WILD PRECIOUS WRITING with Annmarie Kelly & Athena Dixon

This workshop is for anyone at any stage who wants to jump-start their practice and write with more joy and abandon. You can expect to leave with a half-dozen drafted personal essays, tips for finishing and publishing them, as well as a rejuvenated sense of self and community. Plus you’ll enjoy inspirational excursions, hands-on cultural experiences and plenty of delectable meals.

FINDING JOY Writing Together

Feeling underwater? Overwhelmed? Stuck? Let’s write together and find joy. We’ll put pens on the page in order to move past ego and self-doubt and the voices that tell us we’re not enough. This is a workshop where we write, but it’s not a writing workshop. No one will be required to critique anyone else’s work. We’ll simply help each other fill the pages.

Because everyone carries stories inside of them. Sometimes it just takes a little prodding and support to help bring our truth to the page. In this transcendent week in beautiful Tuscany, we’ll discover how to tap into vulnerability, heartache, love, and loss to share the tales that only surface when we get out of our own way.

ABOUT Annmarie Kelly

Annmarie Kelly is the author of Here Be Dragons, a memoir about the wonderful misery of raising children with someone you love. She also hosts Wild Precious Life, a literary show about making the most of the time we have. She teaches writing at Cuyahoga Community College and Ashland University, where she also works with incarcerated students trying to obtain their degrees while in prison.

Her essays have appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, in Today Parenting, Black Fork, Gordon Square Review, Anodyne, and the New York Observer among others, and her work has been staged with the Cleveland Humanities Festival and Listen to Your Mother, Pittsburgh. She’s received support from the Ohio Arts Council, Tin House, Il Monasterino della Conoscenza, and Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and in 2024, Annmarie served as the Erma Bombeck Humorist-in-Residence and Hemingway-Pfeiffer Writer-in-Residence.

In her non-writing moments, Annmarie loves kickboxing, karaoke, dogs, ping-pong, books that make her laugh, movies that make her cry, and salads other people make her eat.

She lives in Cleveland, Ohio, where she is currently querying a novel about all the truth in the lies we tell.

ABOUT Athena Dixon

Athena Dixon is the author of the essay collections The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Split/Lip Press 2020) and The Loneliness Files (Tin House 2023). Her poetry chapbook, No God in This Room, was the 2018 Winner of the Argus House Press Intersectional Midwest Chapbook Contest. Athena’s craft work appears in Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction (Hippocampus Books 2022) and her poetry is included in the anthology The Breakbeat Poets Vol 2: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket Books 2018).

Her work has also appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Literary Hub, Shenandoah Literary Journal, GAY Magazine, Grub Street, and The Washington Square Review among others.

Athena is the Nonfiction/Hybrid Editor for Split/Lip Press and a Consulting Editor for Fourth Genre Magazine. She has been awarded a 2nd book residency from Tin House and a prose fellowship from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing.

She resides in Philadelphia.

DURING OUR TIME TOGETHER, You Will…

• Craft Authentic Narratives: Learn how to write with authenticity, embracing the stories that only you can tell.
• Celebrate Wrong Turns, About-Faces, and Imperfections: Travel brings surprises. Find beauty and meaning in all the jumbled puzzles that make your stories unique.
• Write the Hard Things: Develop confidence to write with honesty and vulnerability.
• Find Inspiration in the Landscape: Use Tuscany’s breathtaking scenery as a source of creative inspiration and reflection.
• Notice Sensory Details: Enhance your writing by drawing from the scents, sounds, and tastes of your surroundings.
• Practice Self-Compassion: Embrace self-kindness and let go of judgment and all the voices that tell us we’re not good enough.
• Cultivate Gratitude: Nurture your own storytelling style and grateful practice for the gift of this retreat and also the gift of the words we write together.
• (Re) discover Joy: Reconnect with simple pleasures and mindfulness integrated into our shared activities of cooking, eating, and exploring.
• Reflect Upon Personal Themes: Identify the recurring themes in your life and in your writing and explore how they influence your worldview.
• Create Community: Build lasting connections with fellow writers through shared meals, workshops, and excursions.
• Leave Inspired and Empowered: Return home with renewed confidence, a portfolio of new work, and the tools to continue your creative journey.

TRIP ITINERARY

DAY 1 – Monday, September 1: Arrival

• Highlights: Who am I? What are my gifts? What are the stories only I can tell?
• Dinner

Upon your arrival at Rome Fiumicino Airport, our private drivers will transport you to the Italian countryside, and your boutique hotel accommodations in the unspoiled village of Città della Pieve. After check in, you’ll enjoy a walking tour of the historic center of the village with host, Pamela Haack, followed by a workshop overview with Annmarie and Athena in the inviting and roomy workshop space. Afterwards it’s time to enjoy a welcome aperitivo, followed by a delectable, regionally inspired dinner. 

DAY 2 – Tuesday, September 2: Città della Pieve 

• Highlights: Mining memories. Sometimes our stories hide: In grandma’s kitchen. In your grandpa’s tomato garden. At the fourth-grade spelling bee. Today, we’ll dig and find them.
• Activities: Churches/art walking tour, pasta-making lesson
• Breakfast, lunch, dinner

This morning, after a delicious breakfast, you’ll enjoying a fascinating walking tour that includes a guided visit inside several of the village’s churches, and a look at priceless works of medieval and Renaissance art. Afterwards you’ll gather together with Annmarie and Athena for morning of inspiring instruction, as you “mine memories” for stories that are waiting to be told. Lunch today is served up at our friends’ inviting cafe.

In the afternoon you’ll have some free time to rest and recharge before we head to our friend, Cristian’s, bistrot for an oh-so-fun pasta making lesson, that includes a tour of Cristian’s fascinating wine cantina. Afterwards you’ll enjoy dinner right here, featuring your hand-made pasta, of course.  

DAY 3 – Wednesday, September 3: Orvieto

• Highlights: Transcending Pain. What grief is in your pockets? What lies can we let go? What’s one difficult story that needs to be told?
• Activities: Excursion to Orvieto, wine tasting
• Breakfast, lunch, dinner

This morning, after breakfast, you’ll join Annmarie and Athena for a meaningful, writing session that focuses on transcending pain, as you explore the path of writing a difficult story. Afterwards you’ll enjoy a relaxing lunch at a local cafe. 

This afternoon it’s off to the spectacular town of Orvieto for an afternoon of shopping and exploring. The town’s 13th century cathedral is a must-see, along with the many inviting, artisan shops that feature a variety of hand-made items, including colorful, maiolica ceramics. In late afternoon you’ll continue to a nearby wine cantina for a private visit that includes a delicious, informal wine-tasting dinner that includes local cheeses, cured meats and more. 

DAY 4 – Thursday, September 4: Città della Pieve

• Highlights: Writing delight. It’s been said that every memoir is a love story. What is yours?
• Activities: Saffron experience/tasting, aperitivo in private home
• Breakfast, lunch, dinner

This morning, after breakfast, you’ll join Annmarie and Athena for a delightful morning session as you learn how to capture your own love story through writing your memoir. Afterwards, we’re off to our friend, Alessandro’s, saffron “house” for a private visit and delicious saffron tasting and light lunch. 

In afternoon you’ll once again join Annmarie and Athens for a continued writing and learning session. This evening it’s off to a private home for aperitivo, followed by pizza night at a local, wood-fired pizzeria. 

DAY 5 – Friday, September 5: Città della Pieve

• Highlights: Protecting Your Truth. Now that the stories have moved through you, where should they go? What’s next?
• Breakfast, dinner

This morning, after breakfast, Annmarie and Athena will guide you through a comprehensive morning session all about taking your stories to the next step. Today you’ll enjoy lunch on your own. 

After lunch, and perhaps some time to rest and relax, you’ll join Annmarie and Athena for your final, inspiring writing session. Afterwards you’ll have the opportunity to get in some last-minute shopping, and packing, before joining up with the group for a celebratory aperitivo. This evening you’ll enjoy a special farewell dinner. 

DAY 6 – Saturday, September 6: Departure

Early morning departure to Rome Fiumicino Airport.

VENUE Boutique Hotel Vannucci

Hotel Vannucci began as a project of Vittoria Spinola, daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele II, who fled Pisa (and an arranged marriage with her elderly husband) to start a new life with her lover in Città della Pieve. Here, she and her soon-to-be new husband, Paolo, built two villas that became luxurious holiday accommodations for wealthy Romans vacationing in the countryside. In 1903 one of the villas became Hotel Vannucci, and today it maintains the elegance and refinement of its inception, with luxurious sleeping rooms, marble bathrooms and inviting gardens. A stay here is truly special, nestled just outside the medieval walls of the historic, and unspoiled, village of Città della Pieve. 

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WHAT’S Included…

• 5 nights at Boutique Hotel Vannucci 
• Group transportation by private transportation service to/from Rome Fiumicino Airport on arrival and departure dates. 
• Private transportation service to/from all towns and sites included in the itinerary
• All breakfasts
• 3 lunches
• 4 dinners 
• Excursion to Orvieto
• Wine tasting
• Pasta making lesson
• Renaissance art/church walking tour
• Saffron experience and tasting
• Time on your own for shopping and exploring
• Daily group and individual writing and storytelling sessions with Annmarie and Athena
• BONUS! A one-hour, one-on-one meeting with Athena or Annmarie to discuss YOUR storytelling goals or work-in-progress

NOT INCLUDED

Also not included: airfare, meals or transportation outside of that which is specifically listed in the trip package, gratuities for hotel staff and drivers

The Unexpected is Part of the Journey: Sometimes unexpected things come up. If there is unscheduled closing or schedule change, we carefully pivot to include something that is equally as wonderful and interesting, so that the quality of your experience is never at risk. ☺️

DATES AND DETAILS

• Dates: September 1-6, 2025
• Trip Price: $3,795-$4,295 USD (choose room type upon booking)
• Room Descriptions:
  • Single: Single occupancy, single bed, private ensuite bathroom
  • Classic: Single occupancy, double bed, private ensuite bathroom with walk-in shower
  • Superior: Single occupancy, double bed, private ensuite bathroom with tub/shower combination
  • Deluxe: Double occupancy, double bed or two singles, private ensuite bathroom with tub and shower (specifically for couples or friends traveling together)
• A $700 deposit is required to book your space
• Arrival and departure airport is Rome Fiumicino
• View our Terms and Cancellation Policy

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