Thank you for visiting the Soul Mountain Retreat online fundraising page. Soul Mountain Retreat, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was established in 2004 by poet, Marilyn Nelson, while serving her tenure as Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut .  Our mission, to encourage and support emerging and established poets – especially those belonging to traditionally underrepresented racial or cultural groups – by offering brief guest residencies at Soul Mountain Retreat, is achieved through the creation of an environment where writers enjoy contemplative writing time, the respectful companionship of peers and mentors, and the inspiration of the natural surroundings in a diverse and intimate community that honors the freedom and the responsibility of the creative act.

Since opening its doors to its first visiting residents, Soul Mountain Retreat has established ongoing relationships with writing programs from the African Continuum Theater Company, Cave Canem, the University of Connecticut , Sarah Lawrence College,  New York University, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison .  Through programs like Spring Break Fellows and Poetry Day, Soul Mountain Retreat has created opportunities for over forty poets and writers to devote time to their craft in an inspiring environment.  Our Spring Break Fellows program, which began with the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College has grown to include MFA student poets from New York University and the University of Wisconsin , Madison . We also have partnered with Cave Canem to bring writers from their workshops to retreat at Soul Mountain Retreat annually.

The benefits of the retreat experience are numerous.  “It’s not just about the time and space to write, but it’s also about the community that was given to me during that time that helped me grow as a person and thus helped my writing to expand,” is how Samantha Thornhill described her experience at Soul Mountain Retreat. Devorah Major, former poet laureate of San Francisco, says “The beauty and peacefulness of the space, the environment where everyone was writing, thinking or, in some way embracing or reviewing their own work, the lack of other obligations beyond the word – the lack of sirens at night…” were some of the benefits of her stay at Soul Mountain Retreat.

Works created by poets and writers while in residence at Soul Mountain Retreat have been published in literary publications such as Crab Orchard Review, The New York Quarterly, Black Issues Book Review, Skidrow, New York Native, Gertrude, Mudfish, and Christopher Street.  Soul Mountain Retreat itself has been the subject of articles in publications ranging from Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine and the New York Times to Poets and Writers and significant press coverage at the local and regional levels.

Soul Mountain Retreat has partnered with local organizations to provide venues for its retreat writers to present public readings of their work.  Soul Mountain writers have read at The Gilded Edge gallery in Salem, CT,  Central Gallery in Old Saybrook, CT,  and at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT.

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Please visit us on the web at www.soulmountainretreat.com.