Riversong Retreat: Find Your Creative Flow

Rivers rush, rewind, and retreat. They flow, eddy, and meander as flood or as trickle. They offer sanctuary for spawning salmon, solace and inspiration for the human beings who attune their ears to riversong.

Inspired by the Petaluma River in Northern California, this intimate gathering, hosted by Birth Your Truest Story community co-creators Jennifer Browdy and Audrey Kalman, will offer space and time to focus on your creativity.

The retreat is suitable for all kinds of writers--memoir, fiction, nonfiction, poetry--of all experience levels.

We'll write, share, grab lunch at a neighborhood cafe, and amble to the river for inspiration.

(details subject to change)

10-10:30am - Welcome and introductions
10:30am-12:30pm - Craft topic and prompt-based writing
12:30-1 - Sharing and discussion
1-2 - Lunch (Aqus Cafe)
2-3:30 - River Ramble and Writing by the River
3:30-4:30 - Return, reflection, wrap up
6 - Optional post-retreat gathering and dinner (local restaurant)

• Trace your inspiration back to its source.
• Follow the twists and turns of your creative flow state.
• Learn to ride the rapids of your creative life and float gently through the quiet stretches.
• Write together and share your work.
• Savor the group energy of our Birth Your Truest Story creative community.

writes literary fiction with a dark edge about what goes awry when human connection is missing from our lives. She is the author of three novels— (2021), (2017) and (2011)—and a book of short stories, (2018), which was shortlisted for the 2019 International Rubery Book Award.

Audrey has been a writer all her life. She holds a B.A. in creative writing from Simon’s Rock College of Bard and an M.A. in magazine journalism from Syracuse University. She was a 2020 Shuffle Collective literary resident and past president of the SF Peninsula Branch of the California Writers Club and served as editor of three editions of Fault Zone, the branch anthology. She previously worked as a birth doula with Peninsula Birth Companions. She now teaches and offers editing and coaching services for both fiction and non-fiction. She lives in northern California and is at work on another novel.

, Ph.D. is a professor of literature, writing and media arts at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and the online global Bard Open Society University Network, with a special focus on purposeful memoir and media arts for social and environmental justice.

Her latest book, Purposeful Memoir as a Quest for a Thriving Future, was a 2022 Nautilus Gold Award winner and a 2022 Gold Award winner in the Independent Press Awards. Her writer’s guide, The Elemental Journey of Purposeful Memoir, won a 2017 Nautilus Silver Award. Her memoir, What I Forgot …And Why I Remembered, was a finalist for the 2018 International Book Awards.

Jennifer has presented at numerous conferences, and has written for Yes! Magazine, Kosmos Journal, Deep Times Journal and many academic journals and volumes. She offers author coaching and manuscript review, and is the publisher of Green Fire Press.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Metro Hotel & Cafe, 508 Petaluma Boulevard South, Petaluma, United States