WRW Founders Gary and Gail
Gary and Gail Provost co-founded the Writers Retreat Workshop in 1987 as a two-week intensive, in-residence program for a small group of serious fiction and creative nonfiction writers so they could learn directly from Gary. After the first year's sessions, the program went to ten days and stayed with that time frame into the 2010's.
Participation was limited for the sake of ample personalized attention from Gary, and more and more of the students who registered were returning students. WRW was always a true labor of love for everyone. There was a shared vision and passion for the work done together, and a clear sense of "family" took hold and blossomed.
In 1996, a year after Gary’s death, USA TODAY WEEKEND honored the Writers Retreat Workshop as the writing "vacation that can change your life."
WRW grads who learned from Gary continued to share his wise and generous instruction, insight, and approachability.
Writing consultant and story coach, Gail Provost Stockwell, has been nurturing aspiring writers and their dreams of publishing success. The guiding principle for Gail has been “to share the warmth, wit and wisdom” of the late Gary Provost, one of the nation’s leading instructors of writing-for-publication. Gail is also an award-winning co-author of three YA novels: Good If It Goes (1985 National Jewish Book Award Winner), Popcorn, and David and Max. The updated, revised edition of David and Max won a 2007 Skipping Stones Honor Award in the category of Multicultural & International Awareness and became a companion selection for the comprehensive teacher’s resource guide and student activities series, TEACH TO REACH.
Before her career in publishing, Gail taught art to elementary and junior high school children, co-founded a community theater group in which she produced, set-designed, performed and directed music, and later visited schools as “The Fairy Tale Lady,” combining her love of fairy tales with music and art.
Gail most recently published a memoir titled '111, We & Me' and is working on a new novel.
Gary had a long-term relationship with Writer's Digest, serving as a correspondent, then a contributing editor, then a regular columnist. He eventually proposed a how-to book idea to Writer's Digest Books. And when he did, they bought it. Gary's first official book publishing contract was Make Every Word Count. It became a top seller for WD Books.
Along with love for the craft, he discovered a unique gift for teaching not only via the printed page, but also in-person. He began with night schools, then seminars and workshops for writers, teaching them not only techniques for improving their writing skills but also how to get published. He soon authored The Freelance Writer's Handbook and became a popular speaker at writing conferences nationwide.
He wrote four YA novels. All four won awards, including The Pork Chop War, inspired by his childhood memories. Co-authored with, Gail, Good If It Goes, won the couple a National Jewish Book Award for Children's Literature., David and Max earned them a dozen prestigious nominations, including a Newbery. (It was updated in 2006 for a new edition.)
All of Gary's best-selling true crime books were optioned for film, and Fatal Dosage was produced as a CBS TV film, Fatal Judgment, starring Patty Duke. Other true crime titles include: Finder, Without Mercy, Perfect Husband, Across the Border, and Into Their Own Hands. For WD Books, he also wrote How to Write and Sell True Crime.
What would become his final work of nonfiction, Bogart: In Search of My Father, was ready for publication at the time of Gary's death in 1995. He had just completed his interviews with Kelsey Grammer for Kelsey's autobiography, So Far, and he had already begun the second in a humorous mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime -- inspired by Gary's personal experience as one of only 7 finalists out of a field of 12,000 in the Chicago Sun Times' national search to replace Ann Landers. Baffled In Boston, the first in this series was published a few months after Gary's death.
Other projects underway included a seventh book for writers. In 1998, How To Tell A Story: The Secrets Of Writing Captivating Tales was completed by Gail and agent/author Peter Rubie and published by WD.
Other acclaimed books for writers by Gary were NAL’s The Freelance Writer’s Handbook and the still-popular reference book, 100 Ways To Improve Your Writing.
work. "crystallization of Gary's wisdom."
Text on this page adapted from Gary and Gail on Carol "Doc" Dougherty Celtic Doc site.