Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania suits writers who want a retreat without a coast. The state's literary map runs from Philadelphia's magazine and small-press scene to the wooded ridges north and west, and the programs filed here sit in that second landscape. Expect working farms, old inns and quiet towns where the day's main event is the page.

Barrelhouse and Boyds Mills are the two names filed under Pennsylvania, and they pull in different directions. Barrelhouse grew out of a magazine culture, so the work there leans toward the essay, the story, the poem that wants an editor's eye and a live reading afterward. Boyds Mills sits in the rural northeast of the state, where a retreat day is quiet enough to draft a whole chapter. Writers seeking a writing retreat in Pennsylvania find small programs, not a resort strip.