[vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_row_inner type=”grid” text_align=”center”][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_column_text]
The Writer’s Retreat at Good Contrivance Farm
[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_separator color=”#dd9933″ thickness=”10px” up=”20px” down=”20px”][vc_raw_html]JTNDZGl2JTIwY2xhc3MlM0QlMjJ2aWRlby1yZXNwb25zaXZlJTIyJTNFJTBBJTIwJTIwJTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwc3JjJTNEJTIyaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20lMkZlbWJlZCUyRlRMdEtxV0ZFNUE4JTNGcGxheWxpc3QlM0RUTHRLcVdGRTVBOCUyNmxvb3AlM0QxJTI2YXV0b3BsYXklM0QxJTI2bXV0ZSUzRDElMjIlMEElMjAlMjAlMjAlMjAlMjAlMjAlMjAlMjAlMjAlMjBmcmFtZWJvcmRlciUzRCUyMjAlMjIlMjBhbGxvdyUzRCUyMmF1dG9wbGF5JTNCJTIwZW5jcnlwdGVkLW1lZGlhJTIyJTBBJTIwJTIwJTIwJTIwJTIwJTIwJTIwJTIwJTIwJTIwYWxsb3dmdWxsc2NyZWVuJTNFJTNDJTJGaWZyYW1lJTNFJTBBJTNDJTJGZGl2JTNFJTBBJTBB[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]
The Writer’s Retreat at Good Contrivance Farm provides writers with a quiet, serene space to work on projects without interruption. Writers of all genres and levels are invited to stay on the farm at a discounted rate. Literary luminaries teach workshops and craft talks throughout the year.
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”#dd9933″ thickness=”10px” up=”20px” down=”20px”][vc_empty_space height=”70px”][/vc_column][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Workshops & Writer Talks 2026
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Our visiting writers provide two services. The first is a 5-hour workshop. The other is a craft/talk presentation (30 minutes plus Q&A) about some aspect of their work. These happen on successive Saturdays (the workshop first; the talk the next Saturday).
*Registration will open in Spring 2026
[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_tta_accordion][vc_tta_section tab_id=”1766238106052-50b35385-3e35″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”11684″ img_size=”medium” title=”Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]
May 9 & 16, 2026
Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose cartoons have been featured in The New Yorker and McSweeney’s. He is the author of the Ignatz-nominated comic series, The Gulf, vocalist/pianist of the jazz trio, Superior Cling, and co-creator of the multimedia cooking website, Mom’s Viet Kitchen. Nguyễn is currently the Assistant Teaching Professor of Digital Media at Loyola University Maryland. He is the recipient of The Baker Prize in Literary Arts, a Rubys Artist Grant, and an Independent Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. Nguyễn lives in Baltimore with his wife and two sons.
May 9, Workshop, 10:00-4:00 (includes lunch, limited seating): Details here.
Comics Come Alive: Dive into the fundamentals and process of making comics.
Draw comics that come alive on the page through exercises, lessons, and hands-on projects. We look at examples and explore the unique ways that comics can tell a story. You gain an appreciation for the craft and leave the workshop having completed your very own mini-comic.
May 16, 5:00 PM: Craft Talk: Flipping Through Pages
I’ll share recent comics I’ve made and talk about my process to show what I’ve learned about managing graphic narrative–and how its best effects work their magic. No charge, includes free meal, must register here (limited seating).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section tab_id=”1766464977094-16b03585-7b21″][vc_empty_space height=”60px”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”11506″ img_size=”medium” title=”Fran Wilde”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]
June 13 & 20, 2026
Two-time Nebula Award-winner Fran Wilde has (so far) published eight novels, a poetry collection, and over 70 short stories for adults, teens, and kids. Her stories have been finalists for six Nebula Awards, a World Fantasy Award, four Hugo Awards, four Locus Awards, and a Lodestar. They include her Nebula- and Compton Crook-winning debut novel Updraft, and her Nebula-winning, Best of NPR 2019, debut Middle Grade novel Riverland. Her short stories appear in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, Nature, Uncanny Magazine, and multiple years’ best anthologies.
The Managing Editor for The Sunday Morning Transport, Fran teaches or has taught for schools including Vermont College of Fine Arts’ WFCMYA MFA and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She writes nonfiction for publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and Tor.com. You can find her on Instagram, Bluesky, and at franwilde.net.
June 13: Workshop, 10:00-4:00 (includes lunch, limited seating): details here
How to Put Speculative Fiction to Work For You — Even if You Don’t Write Speculative Fiction: a generative mix and match workshop
Once upon a time, books stayed in their proper categories and behaved themselves on the shelves to which they were assigned… Right? No! From Jane Austen and Edgar Allen Poe to Haruki Murakami, George Saunders, Cormac McCarthy, and Margaret Atwood, literature has a long history of blending elements from different genres — horror, science fiction, fantasy, historical, westerns, romance, poetry, and more — to create lasting, powerful work. This generative workshop will give you the tools to blend different genres in new and exciting ways. You’ll leave with several new story seeds, as well as a pocket full of tools for your craft toolbox.
June 20, Craft Talk, 5:00 PM: no charge, includes dinner, register here (limited seating)
Escaping The Myth of Overnight Success: How To Build A Sustainable Creative Life (a story in 12 parts)
The publishing world loves a hero narrative: “underdog comes from out of nowhere to take the literary world by storm” is among its favorite stories. But often, that underdog has years of publishing wins and losses behind them, and faces a future of ups and downs as well. What is a writer to do when they hope to create a sustainable creative life for the long haul, instead of chasing the myth (which can lead to burnout). How can they explore and play in different fields of interest without derailing their career? And what the heck is happening in publishing right now, anyway?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section tab_id=”1766504657143-8d0243ca-672f”][vc_empty_space height=”60px”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”11507″ img_size=”medium” title=”Beth Ann Fennelly”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]
July 18 & 25, 2026
Beth Ann Fennelly, a 2020 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, was the poet laureate of Mississippi from 2016-2021 and teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Mississippi. She’s won grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States Artists, a Pushcart, and a Fulbright to Brazil. Fennelly has published three books of poetry and three of prose, most recently, Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs (W.W. Norton) which was an Atlanta Journal Constitution Best Book. Her seventh book, The Irish Goodbye: Micro-Memoirs is forthcoming from Norton in 2026. A contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Esquire and other outlets, she lives with her husband, Tom Franklin, and their three children in Oxford, MS. https://www.bethannfennelly.com/
July 18, Workshop: SOLD OUT!
Build Me a Hummingbird of Words: How to Distill Your Life into a Flash
What should we do when we have the urge to write our stories, but we can’t figure out how or where to start? This interactive craft class will provide a strategy—start small—and lots of examples. Beth Ann will share ten things she’s learned from writing tiny texts, then turn class attention to her favorite short form, the micro-memoir. Combining the extreme brevity of poetry, the narrative arc of fiction, and the truth-telling of creative nonfiction, the micro-memoir is an exciting hybrid that transforms small, overlooked moments into powerful evocations. This hybrid form is also unusually user-friendly, especially for writers who feel overwhelmed or intimidated when faced with telling their truths. We’ll end with a writing prompt and time to share our work.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section tab_id=”1766504655120-0898e4f1-bef3″][vc_empty_space height=”60px”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”11508″ img_size=”medium” title=”Chip Blake”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]
September 19 & 26, 2026
Chip Blake is an independent editor, writer, book coach, and writing instructor. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of Orion magazine, an award-winning bimonthly magazine dedicated to arts, culture, and environment; and as the Editor-in-Chief of Milkweed Editions, a nonprofit book publisher. Books and articles he has edited have been nominated for or won the Pushcart Prize, the PEN Literary Award, PEN-New England Discovery Prize, the John Oakes Award in Environmental Journalism, the John Burroughs Medal, the Minnesota Book Award, the Oregon Book Award, and The New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He was the founder of the Orion Writing Workshop. He was the founder of the Orion Writing Workshop and has served on the faculty of many writers’ conferences. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. Please see www.chipblake.com.
September 19, 10:00-4:00 PM, lunch included, limited seating. Details here.
Writing Naturally
This generative workshop will help writers of all levels become stronger and more confident storytellers—with an emphasis on the natural world. We’ll focus on the most compelling elements of such writing, sharpening our awareness of the narrator, the reader, and your creation of a strong idea embedded in an even stronger story. Along the way we’ll talk about birds and plants and the outdoors and go for a short bird walk (if the weather is good). Although we’ll focus primarily on creative nonfiction, writers of fiction and poetry are welcome.
Along the way we’ll talk about birds and plants and the outdoors and go for a short bird walk (if the weather is good). Although we’ll focus primarily on creative nonfiction, writers of fiction and poetry are welcome.
September 26, Craft talk, 5:00 PM, no charge, limited seating: Must register here.
The Narrator in Creative Nonfiction
In all creative nonfiction, the author creates a version of themselves in order to tell the story—it is the narrator that transforms the material of everyday life from fact into an imaginative piece of writing. In this craft talk I will discuss the importance of creating a strong narrative voice, and how this shapes an effective, compelling creative essay.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Section” tab_id=”1772686320831-1504d012-d1fa”][/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_accordion][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_separator color=”#dd9933″ thickness=”10px” up=”20px” down=”20px”][vc_empty_space height=”70px”][/vc_column][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]
Accommodations
[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_single_image image=”11514″ img_size=”300X300″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
Barn Loft
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”11513″ img_size=”300X300″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
Hen House Cottage
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”11515″ img_size=”300X300″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
The School House
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”25px”][vc_single_image image=”11659″ img_size=”1000×500″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://historicfarm.org/residencies”][vc_separator color=”#dd9933″ thickness=”10px” up=”20px” down=”20px”][vc_empty_space height=”25px”][/vc_column][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”11703″ img_size=”medium”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1766496530497{margin-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text]DONATE
Your tax-deductible donation makes it possible for us to keep our craft talks free and residency fees affordable for writers. Any amount makes a difference!
Or send us a check:
Good Contrivance Farm, 2015 Emory Road,
Reisterstown, MD 21136
Or we can take a card over the phone:
443.529.2939[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”60px”][/vc_column][/vc_row]