McGee Island, Maine
writing retreat for women
Next door at the Cook House, a renovated antique cape, you’ll find breakfast and lunch set out for foraging each day, and sumptuous dinners will be served in the dining room every night. Late afternoons in the Main House, you can drop in to read-and-critique sessions, if the wood-fired sauna doesn’t beckon you.
All bedrooms have views of the ocean, the forest or the fields; many have their own private entry from outside. Some rooms are shared, some are singles, but each has its own charm. Every bed is fitted with a heated mattress pad for cool nights. Claw-footed tubs are many, and off the back porch is an outdoor shower you just might develop a passion for.
Step off the dock at Port Clyde and aboard the Defiance, and be transported to a place few ever get to see—McGee’s Island, a 110-acre private island rife with rocky coves and beaches, fields, forest, and wildlife, and all of it surrounded by the Atlantic. Three miles from the coast, you’ll arrive in a small cove nestled between Barter and McGee’s Islands, where you’ll join a small group of fellow women writers for the Salty Quill Writers Retreat.
The Salty Quill
Your accommodations will be in the Main House, a grand turn-of-the-century shingled summer home, rich with antiques worn for comfort and relaxation. There, you’ll find a massive fieldstone fireplace, an extensive library, a baby grand piano, an outdoor shower, interior wooden walls patinated with 100 years of history. You’ll find plenty of cozy sofas and easy chairs in rooms facing the water. From rockers on covered, open and enclosed porches, you can gaze out over the cove, nap, or find the perfect word. And if you’d rather gaze into your phone or laptop, wifi and cell-phone service are available.
If you want to explore, you might wander the island’s shoreline on foot, kayak, or canoe, or take the fields and paths through the woods. You won’t find any bears, but you might spot ospreys, bald eagles, kingfishers, seals, and deer.
To reserve a spot, or get more information, check out the Application & Details pages, and contact us at retreat@thesaltyquill.com for an application.