Accommodations: the Lark and Laurel
A gorgeous old house and beautiful yard, with rooms furnished, decorated and cared for in B&B style. Our group will have the top two floors, with access to the yard with its many nooks and benches. The house was built around an original hand-hewn log cabin, which is now a living area open to our group.
The price includes seven nights, October 15–22. Arrive in time for dinner on the 15th. Sessions run the 16th through the 21st. Check out on the 22nd.
See the Lark and Laurel web site to get a feel for the place. (You’ll make your room choice when you register for the week.)
Our gathering place: the Franklin Street House
The owners of the Lark and Laurel, Laurie and Ross, live in a house just three blocks down the street from the Lark and Laurel. Full disclosure: Ross is my brother, Laurie is his wife, and we’ve done this kind of thing together a lot of times over a lot of years. They will graciously help host our comfort and belonging through the week, which includes using their kitchen and living areas for our meals and group gatherings. You’ll like the place. It’s sweet.
The place
Click photos to enlarge
Schedule
Meals
We’ll poll you about dietary restrictions and preferences before you arrive, and plan menus accordingly. Most meals will be in our Franklin Street House, where you’ll be in the hands of two skilled cooks providing great healthy flavors. There will be time to enjoy a well-crafted cocktail at the end of the day, with gratifying non-alcoholic options. Two nights during the week we’ll go out to local spots, including a closing dinner at the historic Grand Union Hotel’s fine restaurant.
Morning check-in
We’ll talk together for a few minutes after breakfast for logistics, encouragement, and at least one poem.
Work time: create on your own, we’re in it together
This is your time. As all creators know, what we call “work time” also includes not-working. No one here is expecting anything from you. There are no mandatory prompts, no daily word counts. (But if those things would be helpful, we can cook them up together and make pinky-swears.) From my view as host, this is time to help you be able to focus. That’s different for different people. Some need the same chair in the same quiet spot every day. Some do better when there are others in the room, doing their own thing. The main thing is to have consistent blocks of hours for you to work in your own way, held in a container of shop-talking, understanding fellow travelers.
This will be a diverse and interesting group. I’ll be surprised if there isn’t a lot of spontaneous collaboration.
Reading / Review Sessions
Those who have participated in a good creative workshop know the value of hearing how others experience your work. We’ll build our structure and agreements for these sessions together, to suit our group. My starting point is informed by Peter Elbow and Alan Ziegler, and my own experience in Kenyon workshops and readings. We’ll adapt the format so “reading” can also mean watching video together, listening to audio, or looking at storyboards. We will invest in one another’s progress, learn from one another, and operate in a spirit of consent, honesty, and kindness. It’s gonna be great.
Group sessions
For two hours or so, three times during the week, you’re invited to work together with new ideas, play with creative prompts, and talk about our craft.
Outings
Creators Week takes place in a remarkable landscape, in a gorgeous time of year. We’ll have three scheduled outings (though others may happen spontaneously). Each will carry us into a different aspect of this land shaped by ancient volcanos, drastic erosion, glacial forces that dammed the Missouri River to form inland seas and fierce catastrophic flows. How long to walk, how steep—that will be your choice.
The town of Fort Benton offers great walks along the river, including trails that extend up and downstream beside the Missouri River. If the skies are clear, we can arrange to get up out of the river bottom to bask under the Milky Way. All of Chouteau County is basically what folks call a “dark skies park.”
A note about accessibility
The Lark and Laurel and the Franklin Street House both have entrance steps and upstairs bedrooms, so neither is wheelchair accessible. If you have needs we should know about, send a note and let’s talk through what’s possible.