The Seventh Annual Sandhill Writers Retreat will renew the writer in you. The full-day retreat takes place on the beautiful, serene University Campus, located in rural Saint Leo, Florida, approximately 35 miles north of Tampa. The retreat features sixteen hands-on writing classes in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, poetry performance, and publishing. Classes will focus on lessons in craft and imaginative exercises that lead to new works and new skills. Also included are a faculty reading and book signing, and an optional lunch-time open reading for participants. A very limited number of private one-on-one manuscript consultations is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Retreat classes will be led by a nationally-acclaimed faculty. Visiting faculty include NPR commentator and author Ravi Howard (Like Trees, Walking; Driving the King), recipient of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence; nonfiction writer Elizabeth Lanser Rose (For the Love of a Dog; Body Sharers); Poet Laureate of Orlando, Susan Lilley (Venus in Retrograde); Lisa Roney (Serious Daring: Creative Writing in Four Genres; The Best Possible Bad Luck; Sweet Invisible Body), Editor-in-Chief of The Florida Review and Aquifer: The Florida Review Online; and Caleb Sarvis (Dead Aquarium), senior fiction editor of Bridge Eight Press.
These renowned writers will be joined by Saint Leo writing faculty members Steve Kistulentz (Panorama and the poetry collections Little Black Daydream and The Luckless Age); Patrick Crerand (The Paper Life They Lead); performance poet Marissa Glover; veteran writer Brooke King (War Flower: My Life after Iraq); and poets Anne 
Barngrover (Brazen Creature) and Gianna Russo (Moonflower; One House Down).
The Sandhill Writers Retreat is open to writers of all levels who wish to hone the craft and renew the joy of writing. Teachers, students, the military, and the general public are all invited to attend.
For information, and registration click here.
New this year: Master Classes! In response to participant feedback, this year the retreat expands to include half-day master classes in poetry, fiction, nonfiction and writing for veterans. Taught by Saint Leo Creative Writing faculty, master classes are suitable for experienced writers. Acceptance is determined through manuscript submission and limited to six participants per class. Each master class will include expert craft talks and a writing workshop that focuses on a discussion of your work. Master Classes take place on Friday, May 17, 2019, from 1-4:30 pm on campus. Click here to apply and view more information on our Master Classes.
Hotel accommodations are available at:
• Hampton Inn – Wesley Chapel
• Hampton Inn – Dade City
Saint Leo University is a modern Catholic teaching university that is firmly grounded in the liberal arts tradition and the timeless Benedictine wisdom that seeks balanced growth of mind, body, and spirit. The Saint Leo University of today is a private, nonprofit institution that creates hospitable learning communities wherever students want to be or need to be, whether that is a campus classroom, a web-based environment, an employer’s worksite, a military base, or an office park. Saint Leo welcomes people of all faiths and of no religious affiliation, and encourages learners of all generations. The university is committed to providing educational opportunities to the nation’s armed forces, veterans, and their families. Saint Leo is regionally accredited to award degrees ranging from the associate to the doctorate, and the faculty and staff guide all students to develop their capacities for critical thinking, moral reflection, and lifelong learning and leadership.
The university remains the faithful steward of the beautiful lakeside University Campus in the Tampa Bay region of Florida, where its founding monks created the first Catholic college in the state In 1889. Serving nearly 12,000 students, Saint Leo has expanded to downtown Tampa, to other sites in Florida and beyond, and maintains a physical presence in seven states. The university provides highly respected online learning programs to students nationally and internationally. More than 93,000 alumni reside in all 50 states, in Washington, DC, in three U.S. territories, and in 76 countries.
Media contact: For more information, contact Jo-Ann Johnston, Saint Leo University media coordinator, (352) 588-8237 or jo-ann.johnston@saintleo.edu.
