If you’re working on a novel, short stories, memoir, personal essay, or any other form of narrative prose, consider giving yourself the gift of this new week-long generative writing workshop and craft masterclass in spectacular Oaxaca, Mexico, with award-winning novelist and travel guide Tim Weed.
OAXACA & THE DAILY ITINERARY
Oaxaca is a thriving, colorful city at the heart of an ancient valley in southern Mexico, surrounded by indigenous villages that have pursued their specialized art forms—ceramics, textiles, colorful wooden sculptures known as a alebrijes—for centuries, and in some cases for millennia.
Today, the city is known for its friendly people, its agave-based mescal, its unique cuisine—including delicious tlayudas and chocolate-based mole sauces—its colorful colonial architecture, and its thriving contemporary art scene.
In addition to the writing focus we’ll be spending part of each day exploring the streets, plazas, small villages and ancient Mesoamerican ruins of the amazing Valley of Oaxaca, whose friendly people and vivid sensory and cultural landscapes will serve as muse, inspiration, and setting. We’ll tour Oaxaca’s world-famous ethnobotanical garden with a Oaxacan biologist, participate in a Zapotec cooking class with one of Oaxaca’s finest chefs.
We’ll participate in a mescal tasting, and have lunch together at the Mercado 20 de Noviembre, where family restaurant-stands feature local delicacies such as tlayudas, mole, and chapulines, the region’s surprisingly delicious fried grasshoppers.
Group meals will take place at some of Oaxaca’s finest local restaurants, but there will also be a number of independent meals, giving participants the freedom to explore the city’s phenomenal cuisine on their own or in small groups.
Free time during the afternoons and evenings will be scheduled to allow independent explorations of the city’s many galleries, markets, and artisan shops featuring local work remarkable for its originality and stunning craftsmanship.
We’ll enjoy fascinating excursions to the stunning Zapotec archaeological sites of Monte Albán and Mitla, and to ancient village markets to sample localized fare. Near the end of the program we’ll participate in a very special expedition up into the cool and fragrant Sierra Norte mountains, where we’ll spend a night in simple ecotourism cabañas owned by a collective of indigenous communities and learn firsthand about traditional Zapotec healing practices from a Oaxacan curandera.
The Sierra Norte’s unique pine forest teems with birds and is dotted with madrone, cactus, and bromeliads; it will provide a living classroom for learning about biodiversity and a tradition of plant-based healing dating back thousands of years.
The program will conclude back in Oaxaca with a final group reading and celebratory dinner.
THE WORKSHOP & MASTERCLASS
What makes certain stories so gripping? What gives them the power to keep you up at night, to occupy your imagination so completely that putting them down is like parting with a beloved friend? As readers, we start with black marks on a page, but suddenly the moment comes when we’re no longer seeing those marks; instead, our imagination is scrolling the “vivid, continuous dream” of a narrative. This is powerful medicine. It’s really the closest thing to a superpower we creative writers have. But how do we make it happen?
Combining open discussion, small-group mentoring, insightful craft talks tailored to participants’ specific needs, and extensive generative writing both indoors and out in the field, the workshop & masterclass is designed to advance your fluency in the craft and yield a substantial body of new work.
The emphasis is on tolerance and encouragement of one’s peers rather than competition. The program is open to talented writers in all genres and at all levels of experience, but will be most beneficial for those who have already established some form of regular writing practice. Alternative cultural activities will be offered for non-writing significant others and family members who wish to join the program.
About your workshop leader
Tim Weed is the author of four books of fiction. His recent novel, The Afterlife Project, was named a best book of 2025 by Library Journal and the Toronto Star. He’s won multiple Writer’s Digest Annual Fiction Awards and his work has been shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, the Prism Prize for Climate Literature, the Fish International Short Story Award, the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award for a Novel-in-Progress, the New Rivers Many Voices Project, and many others. His essays and articles have appeared in Writers Digest, LiteraryHub, The Revelator, The Millions,The Writer’s Chronicle, Talking Points Memo, The Good Men Project, and elsewhere.
Tim serves on the core faculty of the Newport MFA in Creative Writing and is the co-founder of the Cuba Writers Program. A former featured expert for National Geographic Expeditions, he’s had a parallel career leading international educational travel programs throughout Latin America and in Spain, Portugal, Australia, Iceland, and other locations around the globe.
Philosophy, accommodations, & application details
In the research and planning of this writing workshop a special emphasis has been placed on working closely with local and indigenous-owned businesses in the interest of contributing to sustainable tourism that is of direct benefit to the local people and communities of Oaxaca and the surrounding region. For this reason we’re doing our best to plan our stay in support of responsible locally and/or indigenous-owned businesses, beginning with our home base in Oaxaca, the lovely Hotel con Corazon.
The hotel is well-located, in a quiet neighborhood about a 15 minute walk from the city’s historic center. The staff is welcoming and friendly, the rooms are simple but comfortable, and there are several terraces that will be great for relaxing, reading, and workshop sessions. Here’s an encapsulation of the hotel’s operating philosophy:
“Hotel con Corazón (“Hotel with a Heart”) is a social enterprise dedicated to creating impact . . . Most of our profits go towards educational programs, set up in cooperation with local NGO’s that support and motivate students to complete their schooling. We stimulate local economic development by running a profitable business that creates jobs, fair supplier relations and professional development opportunities for our employees. Another goal is to contribute to building sustainable communities. We not only do this by running our hotels in a socially responsible and environmental friendly way, but we also try to set an example and inspire others to do the same.”
If you’re interested in reading more about this uniquely friendly and well-designed hotel, take a look at their website: https://www.hotelconcorazon.com/oaxaca.
We’ll also be spending one night in the beautiful Sierra Norte mountains in ecotourism cabañas built and owned by a collective of indigenous communities.
Tucked into a pine forest and heated primarily by firewood, these cozy cabins have indoor plumbing, electricity, and hot water, and are perfectly situated for appreciating the Sierra Norte’s stunning natural environment.
Tuition fee of $3790 includes all accommodations, transportation, airport transfers, the writing workshop, local guides & group cultural activities including cooking class, mescal tasting, Zapotec ruins, botanical gardens, Sierra Norte and curandera visit, all breakfasts, and the majority of other meals. Does not include international airfare to Oaxaca, tips, or meals/nights out on your own. If you’d like to request a single room, there is a supplement is $750. Places are limited and applications will be considered on a rolling admissions basis until the program is filled. Applications received before April 15, 2026 are eligible for a $300 discount. To apply, fill out the form below, including a brief personal statement and a writing sample of no more than 500 words. An $800/person deposit to hold your place in the workshop will be due upon acceptance to the program.
Tim Weed 