WRITING THE MOTHERLODE

Diana Friedman, writer, editor, writing coach, and Director and Founder of Pyrenean Writing Retreats, is thrilled to be teaming up with novelist, editor, writing coach and all-around fabulously talented human being, Amy Shearn, to lead a five day retreat in the foothills of the Pennsylvania Poconos on Writing the Motherlode.

What is the Motherlode? Is it the gift of love, creativity, compassion and strength we've received from our mothers that we carry through our lives? Or is the Motherlode more of a Motherload; a weight or sadness or dysfunction passed down to us through the motherline from our mothers who could not, for whatever reason, properly mother us? 

At Writing the Motherlode we'll explore these questions as we gather in community to unpack our understanding of the Motherlode/Motherload so that we can better write about our complex relationships with our mothers. No matter where you are in your writing journey, and whether you are writing non-fiction, fiction, poetry, plays, screenplays, or songs, please join us for this five-day writing retreat where via safe facilitated sessions we'll learn to strengthen the writing skills we need to bring our Motherlode material to the page. 

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At the Motherlode Retreat we will explore myriad themes and topics such as: 

• The Mother wound--what is it, how does it manifest for each of us, and how do we write about it? 
• What are the treasures we’ve received and what pains do we carry from our mothers?
• How do unhelpful and unbalanced narratives from our mothers haunt us and how do we move past them in our writing? What do we need to use, transform, or move past, in order to write what we want to write?
• How has our own Motherload/Motherlode story shaped our own relationships with parenting?
• How can we bring our mothers to life on the page, when we remain emotionally connected and perhaps even activated by them?
• How do we/can we  move from the Motherload to the Motherlode?

The retreat will offer a mix of:

• Facilitated instructions where we will look at:
  • Techniques successful writers have used to bring their mother stories to the page, and how we can apply these to our own writing 
  • Techniques for creating enough space between our child wounds and our adult self to write about the motherlode “from the ceiling.”
• Generative writing time, designed to push us deeper into writing truthfully and honestly about our own Motherlode/Motherload.
• Craft instruction to help us to see and create our mothers as three-dimensional people, using basic character development craft work. 
• Plenty of time for you to work on your own writing-in-progress as well as opportunities to create new work.
• Informal discussions after dinner on publishing, research, and other topics that arise during the week.

Sample Schedule

8:30               Breakfast 

9:00               Motherlode discussions/Generative writing prompts

10:30-12:00   Individual writing time/Free time

12:00              Lunch

1:00-4:00      Individual writing time/Free time

4:00-6:00     Craft Sessions/Facilitated Writing led by Amy and Diana

6:00               Dinner

7:30               Informal and optional group discussions

THE LOCATION

The Motherlode Retreat is held at the Barn At Boyds Mills, located in the scenic Upper Delaware River Valley, in the Pocono Mountain foothills. Surrounded by a 1,300-acre forest, and just a stone’s throw from Calkins Creek, Boyds Mills is a couple of hours from both New York City and Philadelphia.  At Boyds, you’ll find cabins nestled among the trees, a Lodge at the top of a small hill, and a beautifully restored modern Barn space at the center of it all. Please click here to see more information about the rooms and venue. All rooms--both cabin and lodge--have private bathrooms.  There is a small kitchen in the lodge to store snacks (although snacks are available 24 hours at the Barn).  Please reach out here to Boyds Mill with questions or to inquire about room shares, transportation or food accommodations.

THE FOOD

Food is farm-style and sourced from local ingredients: everything from herbs snipped fresh from the garden, to eggs from nearby farms, to bread and pastries from local bakeries. Meals are prepared fresh on-site and served buffet style in The Barn. We will eat together in the barn, or, outside,  (weather permitting), or, if you are in a writing groove, you can take your meal to your room or another private place. The Barn is open around the clock for snacks, beverages, and ice cream. Beer and wine are available during appetizers and dinner, and you are welcome to bring your own too. Boyds can accommodate most food requests. 

ABOUT YOUR RETREAT LEADERS

Diana and Amy are  working writers, experienced teachers, compassionate and engaged facilitators, and  mothers and daughters themselves, who take great pleasure in helping other writers navigate this twisted and gorgeous creative journey called writing. They have both spent many years exploring womanhood, families, relationships, and the motherlode/motherload through their writing, and as women trying to make sense of the world.

Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Animal Instinct (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2025), Dear Edna Sloane (Red Hen Press, 2024), 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 first nonfiction book, a blend of memoir and cultural criticism called Mom Blogs, comes out from Instar Press in 2025 as part of their Remember the Internet series. Ever since her first novel (which is about a runaway surrogate mother) and throughout her writing life, Amy has explored the topics of motherhood, womanhood, relationships, and how we create our families and ourselves. 

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 Byrdcliffe, 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. 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 also co-runs the annual Red Clover Writing Retreat in the Driftless region of Wisconsin. 

Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota and lives in Brooklyn with her two children.

Reviews of Amy's other Retreats

Diana Friedman is an award-winning author whose fiction, articles, and essays have appeared in numerous publications including New Letters, The Huffington Post, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun, Bethesda Magazine, Washington Independent Review of Books, and Whole Earth Review. She is the recipient of the Alexander Patterson Cappon Fiction Prize and a Pushcart Prize nomination, and her work has been selected as a finalist at multiple magazines and presses. She has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, the Maryland State Arts Council, and was a National Park Artist-in-Residence at Catoctin Mountain Park. Awarded residencies include the Vermont Studio Center, Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry, Ireland, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. 

Diana covers a wide range of topics in her writing including environmental disasters, badly behaved children, international families, the Basque Country, honey bees and the humans who love them, and , of course, the complexity of family, motherhood and daughterhood. She currently writes a newsletter, Under the Red Pen, on Substack, and is co-editing an anthology of short fiction from Maryland. 

Diana has years of experience facilitating workshops and is the director and founder of Pyrenean Writing Retreats, a community-based international writing retreat in the Basque Pyrenees of Spain. She also facilitates winter and spring writing retreats at Zigbone Farm Retreat Center near the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. Diana has many years of teaching experience, including professional writing at the University of Maryland, creative writing at Writopia Lab, and leading workshops at the New Directions Program at the Washington/Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis. Diana is also extremely passionate about working with individual writers, whether it’s helping writers new to the artistic process find their voice or guiding mid-career and/or established writers ready their work for publication. 

Diana has an MA in Writing from John Hopkins University and lives outside of Washington D.C. 

Reviews of Diana's other Retreats