What is Scrappy Literary?
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WHAT
Scrappy = determined, untidy, thrown together, imperfect. Scrappy Literary functions under the philosophy that writers can take the literary world into their own hands and that their path will likely not look the way they thought it would. To be scrappy is to be resourceful, hungry, balls to the wall, and a risk-taker. It was being scrappy that created these retreats in the first place.
We host IRL retreats and writing workshops, as well as personalized support for writers who are at any stage; we work with people who have published multiple books or have written a paragraph. We do not discriminate against the creative process.
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WHEN
Scrappy Literary began as a nameless writing workshop in Chloé’s living room in 2015. At the time, Chloé was looking for a way to make some income and build her literary community and friendships. Eight years later, Chloé has hosted nineteen retreats. Chloé was looking for a way to make some income and build her literary community and friendships. People found the retreats if they were orbiting through Chloé’s life and she always invited people through her intuition and careful curation. The people who attend the retreats often become lifelong friends — going to each other’s weddings, creating writing groups, attending readings together, singing karaoke at bars and much more mischief.
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WHERE
The retreats have mostly taken place in various locations of New York: Hudson, Spencertown, Austerlitz, West Kill, Brooklyn, as well as virtually. The plan is to continue the New York retreats as well as expand to other cities and states. Let us know where you’d like us to come!
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WHY
When you think of the literary and publishing landscape, the word “scrappy” isn’t usually what comes to mind, is it? Maybe elite, pretentious, gatekeepers, and broken are words you normally associate with it. However, if you’re scrappy, you can create your own literary world, even (especially!) without having an MFA, an agent, an award, or writer friends. We know, because we did it. We do it. And we want you to do it too.
WHO: THE Chloé + Alex Origin Story
Alex and Chloé’s story is one of a friendship romance. They both operate under the “embrace platonic intimacy” model. In 2021, Alex did a mentorship with Chloé for a year while writing the manuscript for their debut memoir, Entwined. To publish their book, Alex co-founded Quilted Press, a collective of independent authors.
Chloé and Alex kept in touch and the way Alex was publishing their book reminded Chloé of her own DIY approaches in the past, publishing with micro presses, doing a Kickstarter to go on a book tour, setting up her own events, cold emailing, and organic and guerilla marketing.
They quickly became creative collaborators, noticing they had a similar circadian rhythm and workhorse mentality. Their shared love language was voice memos. As Alex likes to put it, Chloé has magic, and Alex organizes the magic. Both their independent ethos around writing and publishing sparked a kinship based on shared values and ideas. Their first retreat took place in November 2023 and it was a magical time full of collaboration, trampoline jumping, family style dinner, and critical feedback. Chloé and Alex believe in meeting writers where they are, and helping them recognized their potential and untapped resources.
Chloé and Alex have that je ne sais quoi together, and whatever you can’t get from Chloe you can get from Alex and vice versa. Chloé is an Aries Sun and Taurus rising and Alex is a Leo with a whole lot of Virgo in their chart, if that is important to you.
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Who is Chloe?
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Who is Alex?
These writing retreats are so incredibly special to me. Each time I go, it feels like I am entering into a portal of pure magic that I never want to end. My creativity is consistently at its highest, the connections I am able to build with fellow writers run so deeply in what feels like an instant, and without fail, I walk away every time with lifelong friendships.
—Lindsay Meola
