The Cabin at Soapstone
Each of the two writers in residence has her own writing studio. “Wind” is forty-feet high and reached by climbing ladders and “Water” is at ground level. Both have large expanses of window that look out on the forest and creek, and skylights through which the writers can see the moon and stars at night.
The Water Studio offers limited accessibility to women with disabilities (contact the director for details). It has a double bed, a desk and adjustable desk chair, and a small closet. It has both electric heat and a very efficient wood stove. The twenty-foot vaulted ceiling has a skylight over the bed and two walls of windows looking out over Soapstone Creek and the forest. This studio is separated from the main structure by a covered breezeway. The writer in Water has the use of the stone terrace during the day.
The Wind Studio is in the main building and includes a sleeping loft with a double bed facing a large skylight and its own private upper deck. Wind’s writing studio (referred to as “the cube”) is perched forty-feet above the main floor and has a desk, adjustable desk chair, and large round windows on all four sides looking down on the creek, forest, and meadow. Built-in wooden ladders are the only access to the sleeping loft and writing studio. Wind is heated by a wood stove on the ground level.
The retreat is simply and comfortably furnished.
The writers share afully equipped modern kitchen (electric stove, microwave, toaster oven, coffeemaker, blender, etc.), bathroom with shower, living room, outdoor Jacuzzi in the breezeway, and washer and dryer.
The studios each have their own phone but share a phone line. The living room has a small library of books about birds, mammals, fish and other aspects of the natural world, as well as literary journals and a selection of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.
"As the week unfolded, I could feel myself unwind. Days became simplified and I wrote for longer each day, with no sense of deadline or 'running out of time.' In the morning I woke with the light and I’d go into the night writing and reading as long as I wanted. I loved that sense of freedom which felt augmented by living in the forest, the sound of the water a soothing backdrop. Light and clouds and moonlight passed through the many windows and skylights so that even during rainy weather or at night, I felt close to the outdoors. Often I walked around, both inside and out, just looking, listening, gladly losing myself to what was before me, and nothing more. Sometimes at night I’d soak in the forest green Jacuzzi in the dark of the breezeway, watching the bats whisk by, or quietly waiting for a visiting raccoon."
—Maureen Michelson