indirectly through the Tongass National Forest. You will have the privilege of being guests in Sheetka Kwaan (Sitka, Alaska) which is on Tlingit Aáni land.

Writers can choose to join in all activities or take space as required for longer writing sessions in this picturesque setting. 

Included in this creative space is marine wildlife cruising, a chance to sit in a traditional Finnish sauna, invitation to polar plunge from beach adjacent to retreat location, hikes accessible for all easy level walkers. Proximity to local yoga studio and gym on campus. Note: each excursion includes multiple adjacent access trails to more challenging treks for the writers who desire more solitude in the wild or more physical challenge. 

This retreat is rich with access to incredible wilderness and cultural sites in "The Paradise of the Pacific". Additionally, there are dedicated creative spaces on the picturesque Sitka Fine Arts campus, indoor hearth fires, outdoor campfires as weather allows. Writers are welcome to stay on campus during excursions or plan alternate excursions for themselves. 

 You will enjoy private lodging which looks out on forest space and fresh modern shared bathroom spaces,. All meals are provided on campus, and there are many tasty options for dining just a quick walk along the Sea Walk into town. 

Ruth Underhill, your retreat organizer and the owner of Tongass Mist Writing is a local Sitkan with layered knowledge of this inspiring "lungs of North America". She has spent four years in Sitka and five total in Alaska. Her love and gratefulness for life as a guest on Tlingit Aáni land only grows each year. She completed her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts. When Ruth is not planning workshops and retreats for Tongass Mist Writing, she enjoys crafting essays and poems from her home in Sitka, coaching other writers and working as a registered nurse on contracts around Alaska. She created Tongass Mist Writing so her writing community can find a welcoming space. Ruth hopes this space inspires writing that is influential toward freedom and equality via all combinations of genres. Let Tongass Mist Writing be a space for the weary creative, the dogged and frustrated creative, the creative who feels unheard and even muted, the creative who holds awards but is seeking some wild spark again. Reach out today for a retreat application and information about how to join us in Sitka this April 2023. 

Application Period for April 13-16th 2023 Retreat is open through March 15th. Don't delay! Space is limited to 12 writers.