Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat, 2025
A holy happening at Lakeside Labs
Last year, mere days before attending my first Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat, I mentioned my plans to a friend. I hadn’t known that Claudia wanted to write, but then again, I have kept my light under a bushel plenty, too.
This winter, she and I put down early deposits for the 2025 retreat. She balked a couple of times declaring herself unworthy, and I cajoled. Once I swore. I still feel bad about that. (Sorry, Claudia!)
The best thing about OWSR is that you come as you are. Fearing, doubting, quaking with uncertainty. You’re in good company here. We’re all learning. None of us have it all figured out, even the experts who have done great things. There’s precious little ego on the shores of West Lake Okoboji when OWSR convenes at Lakeside Labs and Lakeshore Center.
Beyond the fee, there’s no bar for entry. You don’t have to have credentials in major publications. You don’t have to have published a book. You don’t have to bring any of your work, unless you want to. You just arrive and soak it all in.
Whenever I attend conferences, there are invariably two or three sessions competing for my interest at the same time. It was no different at OWSR, but this year I went to several “against the grain.” That is, I chose a few sessions where I wouldn’t normally go.
Yet they turned out to be some of the most fruitful uses of my time. Katharine Sands, an agent, exhorted us to “stop thinking about selling. Replace selling with sharing.” What would the world be like if this attitude permeated more daily life?
Writer Annie Leonard demonstrated how to write vignettes based on genealogical research. Her example was enough to entice a 13-year-old grandson to ask for more information about his ancestor.
I was humbled by how many attendees were willing to lay their souls bare and allow faculty to critique their work in a roomful of other writers. Fiction writers Nicole Baart, Grant Faulkner, Kali White VanBaale and non-fiction writers Steve Semken, Art Cullen, and Maura Casey could not have been more thoughtful and encouraging. They were honest yet kind.
An extra bonus occurred when Art Cullen and Maura Casey discovered that their Irish relatives both came from County Mayo and that their mothers were both Murrays. Long-lost cousins finding each other at OWSR? Maybe!
Before the retreat started, I told Claudia that mornings started under a big open-air tent. I joked that there were morning devotions. The big tent makes me think of revival meetings and revivals make me think of holy roller religion, but this was the real deal. We started the day as a congregation, blessed with music and poetry.
And on the final day, OWSR maven Julie Gammack was sick, but we were promised a big surprise. I feared we would be told that this was it, folks. No more OWSR. It’s become a giant beast that has swelled 2 ½ times its original size. The logistics must be terrible to manage.
The surprise turned out to be more spiritual than logistical, more hopeful than financial. Richard Gilbert, Julie Gammack’s spouse, is a perfect foil to her thousand-watt energy. If she’s the wind in the sails, he’s the calm hand on the tiller.
Gilbert testified that he would no longer procrastinate on a writing project that he’s ignored for decades. Hallelujah! This time next year, he promised that he would have written work to share. Preach, brother!
And then, just like any Billy Graham crusade I ever saw, Richard followed with an altar call. And people streamed forward, witnessing on their own, declaring intentions to themselves and to us.
As Richard said, it’s all about accountability. Writing is a lonely art, and writers need each other for encouragement and occasional kicks in the pants.
When it started five years ago, it was called the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat: OWR. When said aloud, it sounds like “OUR” and that’s the perfect moniker for our friendships here, our appreciation for words and writing, our need to find hope in these scary times. Our time in this beautiful, holy place.
Richard, we can’t wait to see what you produce!