THE MOTHERLODE RETREAT: MASTERING THE ART OF WRITING ABOUT OUR MOTHERS

(MENTION ML2026 IN YOUR BOOKING FORM, THROUGH MARCH 25th, AND RECEIVE $100 DOLLARS OFF THE TOTAL PRICE)

What is the Motherlode? Is it the gift of love, creativity, compassion and strength we've received from our mothers that we carry through our lives? Or is the Motherlode more of a Motherload; a weight or sadness or dysfunction passed down to us through the motherline from our mothers who could not, for whatever reason, properly mother us? 

At The Motherlode Retreat we'll explore these questions as we gather in community to unpack our understanding of the Motherlode/Motherload so that we can better write about our complex relationships with our mothers. No matter where you are in your writing journey, and whether you are writing non-fiction, fiction, poetry, plays, screenplays, or songs, please join us for this five-day writing retreat where via safe facilitated sessions we'll learn to strengthen the writing skills we need to bring our Motherlode material to the page. 

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At the Motherlode Retreat we explore myriad themes and topics such as: 

• The Mother wound--what is it, how does it manifest for each of us, and how do we write about it? 

• What are the treasures we’ve received and what pains do we carry from our mothers?

• How do unhelpful and unbalanced narratives from our mothers haunt us and how do we move past them in our writing? What do we need to use, transform, or move past, in order to write what we want to write?

• How has our own Motherload/Motherlode story shaped our own relationships with parenting?

• How can we bring our mothers to life on the page, when we remain emotionally connected and perhaps even activated by them?

• How can we move from the Motherload to the Motherlode?

The retreat will offer a mix of:

• Facilitated instruction, where we will look at:

  • Techniques successful writers have used to bring their mother stories to the page, and how we can apply these to our own writing 

  • Techniques for creating enough space between our child wounds and our adult self to write about the Motherload “from the ceiling.”

• Generative writing designed to push us deeper into writing truthfully and honestly about our own Motherlode/Motherload.

• Craft instruction to help us to see and create our mothers as three-dimensional people, using basic character development craft work. 

• Plenty of time for you to work on your own writing-in-progress as well as opportunities to create new work.

• Informal discussions after dinner on publishing, research, and other topics that arise during the week.

Sample Schedule

8:30               Breakfast 

9:00               Motherlode discussions

11:00-12:00    Individual writing time/Free time

12:00              Lunch

1:00- 4:00     Individual writing time/Free time

4:00-6:00     Craft Sessions/Facilitated Writing  

6:00               Dinner

7:30               Optional Informal group discussions

THE LOCATION

The Motherlode Retreat is held at the Barn At Boyds Mills, located in the scenic Upper Delaware River Valley, in the Pocono Mountain foothills. Surrounded by a 1,300-acre forest, and just a stone’s throw from Calkins Creek, Boyds Mills is a couple of hours from both New York City and Philadelphia. 

At Boyds, you’ll find cabins nestled among the trees, a lodge at the top of a small hill, and a beautifully restored modern barn at the center of it all. Please click here to see more information about the rooms and venue. All rooms--both cabin and lodge--have private bathrooms.  There is a small kitchen in the lodge to store snacks (although snacks are available 24 hours at the barn).  Please reach out to Boyds Mill with questions or to inquire about room shares, transportation or food accommodations.

Virtual tour of Boyd's Mill

THE FOOD

Food is farm-style and sourced from local ingredients: everything from herbs snipped fresh from the garden, to eggs from nearby farms, to bread and pastries from local bakeries. Meals are prepared fresh on-site and served buffet style in the barn. We will eat together in the barn, or, outside,  (weather permitting), or, if you are in a writing groove, you can take your meal to your room or another private place. The barn is open around the clock for snacks, beverages, and ice cream. Beer and wine are available during appetizers and dinner, and you are welcome to bring your own too. Boyds can accommodate most food requests. 

ABOUT YOUR RETREAT LEADER

Diana Friedman is a working writer, experienced teacher, compassionate and engaged facilitator, and  a mother and daughter herself, who takes great pleasure in helping other writers navigate this twisted and gorgeous creative journey called writing. She has spent many years exploring womanhood, families, relationships, and the motherlode/motherload through her writing, and as a woman trying to make sense of the world.

Diana has years of experience facilitating workshops and is the director and founder of Pyrenean Writing Retreats, a community-based international writing retreat in the Basque Pyrenees of Spain. She also facilitates winter and spring writing retreats at Zigbone Farm Retreat Center near the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. Diana has many years of teaching experience, including professional writing at the University of Maryland, creative writing at Writopia Lab, and leading workshops at the New Directions Program at the Washington/Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis.

Diana is also an award-winning author whose fiction, articles, and essays have appeared in numerous publications including New Letters, The Huffington Post, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun, Bethesda Magazine, Washington Independent Review of Books, and Brevity Blog. She is the recipient of the Alexander Patterson Cappon Fiction Prize and a Pushcart Prize nomination, and her work has been selected as a finalist at multiple magazines and presses. She has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, the Maryland State Arts Council, and was a National Park Artist-in-Residence at Catoctin Mountain Park. Awarded residencies include the Vermont Studio Center, Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry, Ireland, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. 

In her work, Diana covers a wide range of topics including environmental disasters, international families, the Basque Country, honey bees and the humans who love them, and , of course, the complexity of family, motherhood and daughterhood. She currently writes a newsletter, Under the Red Pen, on Substack, and is co-editing an anthology of short fiction from Maryland. 

She is extremely passionate about working with individual writers, whether it’s helping those new to the artistic process find their voice or guiding mid-career and/or established writers ready their work for publication. 

Diana has an MA in Writing from John Hopkins University and lives outside of Washington D.C. She is the co-founder of KindWrite Studio, a full service writing company helping writers from gestation to publication.