Attention Maryland and regional writers, essayists, and poets, hear-ye hear-ye, there’s a long-weekend Writer’s Conference from Nov. 12-15, 2026, happening in Baltimore County, Maryland, called, the “Manor Mill 2026 Writers Retreat.” There’s a link with details below (when you click for “more”). There are four craft panels going simultaneously four times per day, so there’s plenty of choice and about five total hours of craft classes open to attendees, per day. Come and drink your fill. The conference also is open for day-pass attendance as well as residential attendance based at Oldfields School, 1500 Glencoe Rd, Sparks Glencoe, Md. 21152, and also the Manor Mill, 2029 Monkton Road, Monkton, Md. 21111.
To learn more and cut to the chase, just go to the conference website here: https://www.manor-mill.com/events/writers-retreat. I believe this is the second annual edition and larger than last year.
II. Yup, I’m Involved Too.
I’ll be teaching two sessions myself, on Friday and Saturday, one that I taught a few years ago, and one I’ve thought of for about three years, and am very excited to debut! They are “Sticking the Landing: Playing With Last Lines of Poems” on Friday at 1pm, Nov. 13, and then “Crafting a Poetry Manuscript: Trends and Techniques” on Saturday morning, 10:30 am, Nov. 14, 2026. Jazzed to do, it’s so true.
In looking at poetic endings, we are going to focus on genre of the landing, such as the conclusion, which can be effective, but of course is overused. We’ll encounter our friend the image, the sonic emphasis, the “declarative flag,” and among a few others, the refrain, which is underused but making a come back.
In “Crafting a Poetry Manuscript: Trends and Techniques,” the whole description’ is below. Who knows, maybe someone will write a book improved by this brainstorm, and down the road, will drop me a note.
Crafting a Poetry Manuscript: Trends and Techniques: Here we’ll examine four innovative books of poetry for how they organize their unfolding, punctuated by two generative brainstorms to conceptualize where you are as well as those places you might go. Beginning with the three-part structure of Jericho Brown’s Pulitzer-winning The Tradition (Copper Canyon 2019), we explore the atmospheric, mimetic structure of unfolding in Vievee Francis’ Horse in the Dark (NW Univ. Press, 2012), then the disorientating logic of Whereas by Layli Long Soldier (2017), to close with Maryland-based Liz Hazen’s thematic The Sky Will Hold (2026). Two generative interludes will invite you to map what you have, then play with alternatives. This workshop is ideal for someone with a draft poetry manuscript, or, twenty or so poems aiming there. Bring your pages. Participants don’t need to read each book in advance to appreciate their arcs, but doing so, before or after, should be inspiring.
Once more, the website has the details, panel topics, pricing, and panelists: https://www.manor-mill.com/events/writers-retreat
Stay free, stay funky, stay fresh.
Cheers,
G. H. Mosson
Maryland, USA