Online Contemplative Writing Retreat
Writing From Where You Are
Next dates: March 2024 TBA
A Zoom retreat with Tania Casselle and Sean Tetsudo Murphy Sensei
“This retreat will remain in my memory as one of my most life-affirming experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.” A previous participant.
Our ZOOM video online contemplative writing retreat is designed to support your creative life in these challenging times. Our small group of 8 to 14 writers will meet for 8 writing sessions over 5 days. Each session is 2 hours.
As we feel the chill of this late fall season, many of us are in the mood to nest at home and turn inward. In our in-person contemplative creative retreats we enjoy writing in places of great natural beauty.
Now, while staying close to home, can we still discover the beauty of the natural world and connect with the wisdom of the approaching winter?
Can we detach from the barrage of news and social media to explore our inner landscape, and our outer landscape too… even if our outer landscape is limited to our yard, our street, our porch, balcony, patio, or even just the view of the night sky from the window of our high-rise apartment?
In these sessions we will write together and share our words in the intimate virtual retreat community we’ll create for five days. We’ll explore various creative writing exercises and practices, and between the morning and afternoon sessions we’ll also give you other writing assignments to try. We’ll explore various ways to free our natural flow of expression, bypass our inner critics, express our authentic inner voice and access our true source of creativity.
Mindfulness practices will stimulate the creative process. Short periods of simple meditation and chi gung will help us center and ground ourselves. (Meditation may be done in a chair.)
Most importantly, we’ll aim to reconnect to a sense of freedom, play, and discovery, while also expressing through writing the grief, fear and other feelings that have arisen during this past year of uncertainty. We aim to help you connect with the still small voice within… or perhaps the wild raging voice that wants to cry to the skies. Whatever is your truth… bring it.
Our emphasis is on the creative process, in a supportive and inspiring atmosphere. We will not be critiquing your writing. And if you don’t want to share your writing with the group by reading out loud, that’s fine too. Beginner writers and experienced writers are equally welcome… we just ask you to bring your open hearts and willing minds, a notebook and a pen!
“The structure worked perfectly for me. It felt close to a real “away” writing retreat.” A previous participant.
HOW IT WORKS:
- We will meet by Zoom video calls.
- This is a live group experience, we are not recording sessions and there will be no replays. No part of the course is prerecorded. We are working live with you from our home in Taos, New Mexico, in this active group of 8 to 14 participants writing together and sharing our words in a structured writing retreat.
“I loved connecting with other writers and there was a genuine atmosphere of trust
with one another that allowed us all to feel safe,
which gave us the courage to share our work.” A previous participant.
SCHEDULE of 8 sessions over 5 days, Typical schedule from 2021:
Thursday November 11, Opening Session :
6 – 8 pm Eastern Time (see below for different time zones)
Friday Nvember 12, Sessions 2 and 3:
AM session: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm Eastern Time
PM session: 6 – 8 pm Eastern Time
Saturday November 13, Sessions 4 and 5:
AM session: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm Eastern Time
PM session: 6 – 8 pm Eastern Time
Sunday November 14, Sessions 6 and 7 :
AM session: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm Eastern Time
PM session: 6 – 8 pm Eastern Time
Monday November 15, Closing Session :
10:30 am – 12:30 pm Eastern Time
For other time zones, the AM sessions (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday) are:
9:30 am – 11:30 am Central / 8:30am -10:30 am Mountain / 7:30 am – 9:30 am Pacific.
The PM sessions (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) are:
5 – 7 pm Central / 4 – 6 pm Mountain / 3 – 5 pm Pacific.
Or convert to your time zone using New York in the bottom right box to compare your local time to Eastern Time.
Read about the instructors here
FEE:
We would love to offer this as a free online retreat. Unfortunately, we too have lost income with the cancellation of many events where we were due to teach and loss of other writing work. Our goal is to support writers as we emerge from this difficult period. So, we are keeping the fee as low as possible and below our usual rates, and we ask you to choose your own fee. We hope this will make this personally guided retreat more accessible.
Our basic rate is $245, although we offer the option to offer more ($325 or $385) if you are able and you feel moved to do so. (This will also enable us to offer more spaces for low income writers in the future.)
We also have two spaces at $50 for low income writers. (Note: You do not need to prove that you are on low income. Just say you want that space and it’s yours.)
REGISTER HERE TO JOIN US
OTHER COMMENTS FROM WRITERS IN OUR PREVIOUS ZOOM RETREATS
(in an anonymous survey):
“The exercises helped me to forget about my concerns and just write.”
“I loved the content. It was always engaging and the writing exercises were challenging yet fun.”
“Broke through my writing block as I hoped.”
“I love you two. Thanks for a writing adventure.”
“I am thrilled that I came away with a pretty firm idea for a new project.”
“Loved how you included mindful movement in addition to starting with meditation.”
“It broke some through some sort of tightness I’d acquired by not being able to meet with other writers.”
“You are both excellent teachers, knowledgeable on the craft of writing, expert facilitators and this just shined during the 4 days. You both have a truly beautiful presence and the retreat was superb on every level.”
REGISTER HERE TO JOIN US
HOW TO REGISTER: Complete the form below, then we will send you a PayPal invoice to pay by credit card or from your PayPal account and confirm your registration. You do not need a PayPal account to pay by credit card. We can also take Venmo payments, please mention in the form’s comment box if you prefer Venmo.
If these dates don’t work for you but you would like to be alerted when we offer this retreat next time, please email us at: MurphyCasselleWriteNow@gmail.com.
THE INSTRUCTORS
Tania Casselle has been a writer and editor for 20+ years, published in numerous books, magazines, newspapers and online media in the US, Europe and Asia. She is a committee chair for the American Society of Journalists & Authors. Her nonfiction, fiction, poetry and radio work have been recognized in numerous awards and anthologies. As a writing coach and teacher, she works with people individually and in group seminars in person and online. She holds a Masters in Transpersonal Psychotherapy and follows a contemplative path in the Zen Buddhist and Christian mystic traditions. Tania is on the board and faculty of the nonprofit Sage Institute for Creativity & Consciousness. She is an alumnus of Richard Rohr’s Living School for Action and Contemplation. Tania helps writers on every level, teaching not just the craft and business of writing, but also exploring the deeper creative and spiritual impulse, helping writers free their natural writing voices and navigate internal blocks. A Brit from London, Tania lives in New Mexico.
Sean Murphy is a 2018 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow and an authorized Zen teacher (Sensei) in the American White Plum Lineage. He is a member of the Spiritual Directors International Coordinating Council. His One Bird, One Stone: 108 Contemporary Zen Stories (Hampton Roads 2013), won the 2014 International Book Award in the Eastern Religions category. He is the award-winning author of three novels with Bantam Dell Books, receiving the Hemingway Award for a First Novel for his The Hope Valley Hubcap King, the 2009 National Press Women’s Communication Award for best novel for The Time of New Weather, and the 2017 William Faulkner Wisdom Award for novel-in-progress for his current project, Wilson’s Way. He is the founder of the nonprofit Sage Institute for Creativity & Consciousness, which hosts an innovative meditation leaders training program. He teaches writing and meditation at UNM-Taos. Sean’s website: murphyzen.com
