About

Stepping Stones is a Portland, OR based group hosting worldwide writing retreats. It began in 2022, when two nascent friends, Ashley and Sheila, who met through the Attic Institute's Atheneum Master Writing Program in Portland, got to talking after a meeting. Standing outside on the sidewalk, energized by the writing they'd just heard and the camaraderie of the group, a whisper of an idea took shape—a gathering of like-minded writers, full of thought provoking conversations and dedicated time to putting their pen to the page on the sunny beaches of southern Portugal.

Over the months that followed, that vision started become reality. Their Atheneum mentor Joanna was an obvious choice to facilitate the retreat, their fiction cohort the obvious attendees, Ashley's house in Altura, Portugal the obvious venue.

Soon: an LLC, a website, registration forms, a flurry of emails and meetings and excitement. And finally, in May of 2024, it happened. Seven writers, with Joanna at the helm, made their way across the Atlantic and had a perfect five days of creative growth.

On the heels of such a great success, they thought: Why not another? And so an Oregon Coastal Retreat was put into the works. Who knows where Stepping Stones will go next, but we sure hope you'll join us.