Writing Workshops Faculty
The daily writing workshops (fiction, nonfiction, or memoir) will be led by instructors with special expertise. Each of our teachers hosts a prolific portfolio and extensive teaching experience.
Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes
Workshop Instructor (Fiction)
Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes was born and raised in Hilo, Hawai’i. She is the author of The Pōhaku (Feb 2026) and Hula, named a Best Book of the Summer by Harper’s Bazaar and Elle, and Honolulu Magazine’s 2024 Book of the Year. The Los Angeles Times called the book “stunning” and “an intricately built novel that spans decades, moving in and out of a collective voice, while also telling Hi’i’s deeply personal and devastating story of trying to find her way.” Jasmin is the recipient of the Best Fiction award from the Southern California Writers Conference, as well as several fellowships and residencies. She lives in California.
The Fundamentals of Storytelling
In this course, we’ll be covering the big hurdles we face as writers—where to start, how to finish, what structure to build for your story to stand on, and how to dig into the heart of the story you're trying to tell. We’ll examine the mechanisms behind building compelling characters and plots that crackle with tension, playing with exercises and prompts that will have us approaching our work in entirely new ways. Writers of all genres welcome, at any stage of their writing journey. Whether you’ve been working on a project for decades or facing your first blank page, this generative class will leave you inspired and excited to press on.
Larry Habegger
Workshop Instructor (Nonfiction)
Larry Habegger is a writer, editor, and publisher who has been covering the world since his international travels began in the 1970s. In 1993, he cofounded the award-winning Travelers’ Tales Books, where he has helped oversee the company’s publishing program and has worked on all of its 160-plus books of literature based in place. As a writing teacher and coach, he emphasizing the craft of personal narrative, essay, and memoir. Writers praise the way, as one puts it, “he always urges me to go deeper to discover the essence, truth, and universality of the story I am trying to tell.”
Tell Me a Story: Personal Essay, Long-form Narrative, and Capturing Truth
The best nonfiction carries lessons about life in our magical world. In our sessions together, we will explore the craft of creative nonfiction through discussion, writing exercises, and sharing our work. The concepts we cover apply equally to articles, personal stories, and books. We’ll start by exploring how to conjure inspiration, add emotional weight, and find the best structure. Each day you’ll have a brief assignment to complete for the next day; then we’ll read and critique them. If you are working on a specific manuscript, you can apply the assignments to sections that are giving you trouble, or you want to improve. Our goal will be to delve into the truth of our stories: emotional truth, psychological truth, and factual truth. Mostly, we hope to inspire each other with the work we’re doing in solitude, and the work we do together.
Faith Adiele
Workshop Instructor (Memoir)
Faith Adiele is an award-winning memoirist, essayist, travel columnist, and editor. She is author of Meeting Faith, a memoir about becoming Thailand’s first Black Buddhist nun, and four hybrid chapbooks about her Nigerian-Nordic-American heritage, plus co-editor of Coming of Age Around the World: A Multicultural Anthology. Her media work includes a documentary about finding her family (PBS), A World of Calm (HBO-Max), and Sleep Stories (Calm). Named one of Marie Claire’s “Five Women to Learn From,” Faith chairs Writing & Literature at California College of the Arts and has held 30 artists’ residencies around the world.
Breath & Water: Memoir and Personal Essay
Inspired by two common and uncommonly meaningful Hawaiian words—hā for breath or life force, and wai for fresh water—this generative workshop uses writing prompts and exercises to explore memoir and personal essay through the interplay of breath (presence, mindfulness, body) and water (memory, flow, what runs through us). We'll investigate how sensory details anchor story, how innovative structures like braiding and collage can shape longer memoir projects, and how personal narrative moves from the specific to the universal. Through in-class writing and supportive feedback, you'll generate new material for essays or book-length work. Writers at all levels welcome. Bring a journal.
Creative Sessions Faculty
Additional afternoon workshops encourage writers to explore new directions and dabble or dive deep into a new creative practice.
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Tamara Leiokanoe Moan
Art/Poetry Instructor
Tamara Leiokanoe Moan is a writer and artist living in Kailua on the island of O‘ahu. Her work has appeared in Bamboo Ridge anthologies, Honolulu Magazine, and Watercolor Artist. She exhibits her artwork regularly in Honolulu and elsewhere.
Homebody
Use writing prompts to explore experienced and/or imagined home spaces and places. Build a folded paper house-shaped book to hold your words, adding color and shape with simple stencil techniques. No art skills necessary!
Zoe Fitzgerald Carter
Songwriting Instructor
Zoe FitzGerald Carter is an author, journalist and songwriter who has played in numerous Bay Area bands. She’s released three albums of original music (Waiting for the Earthquake, Waterlines and Before the Machine). Her new album, Chaos by Design, will be released in 2026. You can find her on Spotify or on her website. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and has written for numerous national magazines as well as publishing an award-winning memoir, Imperfect Endings.
From Soup to Song: A Group Songwriting Project
In this workshop, we will write, polish and — at the final reading — perform an original song. In one playful session, we will free-write on a theme or topic. Together we will pick out the most poetic lines and phrases and weave them into complete lyrics. Once we have our structure — verses, choruses, and a bridge — Zoe will set it to music and in a second session we will “arrange” our creation, playing with dynamics, harmonies and instrumentation. (I will have my guitar, but if you have instruments that are easy to transport, please bring them. And remember, even a stick and a coconut can be used as a drum!) Whether you’re a music lover, an in-the-privacy-of-your-own living room performer, or a pro, this class is for you. The only prerequisite is a willingness to play, collaborate, and create something special.
Allison E. Francis
Poetry Instructor
Allison E. Francis is an Associate Professor of English at Chaminade College in Honolulu. She is also an actor, director, playwright, and a performance poet who believes the spoken word is as important as the written word. Her poetry has been anthologized in African American Wisdom, and most recently, in Bamboo Ridge Press’s Kīpuka: Finding Refuge in Times of Change. She has also published a volume of collaborative renshi poetry, Mulatta—Not So Tragic (2021), with poet-activist Karla Brundage.
Ephemerality
Allison will lead a poetry workshop on Saturday, exploring a terrifying and beautiful term: ephemerality. To be ephemeral is to exist for one day only, whether that existence be through power, favor, popularity, or a brief life-span. How does ephemerality enter into our creative lives and affect our mind, body and spirit? We will wander the coastline in search of the ephemeral and then write poems individually. Finally, we will join the circle again to share our creations.
Malcolm Ryder
AI for Writers Instructor
One of Princeton University’s first graduates in Photography, Malcolm Ryder has been a working artist, commercial photographer, art teacher, and arts writer, on the East and West coasts for decades. He also had a separate career as a tech entrepreneur. Now based in Oakland, California, Malcolm’s solo and collaborative work is found at www.malcolmryder.com.
Demystifying AI for Writers
Writing encompasses preparation, research, trial and error, composing, proofing, and distributing. Malcolm guides you through determining what AI should do for your personal priorities and needs, includes key How Tos, and gives you some prompts to get you going.
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Retreat Directors
We use the retreat's small size to tailor sessions to the interests of writers who attend. We encourage you to play with new genres and dive deep into your creative wellspring.
Constance Hale
Retreat Director and Instructor
Constance Hale writes children’s books, adults’s books, essays, profiles, and, whenever she can, a poem. She is the author of the bestselling Sin and Syntax, and she curates sinandsyntax.com, a place “for those who love wicked good prose.” Connie coaches writers tackling their first (or fifth) books, and she has edited scholars, scoundrels, veterans of the NFL and the New York Times, Pulitzer-Prize winners, and the governor of Massachusetts. But guess what? She was born and grew up in Waialua, and views this retreat a happy overlay of the personal and the professional. Her children’s book ‘Iwalani’s Tree is set in Mokulē‘ia.
Craft with Constance Hale
Sin and Syntax
At the opening of the retreat, Connie will lead a fun and funny workshop to help you perk up your prose through the words you choose and the sentences you string. We will even touch on that elusive question of how to find your voice. The idea is to look closely at writing both lofty and low to help unlock your innate creativity.
Manuscript Masterclass
At the close of the retreat, Connie will lead a three-hour workshop for those writers who have a story, chapter, or full manuscript that is (almost) ready to submit for publication. Each of us will read a few pages of your work (and Connie will read ten). You’ll get a high-level critique and a high-octane sense of what to do next.
Christina Fang
Communications Director and Facilitator
Christina Fang is a Taiwanese-American travel and culture writer whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, Business Insider, and The Coloradan. She is the creator of heartquake, a narrative blog about vulnerability, emotional transformation, and living a creative life. At the retreat, Christina helps coordinate all facets of the experience—from marketing and communications to behind-the-scenes logistics—bringing warmth, organization, and a deep love of creative community.
