LOUISE HAWES

Vermont in bloom! Summer wears a special green in the hills around Montpelier, the setting for a very special residency at the VCFA MFA program in Writing for Young Readers. In addition to  lectures,  workshops, and small generative sessions, our time together will include readings and discussions with celebrated authors who've changed all our lives! If you have at least 20 hours a week to devote to changing your writing and finding a community of practice that will support you throughout your career, I hope to see you there! (If you can’t attend “live,” consider our virtual “Cloud Residency,” a full sister residency, drawing on the same faculty and guest authors and editors, but with its own special flavor! 

http://www.vcfa.edu

Hitch a ride with 11-year-old Hazmat and her dad in their 18-wheeler, Leonardo, for a feel-good road trip across America! 

Life on the road with her father is as good as it gets for Hazmat. Together, they’ve been taking jobs and crisscrossing the US for years. Now Daddy’s talking about putting down roots—somewhere Hazmat can go to a real school and make friends. Somewhere Daddy doesn’t have to mail-order textbooks about “nature’s promise to all women.” Somewhere Mom’s ashes can rest on a mantle and not on a dashboard. 

While everything just keeps changing, sometimes in ways she can’t control, Hazmat isn’t ready to give up the freedom of long-distance hauling. Sure the road is filled with surprises, from plane crashes and robo trucks to runaway hitchhikers and abandoned babies, but that all makes for great stories! So Hazmat hatches a plan to make sure Daddy’s dream never becomes a reality. Because there’s only one place Hazmat belongs: in the navigator’s seat, right next to Daddy, with the whole country flying by and each day different from the last.

Professional artists and Sunday painters
Accomplished musicians and shower singers
Published authors and untapped talents

Together in a small, non-threatening group, a right-and-wrong free zone, we’ll play with words, images and music. We are four sisters who live all around the world, and though far away from one another, each has followed a path of using the art to bring herself and others more fully alive! Come write with Louise, draw with Helen, sing with Suzy, and put it all together with Jane.

Enrollment is limited for this one-of-a-kind creative retreat. We’ve held previous Playshops in Sweden, New Zealand, Vermont, and on the North Carolina shore. They fill up fast! If you want to VOTE on where the 2023 retreat should be AND be notified as soon as details are arranged, be sure to leave a post on our Four Sisters Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/foursisters