Lit Camp seeks new spot after disaster
Every spring for the past five years, writers gathered in the hills above Calistoga for four days. A typical day at the Lit Camp writers conference might include sharing meals with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, attending a workshop with an editor, taking a yoga class, relaxing in a pool under the stars, and finally retiring to a cabin overlooking the verdant splendor of Napa Valley. And now that’s all gone. Mayacamas Ranch, which hosted Lit Camp, was among the properties destroyed in the Wine Country wildfires. The entire ranch burned to the ground Oct. 8.
“This loss is huge,” said Janis Cooke Newman, the San Francisco author who founded Lit Camp. “Mayacamas Ranch was a magical place for writers.”
When she first stepped onto the property, she said it exceeded anything she had in mind for a writing retreat.
“I designed Lit Camp around the space — holding workshops in the organic garden and by the pool, cooking s’mores over the bonfire,” she said. “I finished my last book tucked away among its hills.”
Perched atop a ridgeline, the ranch was, Newman said, “rustic in the best possible way.” Among its unpretentious
earth-tone structures were lodges where people gathered for meals and classes. Outside of Lit Camp, the ranch also hosted family celebrations and corporate and nonprofit retreats.
Lit Camp’s atmosphere was relaxed, cheery and inclusive. The 40 writers of fiction, memoir and narrative nonfiction who were accepted each year mingled easily with faculty, which over the years included fiction writers Karen Joy Fowler, Paul Harding, Adam Johnson and Anthony Marra; historian T.J. Stiles; literary agent Danielle Svetcov; Graywolf editor Ethan Nosowsky; and myself.
“Our faculty — like Adam Johnson — brought their kids, and while you were in workshop, the kids would be tearing by on their bikes or running down to the pool,” Newman said. “It really did feel like you were at summer camp — but summer camp where everyone was really smart about books.”
Johnson said his family has talked about the destruction of the ranch several times, “and our youngest daughter was particularly troubled. She would ask, ‘Did the canoe on the pond also burn?’ Things like that, which demonstrate what powerful associations we all formed during our time at Mayacamas.”
Harding said, “I’ve taught in many gorgeous places, but Mayacamas Ranch was so tranquil and immersive it was like being enchanted. I was always there as part of Lit Camp, which, between the setting and Janis Cooke Newman’s presiding benevolence and energy, made the whole place feel like it was continually bursting at the seams with truth and beauty.
“What makes the loss of the ranch all the more awful, and maybe most pressing at this moment,” he added, “is that, from what I understand, many of the staff lived there and are facing an especially stark version of losing their homes and livelihoods to the fires. It’s just plain dreadful.”
A GoFundMe campaign is collecting donations to help the ranch staff.
Author Jane Ciabattari, who is based in Brooklyn but spends time in Sonoma County, has been on the Lit Camp faculty since it began.
“The glorious setting of the Mayacamas Ranch was ideal for creative work — offering solitude, rare natural beauty, and inspiring teaching from some of the best writers in the country,” she said. “It’s tragic to imagine it gone, and I can only hope it will be rebuilt.”
Because of the fires, Lit Camp has had to cancel its 2018 conference. It’s now looking for a new home for 2019.
“The location itself needs to be a draw,” Newman said. “I was always able to get prizewinning authors and East Coast agents and editors to come out for Lit Camp for terrible money because they all wanted to come to the Northern California Wine Country. Our new location has to be as enticing so we don’t have to raise our rates for writers.”
Johnson has faith in the future. “I know Lit Camp will come back better than ever,” he said, “but it is really sad that the vessel for all our Lit Camp memories is gone.”
John McMurtrie is The San Francisco Chronicle’s book editor. Email: jmcmurtrie@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @McMurtrieSF