Tongass Mist Writing LLC

April 12-16th, 2023 Retreat Team

Learn More About Our Visiting Writer, Organizer & Location

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Rita Banerjee

Rita Banerjee is a multi-genre author and editor of CREDO: An Anthology of Manifestos and Sourcebook for Creative Writing. She is the author of the poetry collection Echo in Four Beats, which was named one of Book Riot’s “Must-Read Poetic Voices of Split This Rock 2018”, the novella “A Night with Kali” in Approaching Footsteps, and the poetry chapbook Cracklers at Night. She received her doctorate in Comparative Literature from Harvard University and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington, and has taught at Harvard, UC Berkeley, University of Munich, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and LIU Brooklyn. Her work appears in PANK, Poets & Writers, Tupelo Quarterly, Nat. Brut., Isele Magazine, Academy of American Poets, South Asian Avant-Garde, Kweli Journal, Electric Literature, VIDA, Los Angeles Review of Books, Vermont Public Radio, and elsewhere. She is an Editor-at-Large of the South Asian Avant-Garde, Executive Creative Director of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, and co-writer and co-director of Burning Down the Louvre (2023), a documentary film about race, intimacy, and tribalism in the United States and in France. She received a 2021-2022 Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council for her new memoir and manifesto on female cool, and one of the opening chapters of this new memoir, “Birth of Cool” was a Notable Essay in the 2020 Best American Essays. Her writing is represented by literary agent Jamie Chambliss of Folio Literary Management, and you can follow her work at ritabanerjee.com or @Rita_Banerjee.

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Rita's visit to Sitka is much anticipated and retreat size is limited to 12 writers. We hope to see you there! Please click on the button above for full information about this retreat or contact tongassmistwritingretreat@gmail.com

 Ruth Underhill 

Tongass Mist Writing is owned and operated by Ruth Underhill, a local Sitkan with a dream to see more writers experience and cherish the Tongass National Forest. Ruth shapes retreats and writing resources to allow artists to carry its wild beauty into their diverse and empowered writing . Ruth Underhill is a retreat organizer, writing coach, workshop facilitator, crafter of essays and poetry and a nurse who works across Alaska when she is not enjoying time at home. She has taught writing for the University of Alaska.

Ruth adores living in the mists of the Tongass with the knock of raven call and sound of rocks rolling up the shores of this beautiful Tlingit Aáni land where she lives as a very lucky guest. 

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Tongass Mist welcomes its second visiting writer to Sitka in April 2023. Rita Banerjee (www.ritabanerjee.com) will join us on the Sitka Fine Arts Campus April 12-16th for a four day retreat featuring wilderness excursions, generative writing salons, readings by a fire, literary craft talks and the incomparable experience of creating, enjoying a welcoming art community in the heart of the Tongass National Forest. Rita comes to visit us with incredible experience writing, film making, teaching, publishing and directing writing programs across the country. 

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Sitka Fine Arts Camp

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This is the second retreat Tongass Mist Writing has held at Sitka Fine Arts Camp. The facilities are beautiful. Writers who attend our retreat here will feel removed from their daily rush and set in the majestic proximity of mountains, ocean and rainforest. This campus is a rich experience of both wilderness and art. Writers will find their lodgings comfortable. Meals are served under the same roof as lodging with the option to take occasional meals independent of the retreat schedule at any number of cafes. Writing sessions will be held on campus with visiting writer Rita Banerjee. A separate writing room is provided for writers who wish to step back from the retreat schedule and spend extended time in writing throughout the retreat. There will be three evening readings. Daily excursions include a private wildlife viewing marine cruise and a polar plunge/sauna session. We hope to see you soon in the incomparable beauty of the Tongass. Join Us.