As any writer will tell you, time is one of the most precious commodities for their craft. Come this summer, Abigail McGrath will have been providing writers with this gift for 25 years during her writing retreats at the Renaissance House in Oak Bluffs. These week-long summer programs offer writers with the brightest potential an inspiring, safe environment to create substantive work. It is one of the few retreats explicitly designed for issue-oriented writers, writers of color, and writers of social justice.
McGrath, an author, playwright, and filmmaker, founded the Renaissance House in 2000: “I was raised by my mother, Helene Johnson, the Harlem Renaissance poet, and Dorothy West, the Harlem Renaissance novelist. They were cousins born within the same year, and died a few years apart.” Thinking about how to celebrate their lives, McGrath first considered offering a scholarship to women whose lives closely paralleled theirs. “But there already were such scholarships. Then I remembered how difficult it was for them to find time to write. Both of them had to have pedantic, time-consuming jobs just to survive; time to write became more and more of a luxury. So I created the Renaissance House as a tribute to them both.”
The retreat is for writers of all genres — fiction, nonfiction, poetry, memoir, journalism, comic books, screen and stage plays, documentaries — in essence, anything to do with words: “The people I seek are not writing about love and flowers. They are writing on social issues and come from a hard lot.”
McGrath encourages both emerging and established writers to apply, whether domestic workers writing in their spare time after their children go to bed, or Ph.D. candidates working on their thesis. “Our unique selling point is that we mix the two together, so each learns from the other. It’s wonderful to see people who didn’t graduate from high school hanging out with people who are getting their second Ph.D. — since they all love the word.”
A panel of readers selects candidates. Asked about the criteria, McGrath explains, “They must be a really good writer. When I say a good writer, I mean good ideas mixed with creative words. They don’t have to be good spellers, and can make grammatical errors, but their thoughts and words must be above average. And their thoughts have to be outside of the mainstream.”
McGrath will run six one-week retreats in July and August this summer. The weeks tend to run on a similar rhythm. People arrive in the morning for a light breakfast and coffee. Then there are morning and afternoon classes: “I have the cream of the crop in terms of teachers on the Island.”
Lynn Ditchfield gets the pen rolling with the morning class. “It’s three hours of writing all in one room,” McGrath explains. “There’s scientific evidence about the power of everyone doing that together. It’s like tennis. When you play with someone better than you are, it ups your game.”
Susan Klein runs the afternoon session on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, working with each group member individually on their writing project and goals. On Monday, Klein reads the writers’ pieces. They have Tuesday to fix them, and then she looks at them again on Wednesday, making additional comments. Participants have Thursday for another round of edits, and on Friday, Klein provides her final feedback.
Nancy Aronie and Jessica Harris teach alternate days on Tuesday and Thursday. Both often give out prompts that everyone writes to within a set amount of time. Then each person reads and receives feedback.
McGrath is intent on creating a nurturing environment: “It’s a safe place to make a mistake without being judged.” Most importantly, she hopes that participants leave with clarity about their writing.
The Island is richer for the Renaissance House, which has been helping writers realize their potential for a quarter of a century, inspired by their colleagues’ creativity, superb mentoring, and the Island’s natural beauty.
The Renaissance House will accept applications for July and August retreats on a rolling basis, starting in January. For more information, visit renaissance-house-harlem.com/apply.
