“To Set the Darkness Echoing”:

A Writing Retreat with Janelle Hanchett

September 12-19, 2026

Apuan Alps, Garfagnana Region, Northern Tuscany, Italy

As a child, they could not keep me from wells 
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses. 
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells 
Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss. 

One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top. 
I savoured the rich crash when a bucket 
Plummeted down at the end of a rope. 
So deep you saw no reflection in it. 

A shallow one under a dry stone ditch 
Fructified like any aquarium. 
When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch 
A white face hovered over the bottom. 

Others had echoes, gave back your own call 
With a clean new music in it. And one 
Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall 
Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection. 

Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime, 
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring 
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme 
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

In 2015, I held my first writing retreat with eight women. They were all from the first writing workshop I had ever taught, and we had been working together for a year.

In a word, it was magic. And you know how I feel about words like “it was magic.”

Only it was, in fact, magic.

The following year, I held my first retreat with 12 people who weren’t in that writing group, and it was, again, don’t make me say it.

We spent mornings on a sunny deck drinking coffee under the coastal redwoods, then headed off to the yurt with a roaring wood stove to discuss various aspects of the craft of writing. We ate lunch together at a massive, ancient wooden table, enjoying food prepared by my best friend, Sarah, who also happens to be an excellent cook who used to run a catering business.

In the afternoons, we spread out around the retreat center and wrote or read or napped, sat in the hot tub or took a dip in the pool. In the evenings, we (well, they, since I don’t drink) sipped wine on the deck and after dinner, gathered around the enormous fireplace in the main ranch house to chat, or workshop one another’s writing, or finish up a workshop discussion from earlier in the day.

We left as friends and better writers. And possibly crying.

These retreats continued every year, and they have been transformative. Since we now live in The Netherlands, we figured we’d better take advantage of, well, Europe. So in 2021, we headed to southern France.

We hiked in the Pyrenees (look, I’m sorry the hike was longer than I thought it would be), got attacked by wild goats at lunch, recovered in ancient Roman baths deep in a valley under the soaring mountains. We visited the local market, laid down on the country road in the middle of the night to look at the stars, and ate croissants every morning from a local bakery.

In 2022 we went to a 10th-century castle in rural Catalunya. While there we learned that it was run by an

in fact built in the 900s lol

order of women for 100 years during the 11th century, which is absolutely unheard of. A whole community of women developed and thrived in the valley, until the Pope decided they had grown too powerful and shut them down.

And when two guests (one of whom is my husband) literally heard women’s voices singing — and they were decidedly not women in our group — the proprietor said “Oh, those are the women in the stones. They are happy you are here, a group of women writers.” I got chills again just now.

We watched a super moon rise over the mountains. We walked to a very, very old hostel where the menu consisted of eight choices, handwritten, and every item came from the farmers in that very valley. We walked home at midnight under a starry night sky you wouldn’t believe.

We took a rack rail train into the Spanish Pyrenees and spent an afternoon at high-mountain lake with cafes and a very friendly Spanish dude renting little boats to paddle around in the sunshine. I can’t make this shit up.

Italy, where we ate every meal

In 2023, we went to Tuscany. I AM NOT ABLE AT THIS MOMENT TO TALK ABOUT ITALY.

(It’s January in The Netherlands and I regret everything.)

And through it all we write, study writing, laugh with and learn from each other.

What I’m saying is this: My retreats are as much about living as they are about writing. They are about experiencing this world in a vivid and authentic way. They’re about just enough adventure (I do about 9 billion hours of research for our activities, but I have never been to where we’re going, so we are up for adventure).

They are not curated perfection.

They are about being awake to this life, the people on this earth, the characters, the stories, the beauty and annoyance and wildness we encounter every day. How else can we write? How can we make art?

Somebody said writers are people who pay attention to things. A man who lives down the road, an 84-year-old painter, told me just yesterday, “To live is to move.” There is so much there – move our bodies, our minds. Move it all. Do not stay where we’ve always been. I’m not out of touch enough to imply that going to European writing retreats is the only way to “live.” For I have known people I love dearly who “moved” until the day they died, possibly at the end only within the walls of their own homes. They moved into new stories, new art, new conversations, new wonder.

To live is to experience.

Real people, real food, real locations, real friendship.

And, at times, real wtf. We’ll pay attention, and we will remember.

Oh, I almost forgot: In October 2024 we visited a very special, very old farmhouse and retreat center set in one of the most beautiful places on earth: the Pyrenees. On our day trip, we went to Collioure, a stunning artists’ town on the Mediterranean.

We can’t wait to go back: for the mountains, the sea, and the donkeys.

Last year, we went to Samos, Greece, hung out with Hera, gazed at sunsets on the Aegean that rendered us silent, moved all the way into the ancient past, and found muses there.

Announcing 2026

And this year, friends, we can talk about Italy again. FINALLY. We’re headed to Tuscany, in the mountains north of Lucca, to a restored 13th century Augustinian monastery called I Romiti.

the region where we’re staying

I saw the stone, the ancient terraces, the old vaulted chapel, the salt water infinity pool and soaring kitchen with a big oak table where we’ll eat together, and I knew it was our place. Had to be.

I Romiti del Torrente is an Augustinian monastery dating back to the 1200s. Situated on 50 acres of ancient chestnut forest, high above the River Turrite in Tuscany’s northern mountainous region, the Garfagnana, we will find ourselves surrounded by history, profound natural beauty, in a place loved and sustainably restored — a place of reflection, creativity, art, to “set the darkness echoing.”

If you tire of the views of the wooded, soaring Apuan Alps, protected by UNESCO since 1985 to preserve Tuscany’s greatest biodiversity (if that’s a thing that actually happens), you can take a walk to the village of Fabbriche di Vallico in 15 minutes (photo below), or venture into the forest on pathways right from the monastery. 

We are near the hilltop town of Barga, the fabulous walled city of Lucca (one of my favorite places in Italy), and the seaside town of Pietrasanta. Pisa (73km) and Florence (100km) can be reached by train. You have got to check out the Garfagnana region. Start here. 

About this space

I want to tell you more about the monastery and its history. I’ll use the owner’s words:

“I Romiti del Torrente can be traced back to Roman times, when it is thought to have served as a fortified watch post for the Roman army.

Its strategic position and perfect orientation for the cultivation of crops secured a future with roles of a very different nature. In 1214, the people of neighbouring Trassilico gifted the fertile lands and buildings known then as l‘Eremo di San Galgano to the hermits who had taken up residence there.

Among their number, Fra Stefano became a founding member of the Tuscan hermits, who evolved into the Order of Saint Augustine. The monks built an imposing church to serve the local community, and the monastery thrived for more than two centuries.

Commercially-minded and well educated, the monks forged iron in the valley below and the famed treasure they were said to hoard was no more than the precious metals that they found in the mountains around them.

However, as the population drifted into the city, the monks struggled to maintain the site and in 1461 it was closed, with the three remaining brothers sent to join a monastery in Lucca. The site was then sold by the Order to a local family in 1550, with the church still active under the curatorship of the local church in Fabbriche di Vallico. Under a succession of private owners the site was enlarged to create an agricultural estate cultivating fruit, nuts and vines on the south facing terraces. The church was extended to provided a sizable family chapel.

By the 20th century, Italian laws of succession had resulted in divisions in the ownership of the church, land and buildings. The church was deconsecrated, and war and depopulation in the area saw a decline, and the eventual abandonment of the once thriving hamlet.

The restoration of I Romiti, which started in 2011, has been undertaken by local craftsmen using local materials and with painstaking attention to the preservation of the historic fabric. Sustainability has been at the heart of the approach: the mountain spring from which the monks drew their water and irrigated their crops still provides the water supply, and state-of-the-art energy and waste management systems ensure minimal impact on the environment.”

Friends, we’re going back to Italy, back to the mountains, to set the darkness echoing in that Tuscan autumn sun.

Let’s check it out:

the monastery and the chapel

just us, way up there in the mountains

DO YOU SEE THE TERRACE. DO YOU.

there are so many little terraces, hideaway spots, tables for one or two or a few or all of us

another little spot to hang out

Can you see yourself writing there?

I have us going to September so its warmer than our usual October — afternoon swims

I mean come on

breakfast and some morning mist

the converted chapel where we’ll have our morning

another shot of the chapel

the monastery itself is art. the wood, the love, the craftsmanship

Can you see yourself writing there?

all of the rooms are en suite (and gorgeous)

stone and oak!

your own space for a week, to do what you will, and be taken care of

the kitchen where Sarah and Mac will make our meals, and a table where we’ll eat them (if not on the terrace)

so much laughter and such good food at meals

I just cannot wait.

the village that’s a 15-minute walk from us

Some more photos from the region:

Barga in the Apuan Alps, very close to where we’ll be. Unreal.

Join us at September 12-19, 2026.

Did you notice this retreat is 7 nights, not our normal 6?! Pretty exciting, no? (And yes, I heard you all telling me six nights is too short – I’m always listening, my friends, sometimes it just takes me a while. ANYWAY.)

We will wake up, eat a lovely breakfast (and consume a lot of coffee and tea), then we’ll set off for 2.5 hours of craft workshops.

We will eat lunch, then have afternoons free for writing, exploring the area, sleeping, chatting. Staring off into the mountains.

You can hike, take a swim, or find a private nook to write in. All suites have their own bathrooms, and there are lots of places for you to be alone to write or read and think.

In the evenings we’ll enjoy dinner prepared by Sarah with locally sourced ingredients. We will reconvene in the evening for discussions and/or workshop writing, or maybe we’ll just hang out.

As always, my approach is this: I want us comfortable, content, friendly, mellow, and having A LOT of possibly raucous fun while also writing and seriously considering our relationship to writing.

Forgive the cliche but we work hard and play hard. I remind writers always that they are spending money on this—and so we shall write. I take my commitment to you very seriously and am honored you trust me as a teacher and mentor.

I built my writing career from 40 blog readers while raising four kids. I published a book in 2018 and have a Master’s degree in English. I see writing in realistic terms and work from a place of pragmatism and honesty instead of airy declarations of the muse: I won’t insist you find “your jewel within” (simply because I don’t know what the fuck that means), but I will remind you how Toni Morrison wrote her first book on a yellow legal pad next to a toddler, who then vomited on it, and how she “wrote around the puke.”

I’m a write-around-the-puke kinda writer. But the thing is, in my opinion, that is the jewel, and it’s one I know well. It’s the one that has in fact changed my life.

We think. We discuss. We get deep into the grit of it. And then we pull back and enjoy our surroundings, food, each other, and life.

I want you to leave with a feeling of experiential transformation. As in, the experience itself adding as much to your writing as the workshops.

Here’s a sample daily schedule: 

So, this retreat is for the writer looking to improve their craft, get writing done, and hang out in Tuscany, Italy.

While we will talk about creative work generally, and focus some on fear and the thought processes that block us from writing, our main focus is on improving our skill in writing. That said, this is not a lecture/school course. This is a dynamic, fun, interactive time for you to hone your craft and learn how doing often affects thinking.

In other words, the act of writing often systematically deconstructs our fears about writing. I will explain this more, but for now, you’ll have to trust me.

This is why I focus mostly on craft. Because if we focus on becoming the best writers we can become, a lot of the mental bullshit will fall away. Or, perhaps better said, it simply becomes irrelevant.

Sleeping Arrangements:

This retreat is open to 12 writers. There are some room and bed options, single to triple occupancy. Below I have listed the room options and prices, but once you send me the application and we’re good to go, I’ll ask you to choose a room. If you know immediately what you’d like, just let me know in the email and I’ll do my best to accommodate (I reserve rooms in order of sign-ups).

Getting there:

You can fly into Pisa or Florence, or even Rome if you’re up for some train rides to get to us. These are all lovely places, and highly recommended.

We will discuss in detail, of course, but we will charter mini busses to pick everyone up in Florence (additional cost). You can also, of course, drive yourself there, just coordinate with me in terms of parking.

This will all be discussed and arranged on planning calls once the retreat is filled. It always works out so smoothly, promise. You will not be left alone. You will meet up with the writers in Pisa or Lucca or Florence and get yourselves happily to the monastery.

We will have a WhatsApp group closer to the event. We will have planning calls and discuss all the things.

I truly hope you join us.

“To Set the Darkness Echoing” 
A Writing Retreat in Greece with Janelle Hanchett

September 12-19, 2026

I Romiti, Tuscany, Italy

Cost: €2900-€3800  (can be paid in installments; please email me to discuss)

Here’s what that cost includes:

• • 7-nights accommodation
  • All of your meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, prepared by Sarah, a professional cook. Healthy, expansive, and locally sourced. Tea, coffee (and wine on the first night).
  • 2.5-3 hours of writing craft instruction each morning (Again, if you’ve attended my retreats/workshops before, don’t worry, the content will be NEW.)
  • Evening time together, sometimes a facilitated discussion or open mic, other times we read each other’s work (reading your work is zero pressure/always optional)
  • Optional hikes and journeys into nearby villages, and other activities (at additional cost as you’re paying the local folks who teach/offer these): pottery, book-binding, woodcut printing, massage. This is not yet decided and will be discussed on our calls to assess group interest.
  • A full day outing. THIS IS ALWAYS A SURPRISE SO DON’T ASK
  • Afternoons are free for writing, reading, staring into the distance. We often end up hanging out, drinking wine (well, I don’t), listening to Mac and Sarah play guitar and sing. Somehow this seems to be everyone’s favorite feature of these retreats. DON’T WORRY I’M NOT OFFENDED.

Here are the rooms available. I cross them off as they fill but leave them here for my own bizarre, boring reasons. (updated January 22, 2026)

1st Floor

Room 1: Double bed in cozy single occupancy room, private bathroom: €3550 (1 of 1 available)

Room 2: Single bed in double occupancy room, private bathroom: €3100 (2 of 2 available)

2nd Floor

Room 3: Single bed in double occupancy room, private bathroom: €3100 (2 of 2 available)

Room 4: Double bed in single occupancy room, private bathroom: €3600 (1 of 1 available)

3rd Floor

Room 5: Double bed in large single occupancy room, small balcony sitting room with sofa, private bathroom: €3700 (0 of 1 available)

Room 6: Double bed in single-occupancy room, private bathroom: €3600 (1 of 1 available)

Room 7: Single bed in triple-occupancy room, private bathroom: €2900 (2 of 3 available)

Room 8: Double bed in single-occupancy small apartment with kitchenette and terrace: €3800 (0 of 1 available)

Here are images of some of the rooms, in no particular order, so you can get a feel for what we’re working with here (heaven):

Note: I will do my very best to accommodate your wishes for the room. I give them out in order of sign-ups. If you would like a particular roommate, please make sure that person has also signed up so I can hold the spot/deny others who want it lol. It’s best to give me 2 options you’d be happy with.  

NOTE: I am unable to guarantee accommodations for limited mobility; please discuss with me options and needs.

HOW TO JOIN US: 

If you would like to join us in September, please apply by emailing me the following information:

• A bit about your writing life, and how this retreat fits into it.
• What are you working on? Or: what do you plan on working on at the retreat?
• A 10-page excerpt of your current project — can be disparate pieces. If you haven’t started the project yet, please just send a 10-page writing sample. This is not about quality and it’s not a competition. It’s just that this retreat is about craft, so it is designed for folks actively writing. I often have another retreat that is for everyone at all stages of writing — those who wish they were, would like to, used to, etc. I’m never about hierarchy or superiority. I am about productive, helpful workshops, though!

*REFUND POLICY: The €400 deposit is non-refundable. The remaining balance (full retreat amount) will be due June 15, 2026. If you cannot attend the retreat after you’ve paid the remaining balance, I will refund you if I can fill the spot, but I must be notified by July 1, 2026. I’m sorry this is so strict. I had a very questionable man a couple of years ago announce to me one week before the retreat that he wouldn’t be paying. Just flat out invented a story and expected to come anyway, for free. One of the most astonishing things I’ve ever experienced. I also once had three people cancel two weeks before the retreat (just bad luck). I try to keep my tuition rates relatively low, and part of that requires making sure all the spots are filled! Is this the longest refund policy ever, and the most ridiculous? I sure hope so. Anyway, by paying the deposit you agree to this policy. Thank you!