Wide Open Writing

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A Brief History of Wide Open Writing

Wide Open Writing was born in 2014 on a bus in Italy, somewhere between the hills of San Gimignano and Florence. But in order to take you to that part, we need to back up a few years.

In July 2009, way out west in a lush, green corner of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula a friendship was blossoming. Regina and Dulcie’s friendship. It was the first night of Goddard College’s creative writing residency. One of those awkward meet and greets. The story, as best they can recall, goes like this: Regina loved Dulcie’s sense of humor and Dulcie loved Regina’s laugh and that was the start of that. Despite Regina living in Italy and Dulcie living in Maine, they kept in touch when they could, eventually by way of the literary journal, Minerva Rising which Dulcie helped co-found alongside Kim Brown.

One day on the phone they chatted and longed about going away somewhere beautiful to write. Dulcie knew of a place in Maine and Regina knew of a farmhouse in Tuscany. They weighed their options, looked at a calendar and decided on September in Tuscany. They called it, “Autumn in Tuscany, a Retreat for the Senses.” They told Nancy about their idea and she said yes, she’d bring yoga. They then told their friends on Facebook what they were doing, asked if anyone wanted to come along and nine more people said yes.

The week was more than they could have envisioned. Camaraderie with fellow writers, interesting and inspiring conversations;. laughter and dancing and possibly even some skinny-dipping. And of course, there was writing. On the bus ride back to Florence someone piped up with the suggestion that they run retreats as a business. They took the suggestion to heart and got to work.

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