MVICW Summer Conference Reflection (i.e.: my Martha’s Vineyard Retreat)
Before I heard word about anything connected to my Ireland writing adventures, I received my first big competitive writing application affirmation and win when I heard back from Alexander Weinstein that I was accepted into the Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing. The email (which is screenshotted in my March blog post) initially read as a decline, that I didn’t receive the fellowship that I applied for, he included such a thoughtful, considerate, detailed, and specific reflection with a partial scholarship to attend one of their summer experiences!
And while I wasn’t anticipating going to two writing experiences this summer, I was so thankful that I got to have heartfelt, vulnerable, and creative connections cultivated across the Ireland cohort while I also built beautiful bonds with those badasses by beaches in Martha’s Vineyard. Thank you again for everyone who offer supported to get me to Ireland (this also supported this Martha’s Vineyard adventure). Each offered learnings and insights, but having the first week of my birthday month (which was an exceptionally busy month this year, due to work commitments and finding ways to celebrate my 40th birthday) be in Martha’s Vineyard was a treat of a retreat.
Upon getting accepted, I debated between the three months they were offering the experience (one was in May, which I was running programs during, one on the week of Juneteenth which… I did not want to forgo, and then in September) but what caught my eye was that there was an Enneagrams and Character Building workshop offered on the September week and if anyone’s heard me ramble on about Enneagrams over the last few years, you knew I was in.
After a quick work trip to Virginia, I ventured to Boston a day ahead of the start of learnings. Stayed at a hotel in Boston I could only describe as micro, navigated the buses (i.e.: got distracted with work emails in the morning, missed the early bus I planned to take, didn’t realize there was a 4-hour break in buses, read and wrote at a bar in the terminal, hopped on the first bus I could), had a chance to enjoy a little ferry ride over to the island, arrived in the rain with a few other wayward MVICW travelers, and we all arrived to the cutest house/conference center just in time for the welcome happy hour with the other 75 participants for that week of the experience.
There was so much intentionality incorporated into our time together. Getting to hear from the wonderful writers who wove wisdom throughout their workshops and gave space for each facilitator to read some of their work aloud! Across the mediums, we heard the read their stories (Joy Deva Baglio & Alexander Weinstein), their powerful poetry (Vogue Robinson & Christopher Citro), and their personal narratives (Hannah Bae). This a particular frequency felt when an author reads their own words aloud to an audience. The workshops explored such great topics, some around genre, some around motivation, some around being a writer, and nearly all had generative prompts process forged into them. In addition to the work that we brought with us, those prompts warmed our writing up and allowed us to step away with some amazing new ideas or opting into generated pieces that fit into the large work that we brought to the island. We, the attendees, also had an opportunity to get feedback directly from our facilitators and chance to read our own work aloud as well, either work we’d been working on at the retreat or work we were proud of that we wanted others to hear—such an empowering moment to opt into.
The comparison to “adult summer camp for storytellers” was very much felt for the Martha’s Vineyard and Ireland experiences. My college advisor messaged me that one of her friends from another writing experience would be there and I replied that our new mutual friend had already found me and that connection carried throughout our experience. I was rooming with two other fellas who I got to know throughout the week, each of us writing very different types of stories, but each offering insights and learnings and jubilant energy back to one another. There was a small crew of us from Chicago that found one another (who I now have within my creative circles back home). A group of us came together for a silly game night (a wee bit too boisterous for after quiet hours), different groups of us ventured out to dinner to reflect on learnings and nourish ourselves, another Black writer and I ventured to Oak Bluffs after finishing dinner to meet up with a group (who left hella too early for our likings) to have a Black-ass of dancing night in Martha’s Vineyard, and a group came together one night knowing a few folks would be leaving early and had a mini-salon to share pieces together, some of which got shared aloud a day or two later. Playful joyful vibes rippled between these isles of creativity in the Summer of 2026, on the eve of forty years of my elated existence.
MVICW was very considerate and set up an opportunity for some of the facilitators to read and offer feedback to the pieces we were working on. Joy, who also led the Enneagram and Characters workshop, offered some awesome insight into the first chapter of novel and got to hear the opening pages of chapter two read aloud, which left such a powerful impression for my time there, readying me for the massive edits that await me at the end of this year. That reading was also the first time a read aloud parts of my novel, which was an intensive blundering of powerful, scary, and reassuring all smoothie’d together. When I wasn’t connecting with other writers or in workshops or venturing into various shenanigans, I piecing together parts of the last chapter of the novel (which is not to say I’m done with the novel with only the last chapter to work on, I have several other chapters that aren’t written yet, but the last chapter mirrors the first chapter that was getting reviewed, and those interconnections felt like the right section to write there). I left with a significant dent on the character crafting, outlining of the story, and crafting key scenes that have helped me craft this chapter with such ease.
On my last day there, I wrote out all the cities I planned to visit, from the connections made at MVICW and from Bog & Thunder’s WNW experience, knowing that I would hold mini-retreats for myself and my fellow writers, and that this would seed the path forward in crafting more of the novel, but also watering the ideation seeds that I planted during both experiences. There are several whacky worlds wandering around the Wanzy-mindsphere (and you’ll see some low-stakes pieces appear on my Substack AND you will see some amazing pieces delicately refined appear in literary journals I’m submitting to). I am also looking forward to holding space with like-minded creatives to co-create together and to be community and solidarity with one another.
Both Joy and Christopher drilled in the significance of shopping around well-polished stories (and even portions of my novel) to literary journals so that agents can spot them, advice I’ve shared with my Chicago writers and am now sharing with anyone whose read this rambly blog post. It was also lovely to practice some habits born from my Ireland time with the love cohort and share them in Martha’s Vineyard, knowing now that as a I write, wherever I go, the creative tethers we found this summer would carry us all forward, tug us back to one another, and send ripples of accountability and creativity and silly-playful energy from one storyteller to the other.
The experience leaving was ripe reflection, exiting the house with a new group of wayward wanders, taking a local public transit bus to a different port, exploring some of Oak Bluffs with another creative homie (you’ll see a few of the gingerbread houses featured above this), before arriving to the mainland to the bus with surprise run-ins, big hugs goodbye, and a quiet ride back to Boston (before tumbling back into the work world with a trip directly from Boston to ‘Bama). In Ireland, Autumn Brown mentioned experiences like these are portals that we step into and then back out of, knowing who we are upon entry is rarely who remain to be as upon departure. After all, Octavia E. Butler did note that “the only lasting truth is change.”
I’m looking forward to 2027, which will be heavily grounded in the mentoring experience through the Anaphora Arts Publishing Program (which I am taking out a loan for, but would still welcome any donations for support) and bringing in the practices I have built this year from these two experiences. I am elated to be in writing community with others I met this year. Be it venturing out to author readings in Chicago (or some other cities I’ve promised to go to), seeing folks at AWP in Chicago in March, sending texts and voice-memos and photo updates of accountability to my new writing friends, and running into one another at future writing experiences or seeing all of our names on bookshelves someday soon or sitting beside each other at speaking engagements. Meeting fellow creatives who can just be themselves by being silly, by being playful, by embracing our imaginations, by allowing the magic of creative intimacy ignite connections, forges a force unlike many others. Storytelling as we do was never meant to be solidary, so I’m thankful to all those who I now know after this sensation summer.
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