Writing

While not a formal class, the Windward Writing Retreat provides a structure for writing alongside others and an opportunity to meet a community of beginning and experienced writers. Our mutual creative energy augments everyone’s efforts. After introductions, we respond to a starter prompt, then use personal writing time to begin the draft of a story, poem, memoir, argument, letter, or whatever. In small groups we
share these diverse pieces and give each other non-critical reader responses.

Bring your own writing materials, a sack lunch, and beverages.

2025 COURSE SCHEDULE
ENR7017    

Saturday, September 20
Saturday, October 18
Saturday, November 15
(No class in December.)

Class meets: Saturday, 9:30 am–2:30 pm
Cost: $16
Location: Windward CC

Registration 3 weeks prior to class date recommended.
No walk-ins.

If you are having difficulty registering online please send in a check.
Check payments must be received 4 days prior to class date.

Make check payable to:
University of Hawaii
 
Mail check to:
Windward Community College - CCE, Hale Kuhina 102
45-720 Keaahala Rd
Kaneohe, HI 96744

Note class dates requesting.
New students please include your email and  phone number.

For assistance: call 808-235-7433, email wccocet@hawaii.edu

Tamara Moan received an M.A.in literature and creative writing from the University of Hawai‘i. She currently lives and works in Kailua, Hawai‘i. Tamara’s journalism has appeared in Hana Hou, Island Scene, Generations Hawaii, American Artist, The Artist’s Magazine, and Pastel Artist. She has edited book manuscripts for Bishop Museum Press and Watermark Publishing, including Lua: Art of the Hawaiian Warrior. Her poetry
and creative nonfiction have been published in Bamboo Ridge and Hawaii Pacific Review.

Penny Pence Smith received a Ph.D. at UNC-Chapel Hill in Mass Communication Research, and a M.A. in Communication Management at the University of Southern California. She was a marketing and communication professor at Hawaii Pacific University, taught writing and journalism at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Los Angeles Pierce College, a movie magazine editor, correspondent and Bureau Manager for the New York Times Special Features Syndicate, and Hollywood Reporter Correspondent. Penny lives in Kailua and has published five mystery novels and teaches memoir and mystery novel writing workshops. She authored best sellers Under A Maui Sun and Reflections of Kauai and her stories have appeared locally in Flux Magazine, Hoku Magazine, Hopper, and Midweek.

Lillian Cunningham taught English for many years at Windward Community College and is now retired from the classroom. 
The Writing Retreats began in the mid-1980s as a result of a frustration shared with some others, who said they wanted to write, but often got distracted by things like dirty laundry, hungry children, or flagging inspiration. So we agreed to retreat from competing demands for a few hours to write together without distractions. The idea caught on.