An art gallery at The Oxbow Hotel.

The Chippewa Valley Writers Guild is back at it, starting off 2017 with a Winter Writer’s Weekend at The Oxbow Hotel in snowy downtown Eau Claire, Feb. 4-5. Guild director/UW-Eau Claire professor BJ Hollars says it’s a two-day retreat designed to help people create, revise, and workshop their writing, perhaps busting them free of their wintertime writer’s block. Led by Hollars, the weekend will be facilitated by UWEC graduate writing students and alumni. The retreat will include a Saturday evening gallery reading (recorded for broadcast on Blugold Radio), as well as a publication opportunity in Volume One’s Local Lit section, selected by editor Bruce Taylor. Participants will also enjoy a guest lecture and networking opportunity with Milkweed Editions editor Joey McGarvey. The retreat is open to all writers of all skill levels. Admission fees cover one night of lodging, all instruction, live jazz, breakfast, lunch, snacks, and a drink ticket. For more info, visit cvwritersguild.org and click on “Residencies.” The signup deadline is Jan. 10.