While many writer-run retreats are fairly new, and their founders are still tinkering with the format, some like Dallagiacomo are plotting ways to turn them into lasting institutions. In the years since she founded the Heart of It, Dallagiacomo has finished her college degree and is now a Helen Zell Fellow in the MFA program at the University of Michigan. But even as she’s attending classes and planning next summer’s retreat, she is also thinking how she can take the retreat model to the next level.
“My big dream—this is my like big secret dream—is to get a book deal that will be enough to be able to put a down payment on a property and then be able to have essentially a commune,” she says. “This would be a place for working-class writers to have a bit of a work exchange and just to have space. We have a lot of writers in our community who experience housing insecurity, and so being able to have a space for these writers is the big dream.” {read}