Growth
Connect with nature, with inspiration, with others who share your passion for the written word while you learn strategies and tactics to advance your career in writing and marketing. Complete the retreat experience connected to a supportive community of writers, returning to your world with revitalized skills sets and renewed energy to accomplish your goals.
Inkwell & Co.
Connections and Community
Writers’ Retreat to Equip and Inspire
A collaboration by: Reader’s Night & Willpower Creatives
January 16-19th
Connect to fresh insights in workshops led by award-winning author, hal evans, and marketing visionary, Karisa Holland. Concise keynotes will launch discussions and discoveries to guide your free time for writing. Optional sessions will provide deeper dives into helpful hacks and practices.
Location
Connect with fellow writers in the idyllic forest setting of Dragonhead Retreat, where pine trees raise eyes and aspirations to the stars. Surrounded by woodland hills and wildlife, this retreat center near Edom is listed on the national registry for best stargazing locations.
Activities designed to enhance your skills and thrills include:
EnterActive© workshops
Catered communal mealtimes
Free time to write, explore, and make the most of your stay
Hiking and games
Bonfire and story swap under the starry sky (Friday night)
Whiskey Tasting and unwind with songs and stories galore (Saturday night)
Collaborations, if you make them
Community celebration of creations and aspirations (Sunday night)
GET YOUR TICKET
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GET YOUR TICKET •
Meet Your Coaches
hal evans - Author & Playwright
From preschoolers to professionals, hal has presented to and performed for a combined audience of more than 2 million— not counting film and tv roles! As a teaching artist he uses fine arts activities and techniques to elucidate core subjects, as a professor his passions are writing, acting, and coaching fellow artists. The marriage of these fields provides a dynamism to his workshops that participants enjoy in the approach he labels EnterActive©.
First published in high school, his canon of work includes award-winning poetry, prose, songs, articles, essays, and ad copy. More than 30 of his stage plays have been produced, and his debut novel, Come Day In Night, earned both the Nautilus Gold and IBPA Benjamin Franklin Medals for Teen Fiction.
Currently, hal has 5 books written and waiting in the queue for publication, and he is working on two sequels to the novel, three stage plays, and a children’s book— all while touring as an actor, director, instructor, presenter, and coach. He still prioritizes time for his special needs son, Will, and his chief interests: travel, poker, and single malt Scotch.
Novelist: Come Day In Night
Nautilus Gold Medal
IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal
Teen Fiction 2023
Various periodicals
Eleanor Poetry Award
Professors’ Poetry Award
Tiger Rag Poet Laureate
Instructor
Houston Community College, Spring Branch—Associate Professor
Iliff School of Theology, Denver—Colloquium Facilitator, Research Assistant
Lamar University, Beaumont—Graduate Teaching Assistant
Mid-America Arts Alliance, USA—Teaching Artist
Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas—Teaching Artist
Texas Commission on the Arts, Texas—Artist-in-Education
Midsummer Shakespeare Company, USA/London—Founding Director
Troupe d’ Jour, an educational theatre company, USA—Founding Director
SPEED THEATER, Texas—Founding Director
Intrepid Fringe, a theatre production company, Texas—Founding Director
Poet: If I Weren’t Me
NCTE Excellence in Children’s Poetry Award Finalist 2018
ARTYFACTS: Children’s Book Council Showcase Featured 2021-2023
Playwright: 30+ stage plays produced, Houston to London
Songwriter: dozens written, 3 commissioned
Columnist: 1000+ articles/essays published
Copyrighter: 200+ brochures/fliers/posters
Karisa Holland - Realtor ®
Karisa Holland is a Texas real estate agent who believes community grows best when people have space to slow down and connect—often over a good book. A lifelong reader & former teacher, she turned her love of stories into a local movement through events like Reader’s Night, the Ink Stained Book Fair, and her cozy Bookish Craft Club. What started as a creative outlet between closings has become a thriving community of readers, writers, and neighbors who share her passion for meaningful connection and well-loved stories. When she’s not hosting bookish events, Karisa helps families find their next chapter as a Realtor® in Montgomery County, Texas.
Presenter/Lecturer (partial list)
ALAN Conference—Baltimore; Arkansas Communication Theater Arts Association Conference—Eureka Springs, Hot Springs; Arkansas Educator’s Association—Little Rock; Arkansas Teachers’ Co-ops—Arkansas; AWWY Conference—Colorado, Wyoming, Texas; Boy Scouts of America—Colorado, Texas; English Speaking Union—Houston ; Garden Theatre—Houston ; Harcourt-Brace-Jovanovich—Texas; Iris Theatre—London; Lyon College—Batesville; Midwinter Convocation—Texas; Poetry Out Loud— Arkansas & Washington, DC; Regional Education Service Centers 4, 5, 7—Texas; SHSU Young Reader’s Conference—Huntsville & Corpus Christi; Texas Librarian Association Annual Conference—Ft Worth, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio; Texas Librarian Regional Conferences—Texas; Texas Shakespeare Festival—Kilgore; Texas Women’s University Children’s Literature classes—Denton; The Shakespeare’s Globe—London; UIL One-Act Play Adjudicator/Clinician—Texas; United Methodist Church—USA; University of Arkansas—Batesville; University of Louisiana—Lafayette; Up With Youth Convocation—Estes Park, CO