Announcing
Writers' Studio
in the Berkshires
with Mary Hall Surface
Following the success of our 2024 and 2025 Writers’ Studio, I am delighted to announce that we will return to the beautiful Berkshires of Western Massachusetts in 2027. This scenic region, which has attracted artists and writers for generations, offers a host of inspiring destinations for close looking, wondering, imagining, and writing. We will visit the homes of writer Edith Wharton and Hudson River School artist Frederick Edwin Church. We will write in the garden of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay once tended by poet Mary Oliver. Other possible visits include the 19th century homes and studios of artist Thomas Cole and sculptor Daniel Chester French, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and walks and hikes with literary associations and extraordinary views. I will craft vivid prompts inspired by the lives and works of Berkshires-inspired writers and artists to generate your own creative and reflective writing.
Mary Hall at The Mount
“My week at the Writers’ Studio was one of richest and most joyful learning experiences of my life. Mary Hall Surface created field trips and writing prompts to stimulate one’s deep sense of curiosity and wonder. Interesting discussions about the processes of creative arts abounded, both from our own experience and from the artists and writers whose homes we visited. At the end of the week, my writing journal was packed with prompts, as well as ideas for future exploration, and my heart had grown new writing wings.”
2024 Berkshires Writers' Studio Participant
Come experience a highly curated, small-group opportunity
to deepen your practice as a writer, of any and all levels,
and as a curious, creative traveler.
Program Description:
Our writing sessions will be based in the comfort of our lodgings, the Brook Farm Inn in Lenox, Massachusetts, built in 1865. This Victorian home offers historic charm and thoughtful, modern amenities. Set among gardens and tall trees a short distance from the center of town, the Inn offers a library, a sun-filled sitting room, outdoor spaces, as well as your own room with antique touches for writing, reflecting, and relaxing. Guided by my art and literature-inspired prompts, we will write on the grounds of historic homes and artists' studios, in gardens, and galleries as you respond to the landscape, art, and literary history that surrounds you. We will do an informal reading of our work, if you desire, to conclude our time together.
"Writers’ Studio is such a unique opportunity to combine the wonders and insights found through travel, art appreciation, and writing. In filtering these through a lens of being a creative soul, we are inspired and encouraged to let these experiences influence and elevate life back home."
2024 Berkshires Writers' Studio Participant
More Program Details:
The Writers' Studio in the Berkshires begins in the late afternoon on Tuesday, May 25th and concludes with breakfast on Sunday, May 30th, 2027.
To inspire our writing, we plan to visit:
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The Mount, the stately home and exquisite gardens and grounds of writer and landscape designer Edith Wharton, the first woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
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Olana, the beautiful estate of Hudson River School painter Frederick Edwin Church, featuring a villa that combines Victorian, Moorish, and Persian design and gardens that overlook the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains.
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A final writing session at Millay Arts, an internationally known artist colony adjacent to Steepletop, the home of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay where the poet Mary Oliver once worked.
Other activities may include:
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A visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum in the picturesque village of Stockbridge.
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A stroll through Naumkeag, a Gilded Age "cottage" and gardens in Stockbridge.
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A hike in the footsteps of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville to the summit of Monument Mountain.
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Café writing time in the historic village of Lenox.
2024 Writers' Studio Participant at The Mount
The rhythm of our days will include 1 – 2 daily writing workshops of 2 – 3 hours, either at our Inn in Lenox or in a historic site or natural setting.
The schedule will provide free time for personal writing as well as time for exploring galleries, bookstores, and shops in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge, MA.
Participants will have the option to gather for informal reflection and sharing of work with Mary Hall and one another throughout the week. Please note that the program is not designed to offer formal critique or one-on-one workshopping of participants’ writing.
Program subject to change.
Participants may choose to attend an evening performance at one of the Berkshires' many performing arts venues. We will provide options and help arrange for transportation. Participants will purchase their own tickets.
Limited Spaces available.
Olana State Historic Site
2025 Writers' Studio Participants at Cedar Grove, Home and Studio of Thomas Cole.
Mary Hall near Katterskill Falls,
a site that inspired a Thomas Cole landscape.
2025 Writers' Studio Writing Session in the library of the Whistler Inn.
2024 Writers' Studio participants enjoy lunch on the terrace at The Mount.
2024 participants at Millay Arts