The 2025 Sitka Writers Retreat
May 29 - June 2, 2025
featuring Amy Butcher & Brendan Jones
Join award-winning authors Amy Butcher and Brendan Jones for an intimate writing retreat on the picturesque island of Sitka, Alaska to deepen your writing while exploring and experiencing a culturally rich community set against one of the world's last remaining pristine temperate rainforests.
Limited spots available. We offer a 20% discount for members of 49 Writers.
About
In this intimate, all-inclusive retreat, you and a small group of writers will enjoy intensive fiction and nonfiction workshops aimed at generating new content and conceptualizing larger works through master classes, craft talks, in-class writing exercises, and readings. World-class chefs Edith Johnson and Renee Trafton will help cater meals, while Sitka Fine Arts—hosted on the grounds of the historic Sheldon Jackson College—will provide additional food and lodging. Spend your mornings in intensive workshops and craft classes and your afternoons writing or taking pre-arranged excursions. This retreat includes guided hikes through the Tongass National Rainforest, a soak at Goddard natural hot springs, a trip to see rehabilitated bald eagles up close at the Sitka Raptor Center, a sunset boat cruise, and many additional once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
 Sitka, AK by air |  Dip-net salmon fishing in Sitka, AK |  Sitka, AK |
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 View from Harbor Mountain in Sitka, AK |  Tongass National Forest in Sitka, AK |  View of Mt. Edgecumbe in Sitka, AK |
 Tongass National Forest in Sitka, AK |  Grilled salmon in Sitka, AK |  Tongass National Forest in Sitka, AK |
 Describe your image |  Describe your image |  Describe your image |
 Describe your image |  Salmonberries in Sitka, AK |  Sitka, AK |
 All-you-can-eat crab feast in Sitka, AK |  Sitka, AK |  View from Harbor Moutain in Sitka, AK |
Sitka, Alaska
Located between the forest-covered mountains of the Tongass National Forest—North America's largest temperate rainforest—and the pristine Pacific, Sitka is a dynamic Alaskan island town of 8,000 people and countless Alaska brown bears, eagles, sea otters, humpback whales, orcas, ravens, sea lions, puffins, and countless other wildlife.
Cultural Immersion
The island of Sitka, or “Sheet'ka Kwaan,” shares a rich history as one of many villages the Tlingit people established along Alaskan’s southeastern panhandle. Guests ourselves on Tlingit Aáni, Tongass Mist writing instructors Brendan Jones and Amy Butcher consider it a privilege to live, work, and write in this incredible place, and as part of this retreat, you’ll be introduced to indigenous Tlingit history, language, and art through visits to historical and cultural sites.
What To Expect
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3 Days of Intimate Writing Instruction
Award-winning writers Amy Butcher and Brendan Jones have been teaching creative writing individually for several decades and together in Sitka for over a decade. Between them, they've published four books and hundreds of articles, essays, and stories. Over the course of the retreat, they'll offer master craft classes, guided generative writing exercises, and one-on-one conferences with participants.
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Alaskan Tastes & Daily Meals
We’ll gather for daily lunches at the Sitka Fine Arts Campus Cafe—hosted on the grounds of the historic Sheldon Jackson College—while sampling local flavors from world-class chefs Edith Johnson and Renee Trafton for breakfast and lunch.
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02
Guided Wilderness Excursions
This 3-day retreat includes guided hikes through the Tongass National Rainforest, a soak at Goddard natural hot springs, a trip to the Sitka Raptor Center, a sunset boat cruise, and many additional once-in-a-lifetime Alaskan opportunities. Bikes, kayaks, paddle boards, and vehicles are also available for participants to use for individual exploration.
04
On-Site Lodging
Participants are invited to choose between economical, on-site rooms just steps from our writing classrooms on the beautiful Sitka Fine Arts Campus or to rent cozy, private rooms in furnished downtown homes and live-aboard boats. Regardless of which you choose, all lodging is walking distance from campus classrooms, where we’ll host daily classes, craft talks, writing conferences, and readings.
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Central Location
24/7 Support
Our retreat is centrally located and just blocks from the heart of Sitka’s downtown, which features numerous restaurants, shops, a small grocery store, and dozens of cultural and historical sites. Enjoy fireside conversations with retreat writers on campus or venture out to enjoy local bars and art events. Our campus also resides against the Sitka National Historical Park, or "Totem Park," which features numerous carved totems and breathtaking scenic views of the Tongass National Forest, mountains, and ocean.
Tongass Mist Writing Retreat was founded in 2019 and has coordinated countless writing retreats and classes throughout southeastern Alaskan. Our team is passionate about this community and ensuring you have the most invigorating, immersive writing retreat within it. We love Sitka, and we're committed to doing everything in our power to ensure you love it, too!
Meet Your Writing Instructors
Amy and Brendan have been teaching creative writing individually for several decades and together in Sitka for over a decade. They know the community and are eager to share their favorite trails, sites, and experiences with you. Whether it be dinner on the porch at Ludvig’s, warm carrot cake at the Backdoor Café, or the off-the-menu S'mores Calzone at Campfire Pizza, Brendan and Amy will make sure you get the local’s experience and enjoy Sitka as its residents do. Trips include a boat trip to Goddard Hot Springs, wildlife sightseeing tours for whales, bears, and otters, and the opportunity to cold-plunge or enjoy grilled salmon on the beach of a nearby island.
Amy Butcher
Writing Instructor
Amy Butcher is an essayist and author of two books including, most recently, Mothertrucker (Little A, 2021), a hybrid work of memoir and literary journalism that interrogates the realities of female fear, abusive relationships, and America’s quiet epidemic of intimate partner violence set against the geography of remote, northern Alaska. The book earned critical praise from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America, CBS News, The Chicago Review of Books, The Oxford Review of Books, Booklist, and others. Her recent essays have been featured in The New York Times and The Best American Travel Writing and have been awarded notable distinctions in the 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 editions of the Best American Essays series. A graduate of the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program, she is the recipient of teaching and writing fellowships and awards from the University of Iowa, Colgate University, Vermont Studio Center, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, the Ohio Arts Council, Word Riot Inc., and the Stanley Foundation for International Research. She is an Associate Professor of English at Denison University and has taught writing alongside Brendan Jones for over a decade at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Sitka, Alaska. More on Amy here.
Brendan Jones
Writing Instructor
Brendan Jones is the author of two books and an essayist, novelist, and journalist who writes about environmental issues concerning the Tongass rainforest. His most recent book, Whispering Alaska, was the winner of the 2022 Green Earth Book Award, and his novel, The Alaskan Laundry, was awarded the 2017 Alaskana Prize by the state library association and longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, and Sierra Magazine. He is a former Stegner Fellow and the recipient of a Fulbright to Russia. He lives in Sitka, Alaska, with his wife, three daughters, six chickens, and one dog, and he has taught writing alongside Amy Butcher for over a decade at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Sitka, Alaska. More on Brendan here.
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Retreat Coordinator
Ruth Underhill created Tongass Mist Writing in 2019 as a creative writing resource for community and craft development in Southeast Alaska. Tongass Mist Writing offers retreats, workshops and creative writing resources such as coaching, editing, event planning and community action for the arts. Tongass Mist Writing offers these services with deep gratitude for the privilege of living in and sharing the unceded ancestral lands since time immemorial of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people. She is always learning more about this place and its people through the generosity of the land and friends in Sitka, Juneau, and other Southeast Alaskan communities.
Ruth Underhill
Retreat Coordinator
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Ruth holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing with a focus on Creative Nonfiction from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She teaches creative writing for the University of Alaska Southeast and has read on KCAW public radio for Sitka Tells Tales and the Library Hour show.​ You can read her essay about the intersections of nature and shift work on Past Ten, an online literary journal. Ruth has organized creative music and writing events for healthcare professionals at two Alaska medical centers. Most recently, Ruth spoke about the challenges of living in natural rhythm as it relates to healthcare for the "I'd Love To But I'm So Tired" podcast. She was the Tenakee Springs Writer-in-Residence Summer 2023. Ruth loves to travel and has lived in 9 states, and four continents. She spent 20 years in the nursing profession and has called Alaska her home since 2016. When she sits down to write, Ruth writes about the intersections of nature and everyday lived experiences in healthcare, war, family and cultural blending through poetry, lyrical essays and memoir.
Get In Touch
Retreat Dates:
Thursday, May 29, 2025 (arrive & welcome gathering)
Friday, May 30, 2025 (classes and excursions)
Saturday, May 31, 2025 (classes and excursions)
Sunday, June 1, 2025 (classes and excursions)
Monday, June 2, 2025 (depart)
Address:
Contact:
110 College Dr
Sitka, AK 99835
Ruth Underhill, Retreat Coordinator