Retreat with Reiko and Friends

 

Back in 2015, some friends and I decided to host a writing retreat.  These particular friends, award-winning writers, seasoned teachers, were also intuitives, empaths, and women who connect to creativity and writing through spirit, serendipity, embodiment, juxtaposition: in short, we all believed that the creative voice and spirit can be nurtured and supported, rather than being “taught” (though we all did, also teach in a masters-level writing program).

That was the beginning of Pele’s Fire, a writing retreat on the Big Island of Hawaii, where I grew up, which continued until an eruption surrounded the retreat with lava and it closed.

After that upheaval, and others personal, national and global, we banded together again to create the Two Trees Writer’s Collaborative, through which we offered virtual workshops and retreats, and in 2022 a return to in-person retreating at The Grove in California.

Our retreats include dance, and movement, and myth-making, and tarot pulling, and coloring as well as hard craft and individual manuscript consultations.  If you are interested in knowing when the next one is scheduled (we are dreaming of taking Two Trees back to Hawaii – to the original site of Pele’s Fire – in 2023), you can find out more about it, and us by subscribing on that website.

What follows below are brief write-ups of our past retreats to whet your appetite.

Two Trees Writers Collaborative

The Grove “was very intense. Personally, it felt like proof that my little child inside was always right and that I am not alone and that we all have to make this fruit sweet and beautiful and bountiful for each other. I was definitely tired this week, like those two days are still processing and it took a lot, but it gave this like …there IS a space now where we live together. That is powerful. Crazy wonderful powerful. I feel like a different person…the space time continuum sorta expanded and I’ve been living in a more expansive space all week.”

This is not just another writing retreat – it’s time for deep creative play. Join award-winning authors Rahna Reiko Rizzuto and Sherri L. Smith in the mountains of California and reignite your creative spark.

The Grove explores the intersection of craft and enchantment, tapping into the well of creativity that feeds your work.  Open your mind to the possibilities of the Fool’s Journey using tarot for writers with Rahna Reiko Rizzuto. Come sit by the fire and explore a path through an old tale, deep into the Story Forest, with Sherri L. Smith. Delve into dreamwork, move your body, explore your craft, reconnect with the reasons you write.

“We will go inward, into our knowing, with the Tarot, but I am also super excited about a series of playful mind un-mapping exercises I am developing to ‘storm your brain’.  It’s all about bringing what you don’t know that you know into the light.” – Reiko

“Fairytales are old wisdom that offer maps for survival. Those maps take on new dimension when we view them in terms of our writing.  I’ll be guiding you through an old, familiar tale to help you re-enchant your writing craft.” – Sherri

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT TWO TREES

Pele’s Fire

“Pele’s Fire healed me in ways I didn’t know I needed healing and pushed my writing in ways I didn’t know I needed to be pushed.” – Grace Burns

 

Leave behind a world of distractions for a week devoted to your own writing in an ecologically-conscious setting at Pele’s Fire—a writers’ retreat held in a secluded jungle on the Big Island of Hawaii.

What makes our all-inclusive writing retreat unique? You can have it all: your own quiet writing time; small-group workshops with both of our teachers; generative inspiration and exercises; guided conversations on a variety of writing-related topics; your own one-on-one conference for manuscript feedback; group readings; and optional free time to explore the island. Volcano National Park, Lava Tree Forest, Kaimu black sand beach and volcanically-heated warm pools are all nearby.  We will be integrating our surroundings into our writing, and using our bodies as well as our brains.

The home-base for the Pele’s Fire writing retreat is Kalani—a nonprofit educational retreat center and eco-community that honors Hawaii’s heritage, and a living model for implementing best practices in permaculture, sustainability, and community development. Your registration fee includes six nights in a beautiful, spacious cottage (double occupancy), and all meals. Kalani also has a full schedule of yoga and movement classes you can attend, and many different wellness and healing offerings, including massage, reiki, etc. for additional fees.  A pool, jacuzzi, sauna, and 120 acres of seaside rain forest beauty await.

Write and move.  Retreat and explore.  Find quiet and community. Generate new work and get feedback on your manuscript. Work in groups and one-on-one. Work with both of our teachers.