North Beach Writers’ Retreat

We are on hiatus for the summer of 2023.
Thank you for your interest.
Check back for updates this fall!

We continue offering online classes, and we hope you will consider joining our growing community of writers to challenge yourself and focus on your writing.

2022 In-person Retreats

North Beach Retreats in poetry, memoir, and mixed genres are held at a lakeside lodge in or near Park Rapids, Minnesota. Participants stay at the lodge and the days are split between group instruction and private time to write, reflect, and relax.

The facilitators and participants were inspiring, knowledgeable, positive and encouraging for all. I loved the quality of the food, the extra activities, Itasca was a highlight as was the reading in town on Saturday night.

Workshops (coming soon)

North Beach Workshops are one-or two-day classes and are held in Park Rapids, Minnesota. These sessions allow us to focus closely on particular topics and aspects of writing in the various genres.

I was impressed with the quality of instruction, the relationship of facilitators and participants. I’d definitely go again! Thanks for an inspiring and productive time.

Online Classes

A number of online classes are offered at various times during the year, allowing participants to access both instruction and a community of writers without the costs or complications of travel.

The participants were an exceptional group and interacted well. LouAnn Muhm is a wonderful teacher/poet whose suggestions, critiques and resources are very helpful and approachable. She is encouraging of our work and very respectful when “mucking about” in our poems. I really learned the value of critiquing poetry and this is changing the way I think about my own poetry.


Applications open!

Email northbeachwriters@gmail.com for guidelines

About Us

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LouAnn Shepard Muhm is a poet and teacher from northern Minnesota.  Her poems have appeared in Antiphon, Alba, Red River ReviewEclectica, Pirene’s Fountain, and CALYX, among other journals and anthologies, and she was a finalist for the Creekwalker Poetry Prize and the Late Blooms Postcard Series. Muhm is a recipient of Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants in Poetry in 2006 and 2012, and was chosen as one of two Artist Fellows by Region 2 Arts Council of Minnesota in 2016.   Her full-length poetry collection Breaking the Glass (Loonfeather Press, 2008) was a finalist for the Midwest Book Award in Poetry. Muhm was awarded an MFA in poetry from Sierra Nevada College in 2016.  She also serves as an associate instructor of English for Lake Tahoe Community College in South Lake Tahoe, California, and taught poetry writing online for The Loft Literary Center 2011-2018.

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Tanya Stafsholt Miller has an MFA in memoir and poetry from Minnesota State University, Moorhead and MA in English from Bemidji State University.  Her poems and memoir essays have appeared in The Talking Stick, Bombshells: War Stories and Poems by Women on the Homefront, Red Weather, The Minnesota English Journal and others. She won a scholarship to the Northwoods Writers’ Conference in Bemidji, MN. Most recently, she was one of twelve writers chosen to attend the Pelee Island Book House writers’ retreat with Margaret Atwood and Wayne Grady. She currently teaches writing classes in Park Rapids, MN, and is an adjunct instructor at the University of Minnesota, Crookston.

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