Name: Sarah McColl + Amy Shearn
Rating: 5

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Felt so recharged while there and after leaving! Beautiful space, very few decisions to be made, great food and company. All around great time :) 

Red Clover Writing Retreat

What a wonderful opportunity to recharge in the company of smart, open, and driven women. Many thanks to Amy and Sarah for organizing it!

Red Clover Ranch Writing Retreat

Thanks for this amazing retreat! It was such a wonderful weekend and I will remember it for ever. 


Loved this, everything was beyond my best expectations. Thank you to two amazing hosts, and Red Clover ranch and staff as well. Will remember the connections I made here for a long time to come. Inspiring - hoping to go back next year and the next!

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Sarah and Amy first met in a windowless Conde Nast editorial office in 2009, when Sarah told Amy she was the cutest pregnant lady, and Amy was totally starstruck because she’d been a faithful reader of Sarah’s lifestyle blog for years. They’ve been meaning to work on something cool together ever since.

Sarah McColl + Amy Shearn

If you're feeling stuck in your writing process, stalled on your fiction or memoir project, hungry for creative community, or just ready for a revitalizing break, please join us October 6-9, 2023 for the Red Clover Ranch Writing Retreat.&nbsp;
 
This 3-night retreat includes locally sourced farm-to-table meals and cabin accommodations at the <a target="_blank" href="https://redcloverranch.com">Red Clover Ranch</a> in the Driftless region of Wisconsin where the conditions for clarity, quiet, and awe are part of the natural landscape. This retreat is open to writers of all genres and all levels who are looking to connect (or reconnect) with their creativity. Workshops will be generative, and you can use the time to add to something you're already writing, or to create something brand new.
 
Participants can take part in two generative writing workshops, one led by memoirist <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sarahmccoll.com">Sarah McColl</a> and one led by novelist <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amyshearnwrites.com">Amy Shearn</a>. There will be open time to go deep into your own writing, explore the two mile-long trails at the Ranch, sweat it out in the sauna, or just stare off into space.&nbsp;On our last night, all writers will be invited to share their work at an open mic. Writers can also choose to have a 1:1 consultation with Sarah or Amy if they’d like another set of eyes on their work.
 
A long weekend can be deeply restorative and inspiring, while also fitting within the realities of life. We hope this opportunity is a good fit for parents, working writers, or anyone else with a complicated schedule. The focus will be on connecting to that vital force that is creativity, and coming away feeling reenergized and whole.&nbsp;
 
REFUND POLICY:&nbsp;
We can offer you a full refund until September 1.&nbsp;

Soldiers Grove, WI 54655, USA

Airfare

Airport Transfer

Chef-Prepared Meals

Lodging

Shared Bathhouse

Sauna

Two generative morning workshops will be offered, one led by Amy, one by Sarah. 

Generative Workshops

Eating well is a way of life at Red Clover Ranch. You will be welcomed to the ranch with a cocktail (low- and no-ABV options available). At breakfast and lunch, writers have the option to sneak off with their meal to read, write, or have a solo picnic in the wild apple orchard. (We get it. Writers need alone time.) In the evenings, we’ll dine communally on Chef Dani Lind’s seasonally inspired meals, largely sourced from surrounding farms.&nbsp;

The Food

Home to organic farms, artists, musicians, and other makers, the Driftless is a unique and bewitching place. Bypassed by the last glacier that flattened other areas of the upper Midwest, the region offers a dramatic ancient landscape of craggy rock faces, narrow valleys, steep hills, and forested ridges. It’s a place to embrace quiet, take deep breaths, and watch the fog lift. The&nbsp; land is the ancestral home of the Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi nations.
 
The nearest airports are Madison and La Crosse, Wisconsin. You can also fly in and drive from Minneapolis-St. Paul or Chicago, both about 3.5 hours away.

The Place

Sarah and Amy are both working writers, teachers, and mothers, who know just how restorative it can be when writers get together to reactivate their creative powers.&nbsp;
 
<a target="_blank" href="https://www.sarahmccoll.com/about">Sarah McColl</a> is the author of the debut memoir, Joy Enough (Liveright Publishing/Norton, 2019). She also writes Lost Art, a monthly newsletter about the creative work of (mostly) dead women.
 
Her essays have appeared in Paris Review, McSweeney's, StoryQuarterly, Departures and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, where she was named the 2017 Mary Carswell Fellow, the Millay Colony for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Wrangell Mountains Center, and a Pushcart Prize nominee for her essay on singer-songwriter Connie Converse.
 
Before receiving her MFA at Sarah Lawrence College, Sarah was the founding editor in chief of Yahoo Food. Her food writing has been featured in print and online for Bon Appétit, House Beautiful, The Guardian, Food52, Modern Farmer, Extra Crispy and others.&nbsp;
 
Sarah has facilitated creative writing workshops at Sarah Lawrence College, Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, Catapult, Gotham Writers’ Workshop, her own independently run workshops for writers who are mothers, and for many young writer programs including the University of Virginia, Brooklyn Friends School, and Wordstruck. She lives with her family in Northern California and fell in love with the Midwest as a college student in Minnesota.
 
<a target="_blank" href="https://www.amyshearnwrites.com/">Amy Shearn</a> is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City (Red Hen Press, 2020), The Mermaid of Brooklyn (Touchstone/Simon &amp; Schuster, 2013), and How Far Is the Ocean From Here (Shaye Areheart/Crown, 2008). Her next novel, Dear Edna Sloane, comes out in 2023 from Red Hen Press.
 
She has worked as an editor at Medium, JSTOR, Conde Nast, and other organizations, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Gotham Writers’ Workshops, Catapult, Story Studio Chicago, the Yale Writers' Workshop, and the Writing Co-Lab, which she helped found.
 
Amy's work has appeared in many publications including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets &amp; Writers, Literary Hub, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Coastal Living. Amy received a Promise Award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and has been awarded residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Unruly Retreat, and The Cabins. She has also hosted and curated many literary events in New York City, including a reading series called Lit at Lark and an author talk series, Bookish, at the Brooklyn Public Library.
 
Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children. She is originally from the Chicago area.
 
Sarah and Amy first met in a windowless Conde Nast editorial office in 2009, when Sarah told Amy she was the cutest pregnant lady, and Amy was totally starstruck because she’d been a faithful reader of Sarah’s lifestyle blog for years. They’ve been meaning to work on something cool together ever since.

About Us

Receive feedback on a book outline or 6,000 word piece and an hour meeting with Amy over the weekend.

Manuscript Consult with Amy

Receive feedback on a book outline or 6,000 word piece and an hour meeting with Sarah over the weekend.

Manuscript Consult with Sarah

There is a single one-bedroom cabin at the Ranch, and this is it.

Single Room, Queen Bed, 1-Room Cabin

The cabins at Red Clover Ranch have two rooms. You will have a private room with a twin bed.&nbsp;

Single Room, Twin Bed, 2-Room Cabin

The cabins at Red Clover Ranch have two rooms. You will have a private room of your own with a queen bed.&nbsp;

Single Room, Queen Bed, 2-Room Cabin

This is a fan favorite at the Ranch. Check out <a target='_blank' href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuo5mDnLD4s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">pics of the Sleeping Nook here</a>.

Sleeping Nook, Bathhouse

The two-story Bunkhouse features a living room, kitchen, and bathroom on the first floor. Upstairs, you'll have the queen bed in a large, shared bedroom.&nbsp;

Queen Bed, Shared Bedroom, Bunkhouse

The two-story Bunkhouse features a living room, kitchen, and bathroom on the first floor. Upstairs, you'll have a twin bed in a large, shared bedroom.&nbsp;Women only.&nbsp;

Twin Bed, Shared Bedroom, Bunkhouse

We’re back! Join authors and teachers <a target="_blank" href="http://amyshearnwrites.com">Amy Shearn</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sarahmccoll.com/">Sarah McColl</a> October 17-20, 2024&nbsp; at the Red Clover Ranch Writing Retreat. Participants in last year’s inaugural Red Clover Ranch Writing Retreat described the experience as magical, nourishing, and life-changing. Retreat participants have collaborated creatively, published books, flown cross-country to attend said book launches, started and revised novels, launched their own retreats…and that’s just the stuff we know about. In other words, we’re up to more than writing on this weekend and the aftereffects travel home and into real life. This 3-night retreat includes locally sourced farm-to-table meals and cabin (or bunkhouse) accommodations at the <a target="_blank" href="https://redcloverranch.com">Red Clover Ranch</a> in the Driftless region of Wisconsin owned and operated by Annie Coleman with seasonally inspired meals by Chef Dani Lind, largely sourced from surrounding farms.&nbsp; Red Clover’s cabins offer simple and thoughtful sleeping spaces and share a communal bathhouse with two full bathrooms, outdoor shower, sauna, and shared porch. To help you unplug and get quiet, there is no wifi in the cabins. Shared writing spaces include the Bathhouse Lounge and three separate spaces in the Barn.&nbsp; Participants can take part in two generative writing workshops, one led by memoirist Sarah McColl and one led by novelist Amy Shearn, as well as afternoon conversations and activities designed for inspiration and supportive practice. There will be open time to go deep into your own writing, explore the two mile-long trails at the Ranch, sweat it out in the sauna, or just stare off into space. Writers can also choose to have 1:1 consultations with Sarah and/or Amy if they’d like another set of eyes on their work. This time together, and the place where we will gather, originated in creative spark and supportive relationship. Sarah and Annie have been friends for more than ten years. Amy and Sarah have been admirers of each other’s work for fifteen years. Annie and Dani’s friendship was born in this valley, where they thoughtfully hold feminine space. Our focus will be on connecting to that vital force that is creativity and coming away feeling reenergized and whole.&nbsp; The Red Clover Ranch Writing Retreat is open to women, non-binary, and gender-non-conforming writers of all levels and genres.&nbsp; Please be certain you can make it before booking. We cannot offer refunds. This retreat might be for you if you:<ul> <li>Crave supportive creative community</li> <li>Daydream about quiet time to read, write, and think</li> <li>Enjoy generative workshops and the company of other writers</li> <li>Can’t get away from kids/work/life for longer retreats</li> <li>Love super-nourishing local foods prepared and served with artistry and care</li> <li>Swoon over a starry sky</li> <li>Dig saunas and Ursa Major bath products</li></ul>This retreat probably isn’t for you if:<ul> <li>You don’t like smart, frisky little dogs (there’s one named Bandit)</li> <li>Aren’t comfortable walking distances of 50 yards on gravel</li> <li>Have really strict conditions under which you can write</li> <li>Can’t stand the cold (many of the shared writing spaces are outdoors or on screened porches)</li> <li>Aren’t into sharing a bathroom (even if it does have those Ursa Major products)</li> <li>A weekend alone in an airbnb is what you really need</li></ul>

Two afternoon talks to inspire discussion, one from Sarah and one from Amy

Craft Talk & Convo

Home to organic farms, artists, musicians, and other makers, the Driftless is a unique and bewitching place. Bypassed by the last glacier that flattened other areas of the upper Midwest, the region offers a dramatic ancient landscape of craggy rock faces, narrow valleys, steep hills, and forested ridges. It’s a place to embrace quiet, take deep breaths, and watch the fog lift. The&nbsp; land is the ancestral home of the Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi nations. The nearest airports are Madison and La Crosse, Wisconsin. You can also fly in and drive from Minneapolis-St. Paul or Chicago, both about 3.5 hours away.

Sarah and Amy are both working writers, teachers, and mothers, who know just how restorative it can be when writers get together to reactivate their creative powers.&nbsp; <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sarahmccoll.com/about">Sarah McColl</a> is the author of the debut memoir, Joy Enough (Liveright Publishing/Norton, 2019). She also writes Lost Art, a monthly newsletter about the creative work of (mostly) dead women. Her essays have appeared in Paris Review, McSweeney's, StoryQuarterly, Departures and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, where she was named the 2017 Mary Carswell Fellow, the Millay Colony for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Wrangell Mountains Center, and a Pushcart Prize nominee for her essay on singer-songwriter Connie Converse. Before receiving her MFA at Sarah Lawrence College, Sarah was the founding editor in chief of Yahoo Food. Her food writing has been featured in print and online for Bon Appétit, House Beautiful, The Guardian, Food52, Modern Farmer, Extra Crispy and others.&nbsp; Sarah has facilitated creative writing workshops at Sarah Lawrence College, Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, Catapult, Gotham Writers’ Workshop, her own independently run workshops for writers who are mothers, and for many young writer programs including the University of Virginia, Brooklyn Friends School, and Wordstruck. She lives with her family in Northern California and fell in love with the Midwest as a college student in Minnesota. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amyshearnwrites.com/">Amy Shearn</a> is the award-winning author of the novels Dear Edna Sloane (Red Hen Press, 2024), &nbsp;Unseen City (Red Hen Press, 2020), The Mermaid of Brooklyn (Touchstone/Simon &amp; Schuster, 2013), and How Far Is the Ocean From Here (Shaye Areheart/Crown, 2008).&nbsp; She has worked as an editor at Medium, JSTOR, Conde Nast, and other organizations, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Gotham Writers’ Workshops, Catapult, Story Studio Chicago, the Yale Writers' Workshop, and the Writing Co-Lab, which she helped found. Amy's work has appeared in many publications including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets &amp; Writers, Literary Hub, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Coastal Living. Amy received a Promise Award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and has been awarded residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Unruly Retreat, and The Cabins. She has also hosted and curated many literary events in New York City, including a reading series called Lit at Lark and an author talk series, Bookish, at the Brooklyn Public Library. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children. She is originally from the Chicago area. Sarah and Amy first met in a windowless Conde Nast editorial office in 2009, when Sarah told Amy she was the cutest pregnant lady, and Amy was totally starstruck because she’d been a faithful reader of Sarah’s lifestyle blog for years. They’ve been meaning to work on something cool together ever since. Last year's writing retreat was pretty much a dream come to life.

Private Room, Cabin

This is a fan favorite at the Ranch. Check out <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuo5mDnLD4s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">pics of the Sleeping Nook here</a>.

The two-story Bunkhouse features a living room, kitchen, and bathroom on the first floor. Upstairs, you'll have a twin bed in a large, shared bedroom.&nbsp;

We’re back! Join authors and teachers <a target="_blank" href="http://amyshearnwrites.com">Amy Shearn</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sarahmccoll.com/">Sarah McColl</a> October 10-13, 2025&nbsp; at the Red Clover Writing Retreat. This writing retreat is open to women and gender-expansive writers of all genres and levels. This 3-night retreat includes locally sourced farm-to-table meals and cabin (or bunkhouse) accommodations at the <a target="_blank" href="https://redcloverranch.com">Red Clover Ranch</a> in the Driftless region of Wisconsin owned and operated by Annie Coleman with seasonally inspired meals by Chef Dani Lind, largely sourced from surrounding farms.&nbsp; Red Clover’s cabins offer simple and thoughtful sleeping spaces and share a communal bathhouse with two full bathrooms, outdoor shower, sauna, and shared porch. To help you unplug and get quiet, there is no wifi in the cabins. Shared writing spaces include the Bathhouse Lounge and three separate spaces in the Barn.&nbsp; Participants can take part in two generative writing workshops, one led by memoirist Sarah McColl and one led by novelist Amy Shearn, as well as afternoon conversations and activities designed for inspiration and supportive practice. There will be open time to go deep into your own writing, explore the two mile-long trails at the Ranch, sweat it out in the sauna, or just stare off into space. Writers can also choose to have 1:1 consultations with Sarah and/or Amy if they’d like another set of eyes on their work. This time together, and the place where we will gather, originated in creative spark and supportive relationship. Sarah and Annie have been friends for more than ten years. Amy and Sarah have been admirers of each other’s work for fifteen years. Annie and Dani’s friendship was born in this valley, where they thoughtfully hold feminine space. Our focus will be on connecting to that vital force that is creativity and coming away feeling reenergized and whole.&nbsp; Please be certain you can make it before booking. We cannot offer refunds. This retreat might be for you if you:<ul> <li>Crave supportive creative community</li> <li>Daydream about quiet time to read, write, and think</li> <li>Enjoy generative workshops and the company of other writers</li> <li>Can’t get away from kids/work/life for longer retreats</li> <li>Love super-nourishing local foods prepared and served with artistry and care</li> <li>Swoon over a starry sky</li> <li>Dig saunas and Ursa Major bath products</li></ul>This retreat probably isn’t for you if:<ul> <li>You don’t like smart, frisky little dogs (there’s one named Bandit)</li> <li>Aren’t comfortable walking distances of 50 yards on gravel</li> <li>Have really strict conditions under which you can write</li> <li>Can’t stand the cold (many of the shared writing spaces are outdoors or on screened porches)</li> <li>Aren’t into sharing a bathroom (even if it does have those Ursa Major products)</li> <li>A weekend alone in an airbnb is what you really need</li></ul>

Sarah and Amy are both working writers, teachers, and mothers, who know just how restorative it can be when writers get together to reactivate their creative powers.&nbsp; <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sarahmccoll.com/about">Sarah McColl</a> is the author of the debut memoir, Joy Enough (Liveright Publishing/Norton, 2019). She also writes Lost Art, a monthly newsletter about the creative work of (mostly) dead women. Her essays have appeared in Paris Review, McSweeney's, StoryQuarterly, Departures and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, where she was named the 2017 Mary Carswell Fellow, the Millay Colony for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Wrangell Mountains Center, and a Pushcart Prize nominee for her essay on singer-songwriter Connie Converse. Before receiving her MFA at Sarah Lawrence College, Sarah was the founding editor in chief of Yahoo Food. Her food writing has been featured in print and online for Bon Appétit, House Beautiful, The Guardian, Food52, Modern Farmer, Extra Crispy and others.&nbsp; Sarah has facilitated creative writing workshops at Sarah Lawrence College, Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, Catapult, Gotham Writers’ Workshop, her own independently run workshops for writers who are mothers, and for many young writer programs including the University of Virginia, Brooklyn Friends School, and Wordstruck. She lives with her family in Northern California and fell in love with the Midwest as a college student in Minnesota. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amyshearnwrites.com/">Amy Shearn</a> is the award-winning author of the novels Animal Instinct (Putnam, 2025), Dear Edna Sloane (Red Hen Press, 2024), &nbsp;Unseen City (Red Hen Press, 2020), The Mermaid of Brooklyn (Touchstone/Simon &amp; Schuster, 2013), and How Far Is the Ocean From Here (Shaye Areheart/Crown, 2008).&nbsp; She has worked as an editor at Medium, JSTOR, Conde Nast, and other organizations, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Gotham Writers’ Workshops, Catapult, Story Studio Chicago, the Yale Writers' Workshop, and the Writing Co-Lab, which she helped found. Amy's work has appeared in many publications including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets &amp; Writers, Literary Hub, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Coastal Living. Amy received a Promise Award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and has been awarded residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Unruly Retreat, and The Cabins. She has also hosted and curated many literary events in New York City, including a reading series called Lit at Lark and an author talk series, Bookish, at the Brooklyn Public Library. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children. She is originally from the Chicago area. Sarah and Amy first met in a windowless Conde Nast editorial office in 2009, when Sarah told Amy she was the cutest pregnant lady, and Amy was totally starstruck because she’d been a faithful reader of Sarah’s lifestyle blog for years. They’ve been meaning to work on something cool together ever since. Last year's writing retreat was pretty much a dream come to life.

The cabins at Red Clover are two-room cabins, each with a private entrance. Your private room will share a common wall with another room.&nbsp; All cabins feature easy access to a shared bathhouse with high-end bathrooms, a screen porch with kitchenette, sauna, and outdoor shower.&nbsp;

This is a fan favorite at the Ranch. Check out <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuo5mDnLD4s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">pics of the Sleeping Nook here</a>. The Sleeping Nook is attached to the shared bathhouse with extra-easy access to its high-end bathrooms, a screen porch with kitchenette, sauna, and outdoor shower.&nbsp;

Share the cost of a cabin room by booking with a friend.&nbsp; All cabins feature easy access to a shared bathhouse with high-end bathrooms, a screen porch with kitchenette, sauna, and outdoor shower.&nbsp; In the "notes to organizer" field at checkout, write your friend's name. This booking is not confirmed until both participants have booked.

Shared Room, Cabin

Sarah McColl + Amy Shearn's WeTravel Profile

Past Trips

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