The Lake Eden
Writing Week
May 19-24, 2024
near Black Mountain, NC
Welcome to The Lake Eden Writing Week
Facilitated by Nickole Brown, Allan Wolf, and James Navé
Join writing teachers Nickole Brown, Allan Wolf, and James Navé at The Lake Eden Writing Week, May 19-24, 2024. Immerse yourself in the tranquil springtime landscapes of Lake Eden, nestled near Black Mountain, North Carolina, on the former campus of Black Mountain College. These inspiring surroundings will be your backdrop as you explore the intricacies of your writing and the artistic opportunities your creative writing journey offers.
Our Guest Speakers
Our guest speakers include Mildred Kinconco Barya, Sebastian Matthews, Kelly Hanson, Eliza Santiago, and Walter Parks
Our theme is Time
Stroll around the grounds. Music credit: Walter Parks
Sunday-Friday, May 19-24, 2024
Our location is on The Lake Eden Retreat Property
377 Lake Eden Road Black Mountain NC.
Click HERE for Google Directions
Enrollment is limited to 12 participants.
ensuring an intimate and focused workshop.
Tuition is $2,495, Includes all workshops, activities, lodging, and meals.
The Lake Eden Week is the site of The LEAF Festival and the former campus of Black Mountain College.
Writing in The Barn built by Black Mountain College students
Explore the intricacies of your writing process within a structured yet flexible environment where you’ll experience workshops that are rigorous, dynamic, insightful, and fun. You’ll have endless opportunities to participate, influence, and improvise.
A robust tapestry for Your Writing
The Lake Eden Writing Week is thoughtfully structured to provide a well-rounded creative writing experience. Every session, every interaction, and every moment will be an opportunity for you to grow as a writer. You'll immerse yourself in your writing, surrounded by nature, guided by experts, and inspired by peers.
The Lake Eden Writing Week
Sunday-Friday - May 19-24, 2024
Lake Eden Writing Week’s Lodging
Nestled in the southern highlands, the Lake Eden Writing Week offers an array of charming and unique accommodations, each within a leisurely five-minute stroll from Mountain Stream Lodge. You’ll have your own room unless you want to share. Here are a few lodging photos that will give you an idea of how pleasant it is to spend time there.
our daily schedule
-
3:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Arrival
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM: Dinner and Introductions -
7:30 AM - 9:00 AM: Breakfast
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM: Imaginative Writing with James Navé
10:45 AM - 12:15 PM: Generative Writing with Allan Wolf
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM: Lunch. 1:15 PM - 4:00 PM: Free Time & Optional Activities
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Craft and Form with Nickole Brown
6:00 PM - 7:15 PM: Dinner 7:15 PM - 8:30 PM: Publishing Your Work: Conversation Salon -
7:30 AM - 9:00 AM: Breakfast
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM: Imaginative Writing with James Navé
10:45 AM - 12:15 PM: Generative Writing with Allan Wolf
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM: Lunch
1:15 PM - 4:00 PM: Free Time & Optional Activities
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Craft and Form with Nickole Brown
6:00 PM - 7:15 PM: Dinner
7:15 PM - 8:30 PM: Travelogue with Sebastian Matthews -
7:30 AM - 9:00 AM: Breakfast
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM: Imaginative Writing with James Navé
10:45 AM - 12:15 PM: Generative Writing with Allan Wolf
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM: Lunch
1:15 PM - 4:00 PM: Free Time & Optional Activities
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Craft and Form with Nickole Brown
6:00 PM - 7:15 PM: Dinner
7:15-9:00 Evening: The Art of the Spoken Word -
7:30 AM - 9:00 AM: Breakfast
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM: Imaginative Writing with James Navé
10:45 AM - 12:15 PM: Generative Writing with Allan Wolf
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM: Lunch1:15 PM - 4:00 PM: Free Time & Optional Activities4:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Craft and Form with Nickole Brown. 6:00 PM - 7:15: Dinner. 7:15-9:00 PM: Open Mic -
7:30 AM - 9:00 AM: Breakfast. 9:00 AM - 11:30 AM: Closing Session
You’ll dedicate your mornings to generative writing sessions, sharpening your skills, and unlocking new ideas.
After a long lunch, you’ll return for a light-hearted yet rigorous afternoon exploration of more writing, along with guest speakers.
Evenings will offer you a tranquil space for reflection, writing, and connecting against the backdrop of Lake Eden's idyllic setting, plus spontaneous salon conversations that will naturally happen.
Your Facilitators
Nickole Brown, Allan Wolf, and James Navé
Nickole Brown, Allan Wolf, and James Navé look forward to guiding you through the week, filled with insights and tools that may prove indispensable in your writing endeavors. We have guest speakers too!
Nickole Brown
“To Sound a Language that Calls All Language Home.”
With her well-known novel-in-poems Sister and the Weatherford-Award-winning biography-in-poems Fanny Says, Brown brings a unique cross-genre bent to the retreat. She has an eye for rigor and craft, and her approach to teaching is a practical mix of lessons on syntax, line breaks, and tone.
Currently, she teaches every summer at the Sewanee School of Letters MFA Program and lives in nearby Asheville, where she volunteers at several different animal sanctuaries. Since 2016, she’s been writing about these animals. To Those Who Were Our First Gods, a chapbook of these first nine poems, won the 2018 Rattle Prize, and her essay-in-poems, The Donkey Elegies, was published by Sibling Rivalry Press in 2020. In 2021, She’s also the President of the Hellbender Gathering of Poets, an annual environmental literary festival set to launch in Black Mountain, NC, in October of 2025.
Click HERE to read Nickole’s full bio.
Titles by Nickole Brown
Allan Wolf
"The ART of poetry can be taught; the HEART of poetry must be experienced."
A master presenter and versatile author of over 20 books, Allan writes picture books, poetry collections, and young adult verse novels that celebrate his love of research, history, science, and poetry. He is a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, two-time North Carolina Young Adult Book Award winner, and recipient of New York’s Bank Street College Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry. Booklist placed Allan’s The Watch That Ends the Night on its list of the 50 Best YA Books of All Time. Allan believes in the healing powers of poetry writing and recitation and has committed to memory nearly a thousand poems. He coined the term “Narrative Pointillism” to describe his use of multiple narrators and points of view in his verse novels.
Click HERE to read Allan’s full bio.
Titles by Allan Wolf
James Navé
“Poetry starts with your imaginative impulses.”
James Navé is a poet, producer, storyteller, teacher, and manuscript coach. Navé received his MFA in Writing from Vermont College. Navé has cultivated a unique storytelling style that has enchanted audiences across the globe. His latest work, "100 Days: A Poetic Memoir After Cancer," was published by 3: A Taos Press in May 2023. He has memorized over 600 poems.
Click HERE to read Navé’s full bio.
Titles by James Navé
Special Guests
Mildred Kinconc0 Barya
“The path goes on, the baobab grows.
I cannot tell where all the branches will wind up.”
Mildred Kinconco Barya is a North Carolina-based writer and poet of East African descent. She teaches and lectures globally and is the author of four full-length poetry collections, most recently The Animals of My Earth School, published by Terrapin Books in 2023. Her prose, hybrids, and poems have appeared in New England Review, Forge, Shenandoah, The Cincinnati Review, Tin House, and elsewhere.
She’s now working on a collection of creative nonfiction, and her essay, “Being Here in This Body”, won the 2020 Linda Flowers Literary Award and was published in the North Carolina Literary Review. She serves on the boards of the African Writers Trust and Story Parlor and coordinates the Poetrio Reading events at Malaprop’s Independent Bookstore/Café. She blogs here: www.mildredbarya.com
Titles by Mildred Kinconco Barya
Kelly Hanson - SOULCOLLAGE®
“The transformative power of art taps into your soul’s creativity.”
Kelly Hanson's artistic journey began at a young age when she discovered her innate talent in ballet and modern dance. By 13, she had joined a professional dance company, a formative step in her artistic career. During high school, an art teacher spotted her potential and steered her toward diverse artistic mediums. This guidance led to her first professional project at 17, where she designed hand-painted logos for a private airport.
Kelly has succeeded in various roles, including artist, educator, teaching artist, and promoter/producer. She notably served as the Artist/Vendor Director for the Black Mountain Music Festival and the Lake Eden Arts Festival, now Leaf Global Arts, and founded an art-based after-school program at The New Classical Academy in Asheville, NC.
Kelly's workshop, "Exploring Inner Realms through SoulCollage® and Imagination," offers an engaging opportunity to explore your imagination and enhance your writing. Activities include guided visualizations, creative writing, and the creation of SoulCollage® cards. SoulCollage® invites writers to discover their inner strength, engage with a community of like-minded individuals, and embrace a more profound comprehension of diverse narratives in a setting that supports personal and collective growth.
Sebastian Matthews - Travelogue
“I am interested in the first person “I” as it moves through the world.”
Sebastian Matthews received his MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan. He taught for over a decade at Warren Wilson College in their undergraduate writing program. His poetry and prose have appeared in or on, among others, American Poetry Review, The Atlantic, Blackbird, The Common, From the Fishouse, Georgia Review, Massachusetts Review, New England Review, Poets & Writers, storySouth, The Sun, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review, Writer’s Almanac, and Writer’s Chronicle.
Click HERE to read Sebastian’s full bio.
Titles by Sebastian Matthews
Eliza Santiago-Social Media
“A well-balanced pen, beautiful ink, and smooth paper can calm the mind.”
In the digital era, writing transcends traditional pages. Your narrative finds life through various mediums – from blogs and websites to social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, crafted through tools like Canva. Begin with something as simple as a Substack newsletter, and who knows? You might soon catch the eye of major publishers. The digital landscape is vast and can be daunting; that's why Eliza Santiago has agreed to join us in May.
Eilza is a multifaceted digital content and marketing communications expert based in Tronto, working on her post-graduate degree in social media marketing. Eliza excels in merging her extensive knowledge with the latest digital technology and communication trends, ensuring her work is always relevant and impactful.
Walter Parks
I had a surprise during my recent trip to Saint Louis to visit my friend, singer-songwriter Walter Parks. To my delight, Walter proposed an exciting idea: a bespoke house concert during The Lake Eden Writing Week route to his Florida tour! I’m thrilled to host Walter during The Writing Week, May 19-25, 2024. Walter’s intimate house concert will be on Wednesday, May 22, at 7 pm. Having collaborated with Walter over the years, I can vouch for the mesmerizing experience his music brings. In this unique performance, Walter will breathe new life into southern spirituals, share his captivating original songs, and revisit classics from his decade-long collaboration with Richie Havens. Expect an evening rich with stories showcasing Walter’s deep cultural insight and grasp of American musical traditions. For those not attending the full Writing Week but eager to join us for the house concert, please reach out to me at nave@JamesNave.com for an invitation. Note that space is limited for this donation-based event. Get a taste of Walter’s artistry with “The Coming Home Holler”.