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 Writers Amy Shearn and Sarah McColl ,October 6-9, 2023, for the Red Clover Ranch Writing Retreat. 

This 3-night retreat includes locally sourced farm-to-table meals and cabin accommodations at the Red Clover Ranch 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 Sarah McColl and one led by novelist Amy Shearn. 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. 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. 

About Sarah and Amy:

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. 

Sarah McColl 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. 

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.

Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City (Red Hen Press, 2020), The Mermaid of Brooklyn (Touchstone/Simon & 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 & 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.

Come to Red Clover Ranch, for a 2-night, 3-day retreat with Dushaun Branch to rest, move, and connect. Join us in a tranquil and picturesque setting for rejuvenating Hatha yoga sessions led by the expert guidance of yoga instructor DuShaun Branch Pollard. This women’s retreat offers a rejuvenating and inspiring experience, connecting like-minded individuals to share stories and envision future goals together. This will be a truly special weekend with DuShaun.

About DuShaun:

DuShaun has been practicing for almost 13 years and fell in love with yoga because it allowed her to find peace of mind while moving her body. As a yoga student, DuShaun noticed that in the majority of her classes she was the only black and plus sized person in the room. This inspired her to become a practitioner to bring yoga to more people who looked like her. 

“DuShaun is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200) through the Yoga Alliance and was certified through Bloom Yoga Studio in June of 2020. In addition, she received her 95-hour Children’s Yoga Certification from Mission Propelle in the summer of 2018.

DuShaun previously worked in higher education and a community organizer in North Lawndale, a community on the west side of Chicago. Because of her former work, DuShaun is focused on bringing yoga to youth, activists, and organizers. She believes people not only need rest and relaxation, but resistance; yoga is a powerful way to tap into the balance of ease and positive effort. DuShaun teaches through the lens of equity and trauma-informed, hosting classes in “non-traditional” settings all over the city. She intends on taking down as many barriers as possible to bring yoga to those who are looking for calm and relaxed minds. DuShaun truly believes yoga is for all, and shares that throughout Chicago and beyond. 

Travel to the stunning driftless region of Wisconsin near the Mississippi River and spend the weekend wandering through acres of fresh flowers to cut at Star Valley Flower Farm, floral arranging with Elizabeth Cronin of Asrai Garden & Full Bloom and creating beautiful watercolors with Esther Garcia of Butterfat studios. Eat our delicious farm to table food, have a dance party in the barn loft, forage for wildflowers, enjoy daily morning meditation, sauna, and enjoy a special goat walk with our sweet goats.

Esther and Elizabeth are both masters of their craft and oh sooooo much fun. Think of camp with flowers, water colors, good food, good people, and goats. No experience with florals or water colors needed. Come as you are and we will learn together! This will be such a MAGICAL weekend. Come join us!

Join Nicolette Downs for Big Shoulder Yoga’s Yearly Retreat.
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The theme for this year's retreat is 'Yoga Summer Camp.' Spend the long weekend practicing yoga, hiking, eating delicious locally grown/sourced food, hanging out by the bonfire, enjoying campy activities (games, tie-dye, stargazing, etc.), visiting the swimming hole, and connecting with nature (and each other).

Throughout the day there will be yoga classes and activities to choose from, or you can follow your own interests—read, relax, explore the property, bike the hilly roads, etc.

With the combination of gentle and invigorating yoga classes, you’ll be able to find what works for you. We’ll have a workshop-style class each day, a clinic to work on alignment and inversion, partner yoga, a gentle morning practice, plus restorative yoga and meditation in the evening.

Register Here

Nicolette Downs is the owner of Big Shoulders Yoga.After completing her 200hr YTT in a style of Hatha yoga called, 'cYoga' in 2012, she jumped right in and began teaching multiple group and private classes each week - however, it wasn't until years later that she actually began to truly love and feel passionate about teaching yoga. Nicolette believes that your YTT is just the first step in your journey as a yoga instructor and that the vast majority of your education takes place once you begin to teach. For her it was the connections with her students and learning how to help and empower each individual that pushed her to develop her teaching into what it is today.


Over the last 8 years Nicolette has taught students of all levels, abilities, ages, and backgrounds, learning from each and every person and class. She is equally enthusiastic helping a first-time student understand the alignment of Down Dog and spotting a seasoned practitioner as they gain confidence jumping into Forearm Balance.

In 2019, Nicolette opened Big Shoulders Yoga with the goal of creating an inclusive and accepting yoga community in which she could share her love of yoga and empower other teachers to do the same. Plus, there were no other Hatha yoga studios and she refuses to practice and teach anything else.

When Nicolette isn't running BSY, prepping for the YTT, or teaching, she is working her full-time gig as a marketing manager for a tech company.

Additionally, Nicolette has had a consistent yoga practice for over 10 years and has drawn inspiration for her practice from a number of styles including cYoga, Baptiste, and Power Hatha. She believes that every yoga instructor should be a practitioner first and a teacher second. Teach what you know.

More Info And Register Here