Browse our event library
Retreat & Repeat
Our half-day seasonal retreats aim to be useful, rejuvenating, and supportive for writers of all experience levels and genres. The morning includes a craft-centered speaker, writing time, and lunch.
Spring Retreat 2026
Spring Retreat 2026
Jill Orr: It’s kind of a funny story…
How a bit of humor can improve almost any piece of writing & reliable techniques that you can use to add a touch of levity to your own work.
A fun little bonus: the first 15 to register get a free copy of Jill’s Book, HOW NOT TO BE OLD (EVEN IF YOU ARE).
Tickets are $65 and include lunch.
Winter Retreat 2026
Join us for the first retreat of 2026! The morning retreat looks like this: we'll have two writing talks, we'll write a little, and then we'll lunch. Our speaker is T’Keyah Thomas, a spoken word poet and jewelry designer based in Columbia, MO. She is a lover of all things art, Black History and Afrofuturism. As always, the focus of this half-day retreat aims to be useful, rejuvenating, and supportive for writers of all experience levels and genres. We hope to see you soon for some writing time with supportive women writers in Rocheport, Missouri.
More about our speaker, T’Keyah Thomas
Ancestral reverence sits at the center of much of T’Keyah’s work. She draws inspiration from the history and folklore found throughout the Black diaspora, often adopting the West African philosophy of Sankofa, which means to “go back and get it”. In other words, learn from the past to understand the present and better prepare for the future.
Over the years, TK has been a witness to and has assisted in the creation and operations of several local arts programs and cultural events in Columbia, including the OneMic Poetry Collective, Unbound Book Festival, Louder than a Bomb (Mid-MO chapter) and Soul Sessions COMO. As a host and audio producer for KBIA, you’re likely to catch TK on-air during the day with a Dilla beat behind her, or moderating a panel on art and local history.
Autumn Retreat II 2025
Our final retreat of 2025 is happening Saturday, November 8, at Mt. Nebo Inn in the charming river town of Rocheport. 🍂
We’re mixing things up a bit this time. Instead of a single speaker, we’re inviting you to read something—only if you’d like to—published or unpublished. We’ll try to keep readings around 3-5 minutes or less. This will be casual; you can decide that morning if you’d like to read or if you’d just like to listen.
As always, this is a great opportunity to gather in community and meet other writers, celebrate our craft with writing time and prompts, and share a delightful meal together.
If you’ve been curious about these retreats or searching for community in writing, this is the perfect time to see what Missouri Women Who Write is all about. We hope to see you in November!
Autumn Retreat 2025
We’re thrilled to announce our autumn workshop, happening September 13 at Serendipity Gallery in Columbia, Mo. This is where we held our first workshop in February, and we’re excited to be back! Writer-producer Janet Lewis Saidi will lead us in conversation about Substack, and how she used it to write about her obsession with Jane Austen in The Austen Connection.
We are excited to be a part of the 250th celebration of an iconic female writer and to gather in person to write and learn together as a way of continuing Jane Austen’s legacy, all the while crafting our own. Hope to see you in September!
More about our speaker: Janet Lewis Saidi
We are so glad to welcome writer-producer Janet Lewis Saidi (AKA Plain Jane), author of the forthcoming book Pocket Portraits: Jane Austen, out September 30 from Simon & Schuster. During this workshop, we’ll hear how Janet used Substack to write about her obsession with Jane Austen, and how that’s changed her life. We hope it might change your life, too. If you’re here on this platform, and you’re also into Jane Austen, you may have already heard of Janet’s Substack newsletter and podcast The Austen Connection (yep, that’s the obsession turned newsletter turned book!) And, in 2025 Austen fans worldwide are celebrating her 250th year in lots of ways, including a read along of all her works, which Janet is chronicling each week here on Substack.
Summer Retreat 2025
We’re skipping spring and heading straight for summer. Our next retreat will be June 21st at Mt. Nebo Inn in Rocheport, Mo. If you joined us last time, you can expect a similar format with the addition of writing prompts and outdoor writing space. For those of us whose writing is invigorated by a breath of fresh air, this is newsworthy. We’ll conclude with a lunch of wood-fired pizzas and salad, thanks to Mt. Nebo Inn.
Our Speaker + Topic
The topic: food writing! We are really delighted to welcome Nina Mukerjee Furstenau, award winning journalist and author, to talk about using food as a lens in storytelling. At the retreat, you’ll learn how to incorporate this magic into your own work, no matter the genre.
More about our speaker: Nina Mukerjee Furstenau
Nina Mukerjee Furstenau is a journalist and author of six non fiction books. She was a Fulbright Global research scholar (2018-19), is on the board of directors for Media for Change, has won the MFK Fisher Book Award and the Grand Prize Award for Culture/Culinary Writing from Les Dames d'Escoffier International, a Kansas Notable Book award, and more. In 2023, she was awarded the Les Dames d'Escoffier International Woman of Purpose Award, one of the organization's highest honors which recognizes work in the complex realms of local/global sustainability, food justice, and public health. Nina continues to work towards re-framing how we think about food for the betterment of all.
Winter Retreat 2025
Our first retreat is coming soon: February 22, 2025 in Columbia Missouri. We’re thrilled to have Tina Casagrand Foss, founder and publisher of The New Territory magazine, talk PLACEWRITING. We will have a morning refreshments, writing talks and writing time, then we’ll lunch.
More about our speaker: Tina Casagrand Foss
Tina Casagrand Foss is the founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of The New Territory. Raised in the Gasconade River Valley of the northern Ozark border, her love for mossy woods knows no bounds. She graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in magazine journalism and anthropology and worked as a freelance environmental journalist before starting The New Territory. As executive director of The New Territory Magazine nonprofit, she looks forward to a long future of reaching more readers, fostering Midwestern writers and editors, and nurturing connections among New Territory readers both on and off the page. In the summers, she teaches classes in Missouri ecology, nature writing and print media at the Missouri Scholars Academy. Tina is also the host of River Town, a podcast about the Missouri River and how it shapes the people and places it flows through. She lives in Jefferson City, Missouri, with her husband, stepdaughters and giant dog.
