Women's Fall Writing Retreat 2026
November 19-22, 2026
From $5,400 (double occupancy can be accommodated for additional fees)
This November, Tributary Hotel & Spa invites a small group of writers to a four-day literary retreat rooted inland and season — an invitation to slow down, look closer, and write alongside it. Anchored by a private workshop with Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston, the retreat moves guests through McMinnville's vineyards and farms, quiet mornings of in-suite writing time, an art walk and spa afternoon, and evenings of conversation and dinner at ōkta Cellar and ōkta Farm & Kitchen.
Co-produced with Kelly Cox, creator and host of PBS's The Original Fare, the retreat brings a land-to-narrative approach honed over two decades in the field to the experience design throughout. Every element — the pace, the meals, the land itself — is built as both a place to rest and a prompt to write from.
Limited to a small group of guests, this inaugural retreat is the first in what's planned as a recurring seasonal series, pairing Tributary's sanctuary of slow with the Valley's rhythm of land, season, and craft.
Here’s what’s included during the weekend:
• 3 nights’ accommodations in a Tributary Hotel suite
• All meals during the retreat, including in-suite breakfast each morning and farm-driven lunches and dinners from ōkta Farm & Kitchen
• Private workshop and conversation with Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston
• Welcome reception, farm excursion, art walk, and bubbles & book swap party
• Farm-to-hospitality touches throughout — craftsman-style accommodations, fireplaces, writing desks
• Onsite transportation from event to event
Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston leads the retreat's private afternoon workshop, exploring voice, place, and the discipline of noticing — drawn from her own decades of writing rooted in the high desert and rural landscapes of Oregon.
Ellen was appointed Oregon Poet Laureate by Governor Tina Kotek. The Poet Laureate program is a collaborative project of the state's five cultural partners — the Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Humanities, Oregon Heritage Commission, Oregon Historical Society, and State Historic Preservation Office — with funding from the Oregon Cultural Trust.
She is the author of several books of poetry and nonfiction rooted in Oregon's high desert, including the newly released We Could Die Doing This: Dispatches on Ageing from Oregon's Outback and Walking the High Desert: Encounters with Rural America along the Oregon Desert Trail.