Details for the Summer 2007 Woodstock Retreat will be posted soon.  Registration will begin in February.

EARTH TONGUE
The Yoga of Writing 
with Wonder

Sept. 13-17, 2006   

(Weekend Option Available)

Wednesday through Sunday

A Yoga as Muse for Writing Retreat with
JEFF DAVIS
at the historic 
Byrdcliffe Artists Colony
in the Catskill Mountains of 
Woodstock,  New York

This retreat invites you to embody vismayo—Sanskrit for “a state filled with surprise and wonder”—the neighborhood where many writers learn to live. Wonder visits writers where boundaries of the interior and exterior, the self and other overlap.  We’ll discover how body and breath, wedded with a writing intention, help us not only access fresh imagery and insight but also write with a style that keeps readers guessing with delight.  We'll also remove some internal smudges that cloud and distort our outward perception.  Ultimately, you'll be invited to explore your role as a writer, to discover to what you are giving a voice, and to renew your encounters with your body, imagination, eyes & ears, language, and earth. 

A study of works by writers such as Nicholson Baker (fiction), Ted Kooser (nonfiction), Billy Collins (poetry), Jane Hirschfield, and Mary Oliver will help us understand how wonder appears where the ordinary and extraordinary meet. Exercises will introduce you to an embodied writing process that blends simple yoga practices with writing. Other exercises will include experiencing ordinary objects, topics, and language afresh; honing your craft to make lasting impressions; re-visioning intuitively; and revising effectively. Talks will weave pertinent research about wonder in neurology, psychology, and the arts. You may bring an existing piece to work on, but we will focus more on generating and sharing new material. Please note: The yoga component will be adaptable to everyone—even those restricted to a chair.

Take time for solitude & retreat, conviviality with peers, deepening your writing process, and for honing your grasp of craft's soul.  Court your muse with hikes, dips in nearby swimming holes, visits to hear great live music, & more.

This retreat's experiences will be qualitatively similar to yet different from those of last year's retreat; so return writers should expect more of what you loved about last year--only better.

Registrants will receive a detailed packet including specific directions to the retreat, a list of suggested items to bring, as well as a suggested reading list.

View photos of writers in a Yoga As Muse workshop at Austin's Dharma Yoga.

View the tentative Retreat Schedule.

"Not to live in the physical world is the greatest poverty." 
   -Wallace Stevens
 

*the wonder of perception and words
*how acute perception and emotional complexity lead to wondrous writing (and living)
*how simple words & organic metaphor infuse writing with wonder
*how simple yoga practices & principles, appropriate for any body, can help you trust your writing process while granting you surprising imagery, ideas, and questions for vital writing
*how renowned writers in all genres keep their writing fresh (with sample readings)
*how to trust your own process

SOME BASICS
Tuition for Full Retreat: $425 if paid before August 15/$475 afterward 

Tuition for Friday-Sunday only: $300 if paid before August 15/$250 if paid before
Room w/ 3 breakfasts & full kitchen access: 
Room 1: private w/double bed and  screened porch, $45/night
 Room 2: private room w/double  bed, $40/night
 Room 3: small private w/double bed,  $35/night 
 Room 4: shared w/two double beds, $30/night ($40 if private)
 Room 5: large loft room w/5  double beds, $25/night 
Each rustic room is on the lodge’s large upstairs where there are two full bathrooms. The rooms are minimal and simple but comfortable. Please bring linens, pillow cases, and towels.  Room rates include four breakfasts and full kitchen access for you to prepare other meals. Two health food stores and a full grocery store are nearby.

We establish an atmosphere that respects one another’s need for privacy and retreat as well as for community.

Woodstock is easily accessible from Albany Airport (one hour north) or Newburgh International (one hour south).   You also may find lodging at the nearby Pike Lane B&B, the Pine Crest Lodge, and the Woodstock Inn.  Let us know if we can help you with shuttle information as well.

Participants are encouraged to read Jeff’s The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies & Practices as Muse for Authentic Writing (Penguin 2004; paperback ed. 2005). Upon registration, participants will receive a confirmation letter with directions, suggested readings, a list of suggested items to bring, and information related to the area.
 

A nationally renowned workshop leader and author of The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices as Muse for Authentic Writing (Penguin 2004), Jeff is founding editor of WonderWritings: an e-zine of simple awe and managing editor for Wildlife Watch Binocular.  His essays, articles, short stories, and poems have appeared in publications around the country and in London including The Comstock Review, Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics, and in Wisdom Publication's You Are Not Here and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction (June 2006). He teaches writing at Marist College and teaches workshops at The Taos Summer Writers Conference, The Writers Lab in Skyros, Greece, the Block Island Poetry Project, and The University of Southern Maine-Stonecoast's MFA Program. 

Certified in two traditions of yoga, he also has studied in-depth yoga philosophy, therapeutics, and meditation with Sri TKV Desikchar in Chennai, South India. He is senior yoga teacher at Bliss Yoga Center in Woodstock and Stone Ridge, New York.
 
  

RESERVATIONS
The limited spaces will fill up soon. 
BY MAIL
1. Call or email to express your room preferences and to verify room availability.
2. Once verified, print and fill out the registration form. 
3. Send the form with a check for the appropriate amount made payable to Center to Page, LLC at 156 Upper Whitfield Rd, Accord, NY 12404.

BY TELEPHONE
1. Call 845.679.9441 to express your room preferences and to verify room availability.
2. Once verified, send a check for the appropriate amount made payable to Center to Page, LLC at 156 Upper Whitfield Rd, Accord, NY 12404 or use the PayPal system below. 
Sorry, we cannot take credit card registration over the telephone. 

ONLINE (credit card or check)
1.Email to express your room preferences and to verify room availability. 
2. Once verified, email us your full name, mailing address, and telephone number.
3. Use the PayPal system below.
NOTE: Please be sure to add 3% to your PayPal payment. Thanks.

NOTE: Please be sure to add 3% to your PayPal payment. Thanks.

DISCOUNTS

Students 60 or older, full-time students, and returning writers receive a 10% discount.

Sign up for any three series and receive an additional 10% discount.

REGISTRATION
The limited spaces will fill up soon.

BY MAIL
Please fill out the registration form, and send a check for the appropriate amount made payable to Jeff Davis at P.O. Box 601, Bearsville, NY 12409.

ONLINE (credit card or check)
Please fill out the registration form, and use the PayPal system below.
NOTE: Please be sure to add 3% to your PayPal payment. Thanks.

Tuition: $425 if paid before August 15/$475 afterward

Tuition for Friday-Sunday only: $300 if paid before August 15/$250 if paid before

NOTE: Please be sure to add 3% to your PayPal payment. Thanks.

MOVING WRITERS FROM THE CENTER TO THE PAGE
Woodstock, New York