WRITING RETREATS AND WORKSHOPS
Flow State River Retreat
Sept. 18-22 2026
Who: Writers, editors, and creative thinkers
What: Guided multi-day whitewater trip
Where: Middle Fork of the Salmon River
Why: Get off-grid to incubate big ideas
Brought to you by The Waterproof Notebook and Middle Fork Rapid Transit, this new guided backcountry float trip offers 5 days and 4 nights to unplug, reflect, connect, and find your flow state on 75 miles of wild river.
Led in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer/editor Mark Warren, this special edition river adventure is curated for writers, editors, and creative leaders who need uninterrupted time in the flow state to incubate big projects and ideas. Non-writers are also welcome to apply. Space is limited to ensure small-group intimacy.
Getting off the grid and immersed in nature will reset your nervous system and allow the kind of deep thinking that isn’t possible amid the interruptions and demands of daily life and work. You can workshop your ideas (optional) in community with other big thinkers, get one-on-one time with Mark and Kim, attend small-group breakout sessions, and enjoy pockets of solitude to think and write between immersive adventures on the river. Whether you’re wrapping your head around a book, imagining the next chapter of your life, or simply in need of a break from the ever-loving grind, this wilderness excursion will send you home recharged with clarity and momentum.
The Middle Fork is a trip of a lifetime—period. Among the world’s most legendary whitewater rivers, it’s one the only ways to explore Idaho’s 2.3-million-acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, the largest US wilderness in the Lower 48. In September, the river promises mellower rapids, swimmable temps, and stargazing in the nation’s first gold-tier International Dark Skies Reserve. Opt-in adventures include fly fishing for native westslope cutthroat trout, soaking in hot springs, and guided hikes to petroglyphs, historic sites, and staggering views of a gorge deeper than the Grand Canyon. On the river, you can relax on an oar boat rowed by a guide, run rapids in a splashy paddle boat, or pilot your own inflatable kayak “duckie.”
Explore the wilderness in rustic luxury. You’ll wake up to coffee and a hot breakfast, refuel on the river with a made-from-scratch lunch, and float into each night’s riverside camp, where guides have set up your tent and laid out a happy-hour spread of apps and drinks. We’ll have a fireside discussion about storytelling craft and workshop ideas during a gourmet dinner (a typical menu includes grilled salmon, fresh veggies, wine or beer, and Dutch oven desserts), then leave you time to write before falling asleep on the plushest sleeping pads on the river. Pro tip: Forgo your tent and sleep under the stars (the Middle Fork has few mosquitoes).
Sawtooth Writing Retreat
Sept. 23-26, 2026
Who: Writers of all genres and levels
What: 4-day retreat in the Sawtooth Mountains
Where: Near Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho
Why: Write and learn in a diverse community that welcomes writers of all genres and levels
Elevate your writing under the stars in the mountains that inspired Ernest Hemingway. Designed for adults who wish to elevate their writing skills and connect with a community of serious writers, this retreat takes place at a rustic summer camp 17 miles outside Ketchum, the mountain town where Hemingway lived and wrote during the final years of his life.
This is a retreat for all writers. For dreamers of sentences, for hopers of ideas, for the subtle storytellers and the powerful prose slingers. This is a retreat for would-be, wanna-be, have-been, still-are, crafters of words, poems, memoirs, novels, or really great Christmas letters. This is a retreat for the writer seeking community, guidance, craft, and support. This is a retreat for the creative who knows that space, nourishment, and nature are the elixir of inspiration.
The Sawtooth Writing Retreat is all about “getting away” and offering writers the opportunity to focus solely on their creative energies and pursuit of writing. We appreciate the way the rustic setting of the Retreat (think childhood camp) in the mountains of Idaho allows the mind the freedom to wander and discover, as well as connect with the natural landscape. Connection to surroundings is integral to any good writing, no matter the genre.
The workshop structure is designed to allow for extensive engagement with the craft of writing, while also allowing freedom to explore what best fits the needs of each writer. We offer eight dynamic workshops on different topics, evening talks and stargazing, opportunities for sharing work, and guided—or unguided—writing time. We invite you to custom-design your ideal retreat—pick and choose from a menu of workshops and other events, and also set aside blocks of uninterrupted time to think and write or hike and reflect in a beautiful natural setting conducive to reflection.
We value socializing, too, through communal meals and hanging out with other writers of various backgrounds and interests away from the constraints and responsibilities of our everyday lives. Because sometimes what a writer needs most is other writers.
One other thing that sets this workshop apart is our extraordinary food. Meals (included!) are made from fresh, seasonal ingredients and cooked on-site by chef Carissa Cooper of NourishMe in Ketchum. We eat trout from local waters, goat cheese from local goat farms, produce from the area. Everything is local… except the avocados! (She also accommodates all dietary needs and restrictions.)
PICTURE YOURSELF HERE
