In Great Need of a Retreat, and @CWPFairfield Feels Fortunate to Be Hosted At Enders Island in Mystic

Michael White, the Director of the MFA program at Fairfield University asked me to visit Enders Island in January to learn more about the low residency program he hosts. At the time, we discussed bringing 12 teachers from CWP-Fairfield to Enders Island during the summer so they could sit in on writing workshops, experience the gorgeous setting of the sanctuary- on-the-sea that resides on the Long Island sound just miles before it meets the ocean. Today, we arrived to fog and an 80% prediction of rain, but then it lifted at 11 a.m. and we had a perfect day for meeting with writers, walking the island, looking at the water, visiting the church and history, and reflecting on our own writing.

I was more than surprised when, at lunch, they served corn fritters with maple syrup. The only word for this is STOKED and I had two helpings, thinking of my grandmother Vera. Then, as Attallah Shephard of New London, Connecticut, visited to perform some spoken word with our teacher group, a few butterflies chose to flutter through our tent. Thanks, Grannie Annie.

The only trouble with our day was that it was short-lived and didn't last as long as it could have. We needed more time to process the experience, to sit by the water, to absorb the grounds, and to interact with the writers on retreat. With knowledge that we've been working overtime at Fairfield University's campus, it was a tremendous change of pace to be with Michael White, the authors who work with him, and the students in the MFA program. Feeling blessed, indeed.