Writing Workshops & Retreats
on Zoom and in-person
Work with us directly in a small, supportive group of writers.
When you write in the Imaginative Storm, you’ll write in a way you’ve never written before. You’ll surprise yourself, even amaze yourself. And you’ll draw confidence and direction from the appreciative feedback of the other writers in the workshop.
By the end of even a single-session workshop, you’ll become acquainted with your voice, and you’ll be well on the way to transforming your inner critic into your valued ally. Plus, you’ll have sparky new material for your work-in-progress, or perhaps you’ll realize you’ve started something new!
Zoom Workshops
Creative Memorization
Single-session Zoom workshop
With memorization master James Navé
February 17, 2025, 6-9 pm ET
In this 3-hour workshop, you’ll learn easy techniques for making a poem live in your memory. It’s much easier and more fun than you might think!
Easier – because you'll learn how to play with words.
More fun – because you'll enjoy the play, even when it’s challenging.
You can't force a garden to grow and you can't force a poem to take root in your heart, but if you cultivate it with love, it will become part of you.
Navé has memorized over 600 poems, and as you know if you’ve spent any time with him, he can quote reams of poetry at will. Wouldn’t you like to know just one or two, and know they’ll never leave you?
“Write What You Don’t Know”
10-session Zoom masterclass
Explore the Imaginative Storm method with co-creator James Navé
Next course February 4 – April 16, 2025
11 sessions, Tuesdays, 3–5:30 pm PT / 6–8:30 pm ET
Limited to 14 participants
Retrain your inner critic into your inner cheerleader
Banish writer’s block for good
Find your authentic writing voice
Fill your writing with emotional power
Learn to write fearlessly. Surprise yourself!
The course includes:
phone support from Navé between sessions
privately-shared recordings of all sessions
You’ll finish the course with 40 pieces of writing that will either add a new dimension to your existing project, or send you well on your way into a new one!
““Navé is a superb facilitator, the other participants are smart and supportive, and I’m writing more freely than I have before. It’s working!”
— S.K., New York City
Live Workshops and Retreats
“Write Without Limits”
4-day Writing Retreat
with Allegra Huston and James Navé in legendary Taos, New Mexico
April 20 – 24, 2025
Limited to 12 participants – only a few spots left!
Transform your writing, and your approach to writing, forever. In four enjoyably intense days with Allegra and Navé, you’ll discover how to surprise yourself on the page, how to tell your story with authenticity and originality, and how to suffuse your writing with personality and emotion. You’ll learn easy techniques designed to open the gateways into the highest peaks and deepest dells of your imaginative intelligence.
Say goodbye to writer’s block forever
Turn your inner critic into your most valuable and trusted ally
Get acquainted with your authentic writing voice
Fill your writing with passion, purpose, and power
We’ll be based at historic Hacienda del Sol, in the heart of legendary artistic haven Taos, New Mexico. You’ll write in the room that once hosted D.H. Lawrence, Carl Jung, Aldous Huxley, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Plus, you’ll eat delicious breakfasts at the Hacienda, visit the studios of working artists, and enjoy a farewell dinner around Allegra’s kitchen table.
Imaginative Storm Plus!
5-day Creativity Retreat
with Allegra Huston, James Navé, and Sarah Gillespie in Asheville, North Carolina
September 2025
Limited to 16 participants
We’re thrilled to welcome acclaimed singer-songwriter Sarah Gillespie, joining us for this once-in-a-lifetime workshop. With her distinctive mix of blues, rock, and jazz, Sarah headlines venues and festivals across Europe, as well as mentoring songwriters privately. This will be her first public workshop!
Sarah’s approach to songwriting mirrors the Imaginative Storm approach to writing prose and poetry. In five pleasurably intense days at beautiful Lake Eden retreat center, you’ll learn how to let your imagination run free, and generate ideas and insights that will amaze you.
Whether you’re already a songwriter or would like to explore songwriting as part of an Imaginative Storm workshop, you’ll discover new depths in your writing, and talent you didn’t know you had. You’ll learn how to surprise yourself on the page, how to tell a story with authenticity and originality, and how to shape your work into something that intrigues a reader or a listener.
You’ll leave with a powerful set of tools to take into the rest of your writing life. This workshop will change your writing, and your approach to your writing, forever.
“Write What You Don’t Know” 2-Day Intensive
with Allegra Huston in lovely Paonia, Colorado
May 16 – 17, 2025
Limited to 10 participants
We’ll meet for two enjoyable, exciting days in gorgeous Paonia, Colorado, with two 2.5-hour sessions each day. Writing to 5-minute and 10-minute prompts, you’ll explore the riches of your imagination, and discover the story that’s yours alone to tell.
You’ll learn easy techniques to pack your writing with emotional power
You’ll discover your authentic writing voice
You’ll learn how to pacify your inner critic and develop your inner cheerleader
You’ll develop a new confidence in your writing
You’ll banish writer’s block for good
This short, exciting plunge into the Imaginative Storm method will equip you with a powerful set of tools to take into the rest of your writing life—and change your approach to writing forever.
5-Day Memoir Retreat
with Allegra Huston in historic Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Spend five days in beautiful Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, a UN World Heritage Site, and discover the possibilities for what your memoir might be. Return home energized and inspired by five intensive days of exploration, insight, and revelation.
You’ll spend the mornings with the group discussing the elements of memoir and writing to Imaginative Storm prompts. In the afternoons, Allegra will meet with each person individually, twice, for an hour (often more) each time, to give you whatever help you need: brainstorming, editorial notes, publishing advice, or just plain cheerleading.
What you write in this workshop will add depth and dimension to the story you already have—and it may even change your idea of your memoir completely! What you write in this thrilling week will amaze you—we promise.
October 7 – 12, 2025
Limited to 8 participants