Spring Story Weekend: A Storymaking Retreat April 13th & 14th 2024

Join us for a weekend long visual and written story retreat!
Saturday April 13th 11:00am-2pm EST (with time for questions and to discuss work)
Sunday April 14th 11am-1:30pm EST

Limited to 20 people
Registration opens Friday March 29th!

Sometimes working alone is hard. Ideas come but carving out headspace and time can be tricky. We want others to bounce ideas off of but where to find the,m? We want prompts to open us up to allow our voices to shine though.

This is a weekend retreat to make space alongside other like-hearted artists, storytellers and illustrator who wish to create stories of their own too to dream alongside, think, create and recreate your story in the company of others, guided by me.

In this 8th (!) iteration of the Story Weekend, we’ll explore and experiment, allow ideas to bubble up through writing and art-making exercises and consider our own singular ideas about form and narrative. We'll explore what picture making and visual sequencing looks like for you and where the story sits on the page and in the world.

We'll feel our stories first in our hearts and bodies and then through words, color, line. I'll guide you in how to tend to the atmosphere of a visual story. We will dig into to our own unique visions and curiosities to find our stories within. We’ll go from words to visual, visual to words and back again. We'll make storyboards and dummies together and a book to keep all our ideas...

I am proud to have author, illustrator, artist Zahra Marwan join us for the first hour, Sunday, April 14th session to discuss her process of creating a story, how she approaches visual sequencing and hear about her journey in publishing. Zahra won the Ezra Jack Keats Award in 2022 for her book Where Butterflies Fill The Sky ands her art and words have appeared or will appear later this year in The New York Times, The UN, The National Flamenco Institute and more!

You will get a workbook for the workshop filled to the brim with resources, inspiration and ideas for considering story-building and a private Slack group to meet others share your work in progress in community.

Come with a story you've had in your head or just ready to discover the story thats been waiting to be told. A special guest artist TBA, specializing in visual narrative will join us for Saturday's workshop!

The weekend will end with a way into your story with full ideas for editing to help you keep building and find organizing principles for your story that work for you.

Each day's workshop will be recorded for those who cant make the date. Links for recordings will be sent out within 24 hours of each workshop.

You'll need only plenty of paper, pens and pencils, your favorite art supplies and a sturdy needle and thread.

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I've been hosting story making mini-residencies for the past four years and artists and illustrators and creatives of all kinds have emerged getting closer to themselves and their voices with each workshop. I will help you to focus your time and consider new ways of making stories to find your way into any kind of picture book (or book with pictures!) you want to make, with a good supportive community of like-hearted artists to work alongside.

I think sometimes we all need a kind of outside catalyst to focus and explore our vision and our voice and perhaps a point of view we haven’t fully explored or formed yet. Paired with a good supportive community of people, this can be just the thing that helps push us to create the kind of work we want to see in the world. It's the reason I made StoryCamp Disco and why I believe collaboration and a trustworthy community spark the best ideas.

The only real thing you’ll really need is an open imagination, a love of stories, your creativity and some paper, pencils, pens for our time together. I will send an email in the weeks before workshop about other materials to consider and how best to prepare for our time together!

A part two to this workshop will happen in late May to help you experiment with new ways to consider revision--to see your story by way of editing techniques for those who want to continue on. There will be a discount for those who took this first workshop. Dates TBA

-One full and one half scholarship is available for those in need, please inquire along with your portfolio.
-Due to the digital nature of these workshops refunds cannot be given.

-U.S. Residents, if you'd like to make payment via Venmo message me.

Work in pictures above are by Deborah J. Stein