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Hooper: Saint Leo writers retreat offers breath of fresh air

 
Poet Jesse Millner is one of the featured speakers at the Sandhill Writers Retreat at Saint Leo University.
Poet Jesse Millner is one of the featured speakers at the Sandhill Writers Retreat at Saint Leo University.
Published April 21, 2017

I've got a secret.

Don't tell anyone.

On May 20, I'll be one of the presenters at the fifth annual Sandhill Writers Retreat at Saint Leo University, but if you think I'm going to show up for my session and leave, guess again.

That's the secret. I'm going to sneak in early and attend as many presentations as I can. I discovered two years ago at the retreat that there's so much joy and insight to be gained from discussing the craft of writing.

After years of working at the paper, the 2015 conference proved to be a breath of fresh air. Sometimes you have to look up from the computer and really explore what's in your writing heart. Whether you're just starting on your writing journey or you've toiled for years, it never hurts to commune with fellow scribes.

This year's retreat features Florida Gulf Coast University professor Lynn Millner (The Allure of Immortality), poet Jesse Millner and Spencer Wise, whose fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in journals such as Narrative Magazine and Hayden's Ferry Review.

The highlight involves participants sharing works before the group. It can foster a few nerves because you're among greatness, but under the guidance of retreat director and St. Leo creative writing instructor Gianna Russo, it's a warm and inviting environment. Russo, editor-in-chief of Sandhill Review and founding editor of YellowJacket Press, currently the only publisher of poetry chapbook manuscripts in Florida, knows all about fostering talent.

The full-day retreat takes place at Saint Leo in Pasco County, just a short drive north of Tampa. The retreat will feature 13 hands-on writing classes in fiction, nonfiction, journalism, poetry, spoken word and writing for veterans.

For more information, go to tbtim.es/gfi.