On August 2, 1988, the Hedgebrook retreat for women writers, located on Whidbey Island, welcomes its first guest, writer Jan D’Arcy. The retreat is the brainchild of Seattle philanthropist Nancy Skinner Nordhoff (b. 1932) and will become a creative hub where women writers from all over the world, with room and board provided, can stay and work without interruption for anywhere between two and six weeks at a time.
Origins
The idea for what Hedgebrook should become took shape over a series of conversations between Nancy Nordhoff and friends and collaborators, particularly journalist and writer Sheryl Feldman. One strand of the idea reaches back to Nordhoff's college years, which she spent at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Attending the all-female college left a lasting impression on her. She felt that at college-age, women could develop leadership skills more fully at an all-female institution.
She was also greatly influenced by Tillie Olsen's (1912-2007) book Silences, that demonstrates vividly how women's voices have been suppressed. The book resonated with Nordhoff. She came to feel that, like many women, she too had been silenced -- in part by a sense of duty. She had inherited significant wealth and an awareness of the importance of philanthropic giving. She had also inherited a feeling of obligation to direct that giving toward areas of which her parents and family would have approved: "Be a good girl and do it for 50 years" (Black, interview 2). At around the age of 50, though, she began to realize that she could instead use her resources to express her own deepest values. In her words, "So ... in the eighties when I was 50, I grew up" (Black, interview 2).
Nordhoff had been involved in civic and philanthropic work in Seattle for 30 years. At this point she was feeling, in her words, "burned out" (Black, interview 2). It was, she reflected in 2016, a feeling that arrived somewhat suddenly, and that reached its clearest expression in a decision to take a cross-country trip, driving in a van she customized for camping, listening to music, drinking wine (though not while driving), and thinking. She threw a farewell party, invited her friends to say goodbye and paint the van, and took to the road.
During the next five or six weeks she had time to consider the question "Who are you Nancy?" (Interview 2.) There wasn’t a single, clear answer, but what did emerge was a realization that she was in a position to invest in causes she thought were important. During the next six months, "I knew there was a divorce ahead of me, so it was going to be a new life, and I took a trip to Whidbey Island" (Interview 2).
While on the island, Nordhoff felt an affinity for the landscape, and in short order found a farm for sale and bought it.
She was drawn to this particular piece of property by the variety of habitats, from pasture to woods to areas suitable for ponds and water features. Her original intention was to make the place home, but it soon became clear that in addition to the practical challenges of maintaining such a large acreage, something else was at work in her mind: "People say I had a vision. I say, 'No, I had an idea,'" she said in 2016 (Interview 2).
That idea was to establish something that resonated with Nordhoff’s own passions. Over a series of conversations with friends and advisors, that "something" crystallized into Hedgebrook.
How Hedgebrook Works
One notion that informed what Hedgebrook should offer, said Nordhoff, is "radical hospitality," a concept that evolved as the retreat found its feet. A second was that the women accepted for a residency would be from as broad a range of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds as possible. A third guiding principle was that applicants would be invited from across the world, as well as from across the United States.
Six beautifully constructed cottages, each with a window seat, a wood-burning stove, and a sleeping loft, are situated on the property, and six writers are resident at any one time, 40 over the course of a year. The minimum stay is two weeks, the maximum, six. Residents are responsible for making their own way to Mukilteo. They are greeted off the ferry at Clinton and transported to Hedgebrook, where they get an orientation that introduces them to the staff, the property, and the cottages, and how to light the fire in the stove and keep it burning (firewood is provided).
Each evening the Hedgebrook chefs prepare dinner for the resident writers. The only obligation placed upon writers is that they participate in this communal dinner that takes place in the farmhouse nightly except for on Sundays, when the main meal is a brunch. After dinner and the sharing of work by the writers in the farmhouse living room, each resident gathers up her desired breakfast and lunch and returns to her own cottage.
The cottages were deliberately sited in the woods in such a way that residents can see the lights of their neighbor’s dwelling, but still enjoy solitude and views of the woods to work. Each cottage has a wood fire, and the ritual of lighting the fire is one aspect of the experience to which Nancy Nordhoff attaches some importance. It seems to have both a practical purpose and a symbolic significance.
These arrangements, from the eating arrangements to the location of the cottages, are all designed with the writers’ needs in mind, the object being to best facilitate the writing process.
The physical construction of Hedgebrook was completed in August 1988, and Nordhoff was involved in every aspect of its development.
Alumni
Writer, actress, and communications consultant Jan D’Arcy was the first guest to arrive at Hedgebrook.
As of 2016 about 1,700 writers have passed through the retreat. Among the better-known alumni are Ursula LeGuin (b. 1929), Ruth Ozeki (b. 1956), Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), and Gloria Steinem (b. 1934), who described Hedgebrook as "an advance" rather than a retreat. The author Tillie Olsen also spent time at Hedgebrook: Her book Silences was one of the formative texts Nancy Nordhoff cited when asked about writers who had influenced her.
Subsequent to their time at Hedgebrook, writers are offered assistance in working with agents and tackling some of the other nuts and bolts aspects of the writing life.
Elizabeth Austen (b. 1965), former Poet Laureate of Washington state, had this to say about Hedgebrook:
"If this sounds like writer heaven, it is. I’ve been lucky enough to be in residence at Hedgebrook twice before, and I tell you there is something transformative about the place. The first time I went, in 2001, I was still in grad school, hadn’t published a thing, and didn’t consider myself a "real" writer (whatever that means). Being invited to a place where the whole staff is devoted to making it possible for you to work can be a little overwhelming. I wrote and wrote, poems that departed in important ways from everything I’d written up until then. The other writers' life stories and projects moved and inspired me, kept me pushing myself to risk, to reach further" (Austen blog entry).
Poet Monica Sok reflected:
"Being here on residency at Hedgebrook has been the single most healing experience of my life … I had never grown up reading Cambodian American voices, and I had never grown up really learning about my history -- it is a history that is marginalized, pushed to the side, it is erased over and over again. And I think that it's a huge honor for me to be here" ("A Brief Introduction to Hedgebrook" [video]).
Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-Winner, MacArthur Fellow and author of The Hemmingses of Monticello: An American Family had this to say:
"Places like Hedgebrook give you an opportunity to do the kinds of things that will make a difference in the world and that’s why places like this are incredibly important" ("A Brief Introduction to Hedgebrook" [video])
The writer Priscilla Long (b. 1943) spent time as a resident in 2012 and wrote:
"I’m in the woods but not roughing it. Every evening, after a day of writing, the writers gather at the farmhouse for a convivial dinner. The cooks are master chefs posing as competent, warm, and, dare I say, motherly, providers. Dinner is organic, much of it grown in the huge garden, and it was picked or killed that day. It is beyond delicious. We writers are all women and forbidden to wash a dish. After dinner we gather in the farmhouse living room to share work before returning to our cottages" ("My Week in the Woods").
Today, in addition to its residency program Hedgebrook hosts literary workshops, a screenwriting lab, and a festival of women playwrights. An endowment gifted by Nordhoff enabled the fledgling non-profit to find its feet, and allowed the founder to gradually scale back her involvement in the retreat. Hedgebrook has been a 501(c)3 public charity since 2000. The playwright Amy Wheeler serves as executive director.
Under Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (b. 1955), Hedgebrook was awarded the 2016 Mayor’s Arts Award for Arts and Innovation.
