About Us

Here I am in the third person: Bret Lott is the internationally bestselling author of fifteen books: eight novels, four memoirs, and three story collections. His novel Jewel was an Oprah Book Club pick and was made into a film starring Cicely Tyson and Farrah Fawcett, and his memoir Fathers, Sons and Brothers: The Men In My Family was named Notable Twentieth-Century American Literary Nonfiction in Best American Essays of the Century, 2000. He has been teaching writing for nearly four decades at the College of Charleston, and has led workshops and retreats all over the United States as well as in Italy, France, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bahrain and Israel. He has also spoken on Flannery O’Connor at The White House, served on the National Council on the Arts, and was a Senior American Scholar and writer in residence at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv. His work has been translated into eight languages. But here’s the most important thing he wants you to know: he loves teaching, he loves writing, and he loves Italy. He and Melanie will make sure participants have a terrific and meaningful time on the Tuscany Writing Retreat.

Melanie Is the real brains behind the outfit, and serves as the director of the Tuscany Writing Retreat. Together we’ve lived in the south of France, taken a sabbatical in Ireland, and traveled to at least a dozen countries. But we’ve stayed in Italy more times than we can count–really, last time we tried we lost track around 18 or 19. We’ve been married for 44 years now, and she has been my first reader—and first critic—since we began dating and I shared a short story I’d written in an effort to impress her. When she returned it to me, gave a small rueful laugh and slowly shook her head at the failure in her hands, I knew I was in love: she was honest about my work, and has remained so through all these years. Her background in business, having worked with architects in historic Charleston, the safe water nonprofit organization Water Mission, and alongside engineers and artists alike makes her especially set for helping retreaters as we move toward and then settle in to this very special week in Tuscany.