The Motherlode Retreat:
Mastering the Art of Writing About Our Mothers
April 28–May 2, 2027
The Barns at Boyds Mills · Milanville, PA
You want to write about your mother. You keep trying but find yourself going in circles.
You’ve got good material. You're motivated. But you’re a bit stuck.
What if there were a place where you could explore that messy, challenging relationship with your mother? Where you could learn some techniques to get unstuck? Where you felt safe and supported to work through the material? And you were surrounded by other women working through this complicated material we call the motherlode?
At The Motherlode Retreat, we dive straight into the heady challenge of writing about your mother. Whether you write memoir, fiction, poetry, screenplays, or song or just want to explore this material, join us as we work together on this material with honesty and compassion.
In daily group sessions, we'll:
address tough material and shape it on the page
use point of view to access memories and recollections
recreate what's been lost or we can't quite remember
distinguish the difference between a voice of innocence and a voice of experience
learn from and adapt successful approaches other writers have used to write about their mothers
apply new techniques to your work
What our writers say
"Special time spent writing about
The Motherlode."
"I cannot say enough about how Diana conceptualized, organized, and facilitated this special time spent writing about The Motherlode.
It was a heavy topic, but it never felt overwhelming or unsafe, thanks to the carefully crafted flow of instruction, easy socialization, and dedicated processing and writing time.”
–Eden S.
"Perfect place to unplug and allow my creativity to flow."
Diana and Val have a wonderful style that encouraged clarifying questions and made complex concepts easy to understand. Diana incorporated many examples of great writing that illustrate the concepts, along with a highly relevant reading list. The location was the perfect place to allow my mind to expand and creativity to flow.
- Molly W.
"Good mix of instruction, writing time, and fellowship."
Diana and Val provided an encouraging environment, offering valuable tools and unique prompts to help writers of all experience levels put pen to paper. This was my first writing retreat, and it offered a good mix of instruction, relevant readings, writing time, and opportunities for relaxation and fellowship.
- Lindsey W.
Your Facilitators
Diana Friedman is an award-winning author, editor, and writing coach whose work has appeared in New Letters, The Huffington Post, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun, Gargoyle, and Brevity Blog, among others.
She is the recipient of the Alexander Patterson Cappon Fiction Prize and a Pushcart Prize nomination, and has held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Cill Rialaig (Ireland), and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
She received her MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and has taught at the University of Maryland, Writopia Lab, and the Washington/Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis.
Diana is the founder of Pyrenean Writing Retreats and author of the Substack newsletter Under the Red Pen. Her writing has taken her deep into the territory of family and motherhood.
Valerie Berton is an editor and writer who brings clarity to both the big picture – What is your story telling? Are your characters compelling? Does your dialogue ring true? – and sentence structure and word choice.
After a career in journalism and communications, including speechwriting and leading public affairs teams at four government
agencies, Val turned to creative writing and editing full time for KindWrite. She works as a proofreader at Cleaver Magazine and mentors emerging writers at Girls Write Now. Her recent essay "Hasty Exit" will appear in the B Cubed Press anthology Alternative Liberties II (late 2026) and her Lost Connection memoir was published in Adelaide Literary Journal.
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