The Chesapeake Bay Writing Retreat, led by Elizabeth Ayres and Tom Horton, is a spectacular way to combine a writing vacation with a series of writing workshops that should give you a year's worth of inspiration!

"Too often we forget humans can be part of Nature's song, can dance with the music as well as drown it out. I believe, as Lawrence Durrell once wrote of France, that if you were to wipe it bare of life and start over again, in due course, Nature there would give you, once again, essential Frenchmen, surely as she would a good Bordeaux. Just so Smith Island, where the spirits of place are strong indeed...." (from Island Out of Time by Tom Horton)

Long visited by Native Americans, Smith Island was mapped by Captain John Smith in 1608. Today, the island is three tiny villages atop two dollops of land surrounded by 10,000 acres of marshes and tidal flats flung into the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Smith Island inhabitants include herons, pelicans, bald eagles, swans and about 200 human beings living a 3 centuries-old lifestyle devoted to harvesting the Bay's crop of seafood, mostly blue crabs. Tylerton, where workshop participants will stay, is the most remote of the villages. It has quiet lanes, bicycles and golf carts, but no cars, no noise and no rushing around. Tylerton is a tight-knit community where people live in harmony with nature and with each other. Time slows down here, or maybe it speeds up, or maybe it just plain ceases to exist at all!

"Half a minute's walk either way along my street, or most any other in Tylerton, smallest of Smith Island's three villages, would land you in the water. This was less confining than you might think. The sun and moon rose at one end of my humble street and set at the other; and from where the pavement stopped the view stretched unimpeded, westward toward the mouth of the Potomac River; eastward across Tangier Sound and the vast prairies of salt marsh along Maryland's Eastern Shore. From my front door I could skip an oyster shell into the true Main Street of Tylerton, the channel of Tyler's Creek. Everything entered and departed town this way: the ferry, the preacher making his Sunday rounds by skiff; crabs migrating, stingrays spawning; also sea ducks, black skimmers, diamondback terrapins, and the occasional shark....." from Island Out of Time by Tom Horton

What better way to replenish and renew your creative wellsprings than to escape to the island time has forgotten? Freed from the burdens and distractions of everyday living, you'll have a chance to harvest your own rich crop of words. Use your pen instead of a camera to capture the unique flavor of this inspiring, other-worldly place: its flora, its fauna, its people.

"Like the reverse of last autumn's falling leaves, blue crabs by the millions are skirling up from their winter burial in the muddy bottoms, fusiform bodies in the sunny shallows glinting olive and ivory, tinged with crimson and cerulean. . . it is called in these parts simply "the run," or "the rush," and a heady experience it is, welcome to the winter-weary island residents as a draught of cool springwater to a wanderer in the desert."  (from Island Out of Time by Tom Horton)

Your creative writing getaway begins Friday evening at 5 o’clock sharp, when you park your car in Crisfield on Maryland’s famous Eastern Shore (3-1/2 hours south of the Baltimore-Washington Int'l Airport). You'll hop aboard the Cap’t Jason II for a 50 minute boat trip across 10 miles of the Chesapeake Bay where seagulls and herons will trumpet your arrival on the Tylerton dock and writing workshop leaders Tom Horton and Elizabeth Ayres will meet you. Your bungalow is a two-minute walk from the pier!

As soon as you set your bags down, you’ll have an orientation meeting with Tom and Elizabeth. After a home-cooked seafood dinner, you’ll tour Tylerton, gathering first impressions, getting the lay of the land – the ISland, that is!

Saturday, Sunday and Monday you’ll slip into a delightful rhythm of writing workshop conferences (two a day), quiet time for your own creative work, homecooked meals and field trips. Excursions will include:

• a trip to the Visitor’s Center, to get a bit of island history;
• several boat tours through the marsh to get an up-close view of the stunning assortment of birdlife;
• a chance to observe real watermen at work netting, potting, scraping and trapping “beautiful swimmers” (Blue Crabs);
• a visit to the Women's Crab-picking Cooperative where, instead of whistling while they work, the ladies sing hymns to while the hours away;
• interviews with residents, who’ll answer all your questions about their “out of this world” life.

In your conferences, Tom and Elizabeth will give you all the tips, tricks and writing techniques you’ll need to transform your island experience into words. Plus, you’ll have a chance to share your writing and be inspired by that of your peers.

We like to think your Smith Island writing adventure will never end, reflection will just make it richer and deeper, but the weekend will officially close on Monday when you catch the 3:30 ferry back to the mainland.

Your Workshop Leaders

Tom Horton is an award winning journalist and author. He covered the environment for the Baltimore Sun for 32 years. He has written seven books, including Bay Country, winner of the 1988 John Burroughs Award for the year's best book of nature writing; also Island Out of Time, a chronicle of the three years his family spent on Smith Island, in mid-Chesapeake Bay. Currently freelancing for a living, Horton has written for National Geographic, Rolling Stone, the New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian and numerous other publications. He is a native of Maryland's Eastern Shore, an avid sea kayaker and road biker. He recently completed a 540 mile circumnavigation of the Delmarva Peninsula by kayak. He divides his time between Baltimore and the Eastern Shore, including Smith Island.

"A marsh-clad island is a place alive. It ripples sleekly beneath the wind's stroking, altering mood and texture with every caress and pummel. Its salty sameness stretches a perfect artist's linen beneath the sky, a playground for the romp of light, and exquisitely responsive to every shift of sun and season and weather. A thousand channels and cricks and guts rive the marsh, and through them the Chesapeake perfuses Smith Island like some great amorphous jellyfish...." (from Island Out of Time by Tom Horton)

Elizabeth Ayres is a poet and essayist currently working on her third book, American Dreamscape: Reflections from Chesapeake Bay Country. She also has a well-deserved international reputation for teaching creative writing. Hailed by New York magazine and the Village Voice for her innovative methods, she is the author of two books (Writing the Wave: Inspired Rides for Aspiring Writers and Know the Way) and two Sounds True audio albums (the Ultimate Creative Writing Workshop and Creative Writing for Beginners). Ayres has been empowering writers to do their best work for over 30 years, and is the founder of the Center for Creative Writing, which now offers online workshops to a global community of aspiring writers. After a lifetime in Manhattan, Elizabeth has returned to Bay country to live in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, where she grew up. She writes for several area newspapers.

"These boards. Grayed from wind and water. Green-stained from moss and algae. White-streaked from bird droppings. Time-buffed to a rich patina. My bare feet want to linger here, flesh warmed by the sun-drenched wood, but memory scampers off to the sunshine of a distant day. When I watched my father build this pier plank by raw pine plank. Sweat glistened on his face. I sat on a freshly-split log stair, clutching a glass bottle of orange soda pop. Each of my endless questions received the same smothered response, for my father’s mouth was filled with nails, but one question – What makes waves? – I can answer for myself today...." (from "The Pier" in American Dreamscape, a work-in-progress by Elizabeth Ayres)

The Nitty-Gritty Details

The Chesapeake Bay Writing Retreat is limited to 6 participants.

Please consult schedules for the next available date.

The cost is $975.00. That includes:

• a private room (bath shared with one other person) in an air conditioned bungalow with a full kitchen, living and dining rooms (but no television, thank goodness, and a shared landline phone – cell phone service is spotty on the island);

• 3 home cooked dinners enjoyed waterside en famille (one of those dinners is sure to be a steamed crab feast savored on the dock!);

• 3 home cooked lunches at Tylerton’s charming Drum Point Market;

• 3 self-cooked breakfasts (cereal, muffins, eggs, etc. provided);

• a fridge and cabinets stocked with snacks and non-alcoholic beverages;

• fully-paid round-trip ferry fare and mainland parking;

• 6 workshop conferences;

• all the excursions listed above and a few we’re leaving as a surprise!

If you have any special dietary needs, those can be accommodated – just let us know ahead of time.

Once you sign up, you’ll receive a detailed fact sheet telling you how to get there, what to bring, and how to prepare for the adventure.

You may reserve a place for yourself with a deposit of one half ($487.50). This deposit is NON-REFUNDABLE (unless the workshop is canceled). The balance is due 30 days after the deposit is received.

You may pay by check or by credit card.

If you have any questions or want to register, contact Elizabeth Ayres or call 1-800-510-1049.