Inaugurated in 2023 with a generous grant from the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism, Roots & Refuge (R&R) is an annual summer retreat for Asian-heritage writers of all genres who engage Buddhism in their creative and spiritual lives. Hosted at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS) in central Massachusetts, the retreat is supported by scholarship funding from the Hemera Foundation, BCBS, and numerous R&R alumni.
If you ask me whether I belong to a writing group, I will tell you about the Roots and Refuge community. It’s an intergenerational, interreligious, intercultural, interracial collective that embodies everything I want to be when I grow up: funny and kind, talented and humble, caring and wise, unruffled and exuberant. By design, our retreat is experimental and participatory, emergent and co-led. To learn more, read Ryan Lee Wong’s “Home-Leaving and Refuge at the First Asian American Buddhist Writing Retreat” and Sophia Mao’s “Stories to Rest Into.” To really learn what it’s like: join us!
