fourteenth Annual Writing Down the Baja

february 15-23, 2025

Todos Santos, BCS, Mexico

When you join Writing Down the Baja you will enjoy seven full days of workshops and writing for the 2025 creative writing retreat. Join award-winning author Ellen Waterston for a generative week of writing that explores the intersection of poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction and will encourage experimentation with language, format and genre. Reserve now for Writing Down the Baja 2025, celebrating the 14th year of Todos Santos’ longest-running creative writing workshop.

Please direct all questions concerning Writing Down the Baja, as well as lodging questions, to info@writingranch.com.

Here’s what you can expect:

daily writing workshops
multi-genre explorations
optional one-on-one Manuscript Lab sessions for writers with a prose or poetry manuscript needing a jump-start or fine-tuning
anthology of writing by 2025 participants
outstanding lineup of guest faculty and evening presenters
turtle hatchling release
gourmet Mexican cuisine served at Serendipity and sampled at selected restaurants in Todos Santos (included in participant fee)
Saturday night finale fiesta including participant reading
guided field trip

Writing Down the Baja
Writing Down the Baja morning sessions are for emerging writers and writers returning to their practice of writing. Prompts are designed to improve craft, be it poetry or prose, and also enrich participants’ Baja experience.

Manuscript Lab
Do you have a prose or poetry manuscript that needs a jump-start or fine-tuning? If there is interest, Manuscript Lab one-on-one sessions after lunch will be offered on select afternoons. These one-on-ones are for mapping a project, honing writing goals, or receiving critical feedback on a portion of a manuscript or collection of poems in development. A signup sheet will be posted. Poets: bring ten poems; prose writers: two chapters. There is an additional fee of $65 per person for these one hour sessions.

What You Can Expect:

Schedule (Schedule subject to change)

Saturday, February 15:
Arrive San Jose del Cabo
Shuttle service to Serendipity, Todos Santos
Check-in
5:30 pm: Welcome Reception for day and full-time retreat participants
6:30 pm: Dinner at Serendipity

Sunday, February 16:
8:00 a.m.: Breakfast served at Serendipity
9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.: Morning workshop
12:30 p.m.: Lunch served at Serendipity
1:30 - 5:00 p.m.: Writing time
5:00 p.m.: Reception and reading by Ellen Waterston
6:30 p.m.: Dinner at Serendipity

Monday, February 17:
8:00 am: Breakfast served at Serendipity
9:00 am – 12:30 p.m.: Morning workshop
12:30 pm: Lunch served at Serendipity
1:30 - 3:30 p.m. Field trip-nature walk with a Baja naturalist
3:30 - 5:00 p.m.: Writing time
6:30 pm: Depart for dinner in town

Tuesday, February 18:
8:00 am: Breakfast served at Serendipity
9:00 am – 12:30 p.m.: Morning workshop
12:30 pm: Lunch served at Serendipity
1:30 – 4:30 pm: One-on-ones and writing time
5:00 pm: Reception and presentation by Baja filmmaker Lisa Jackson and Quirino Cota
6:30 p.m: Dinner at Serendipity

Wednesday, February 19:
8:00 am: Breakfast served at Serendipity
8:30 – 10:30 a.m.: Morning workshop
10:30 a.m.– 12:30 p.m.: Pop-up with Kim Stafford
12:30 p.m.: Lunch at Serendipity
1:30 – 4:30 pm: One-on-ones and writing time
5:00 pm: Reception and reading by Perrin Kerns
6:30 pm: Depart for dinner in town

Thursday, February 20:
8:00 am: Breakfast served at Serendipity
8:30 - 10:30 a.m. - Morning workshop
10:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m.: Pop-up with Perrin Kerns
12:30 pm: Lunch served at Serendipity
1:30 – 5:00 pm: Writing time
5:00 pm: Reception and reading by Kim Stafford
6:30 pm: Dinner at Serendipity

Friday, February 21:
8:00 am: Breakfast served at Serendipity
9:00 am – 12:30 p.m.: Morning workshop
12:30 pm: Lunch served at Serendipity
1:30 – 4:30 pm: One-on-ones and writing time
6:30 p.m.: Dinner in town

Saturday, February 22:
8:00 am: Breakfast served at Serendipity
9:00 am –12:00 noon: Morning workshop
12:30 pm: Lunch served at Serendipity
1:30 – 4:30 pm: Writing time
5:00 - 7:00 pm: Reception and Writing Down the Baja 2025 Reading (open to public)
7:30 pm: Farewell dinner at Serendipity for full-time and day students

Sunday, February 23:
8:00 am: Breakfast served at Serendipity
Shuttle service from Serendipity to San Jose del Cabo airport

Venue

Serendipity is a beachfront Hacienda-style boutique hotel 1.5 miles from town center. Congratulations to Serendipity for receiving the “Punto Limpio” (Clean Point) designation from the Tourism Ministry of Mexico. The designation is earned by meeting government hygiene standards following a two-month course. Those standards include a long list of protocols, COVID-related facility improvements, cleaning practices, food preparation and serving guidelines.

Workshop Size

Limited to 12.

About the Faculty
Kim Stafford is Emeritus Professor at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. He writes, teaches, and travels to raise the human spirit through poetry. In 1986, he founded the Northwest Writing Institute, and he has published a dozen books of poetry and prose. In 2018, Gov. Kate Brown named him Oregon's ninth poet laureate for a two-year term.

Perrin Kerns served as the Director of Writing at Marylhurst University for 15 years. She currently teaches literature at Portland State University. In addition, she teaches comics, digital storytelling and creative nonfiction at Prescott College and the lyric essay at Literary Arts, Fishtrap Writers Conference, and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.

Award winning author and poet Ellen Waterston has published four poetry and four literary nonfiction titles, including, most recently, We Could Die Doing This (2024) and Walking the High Desert (2020). She is founder of the Writing Ranch which, since 2000, has conducted workshops for established and emerging writers, and of the annual Waterston Desert Writing Prize, established in 2015 and adopted in 2019 as a program of the High Desert Museum. In 2024 she was appointed to a two year term as the eleventh Oregon Poet Laureate and awarded both the Literary Arts of Portland’s Stewart H. Holbrook and Soapstone Bread and Roses awards recognizing her work as an author and advocate for the literary arts. Based in central Oregon, she serves on the faculty of OSU-Cascades’ MFA in Creative Writing. Ellen is completing a fifth collection of poetry.

Rates

All inclusive rate: $3,500 USD per person

The all-inclusive rates include single occupancy lodging at Serendipity, all meals (with the exception of one “free range” dinner), seven daily workshops, guest author presentations, field trip, pop-up workshops, and a published anthology of the group’s work. Double occupancy is available.

To reserve a spot for the all-inclusive retreat experience, send a deposit of $500 USD by November 15, 2024. Balance is due by December 6, 2024.

To qualify for an Early Bird discount of $150 USD, pay in full on or before November 15, 2024.

Payments can be made here or mailed to Writing Ranch, P.O. Box 640, Bend, OR 97709. Payment by check is preferred.

Restrictions
Airfare not included.
Cost of ground transportation from and to San Jose del Cabo airport not included.
(NOTE: Shuttle arrangements will be made by the Writing Ranch and a shuttle will be waiting for participants at the San Jose del Cabo terminal.)

Transportation unrelated to Writing Down the Baja schedule (such as excursions to local beaches or downtown Todos Santos) is at participants’ expense.
Alcohol at all dinners at individual’s expense.

Day Student Rate $820 USD

The day student rate includes seven days of workshops, welcome night and farewell dinner, guest author presentations, pop-up workshops, and a published anthology of the group’s work. Cost of additional meals is paid separately.

To register as a day student, send a deposit of $500 USD by November 15, 2024. Balance due by December 6, 2024. Payments can be made here or mailed to Writing Ranch, P.O. Box 640, Bend, OR 97709. Payment by check is preferred.

If you cancel by December 6, 2024 your tuition will be refunded minus a $200 cancellation fee. Refunds for cancellations made after December 6, 2024 are contingent on being able to fill your place. If your place is not filled, the full deposit of $500 will be retained.