Stories from the East End: Looking Back at Our Literary Escape to the Hamptons

Some stories are found in books.

Others happen around long tables, on sailboats, over afternoon martinis, or late-night glasses of wine, during conversations that somehow begin with literature and end somewhere much more personal.

Our Hamptons Literary Escape was built around Montauk by Nicola Harrison, but like all of our retreats, the weekend became about far more than the book.

This chapter belonged to the women.

Some places invite you to do more.

The Hamptons invited us to do less.

To linger over coffee. To sit with a book a little longer. To let conversations unfold instead of checking the time. To remember what happens when women are given space to simply exist together.

The Setting

Our home for the weekend felt tucked quietly into the landscape of the East End surrounded by spring blooms, doe in the yard, winding roads, and the kind of peaceful silence that's increasingly hard to find. Light poured through tall windows. Books waited by the door. Long tables promised slow meals and even slower conversations.

Outside, the weather reminded us quickly that coastal weekends rarely follow the script.

Sunshine gave way to dramatic skies and shifting winds. One moment the water looked calm and endless. The next it felt wild and cinematic.

Honestly, it suited us. Because The Literary Escape has never been about perfect weather. It is about creating space for connection, no matter what the weekend brings.

Chapter One: Arriving

Guests arrived to find bookish gifts waiting for them, little details tucked throughout the house, and an invitation to settle in immediately. Some arrived knowing no one. Others came with friends. Within a few hours, those distinctions seemed to disappear.

As always, the first few hours are one of our favorite parts. Introductions turn into stories. Stories turn into laughter. And suddenly a room full of women who had just met starts to feel strangely familiar. That first evening set the tone. Cocktails in cozy corners. Dinner that lingered. Conversations that somehow moved effortlessly from books to life to travel to things that mattered.

Chapter Two: Setting Sail

If there was one moment that captured the feeling of the weekend, it might have been our afternoon on the water.

We spent the day sailing through Sag Harbor under blue skies and soft wind, gathered barefoot on the deck with drinks in hand and nowhere we needed to be.

There is something about being out on open water that changes conversation. People relax. Stories surface.

Between stretches of quiet and bursts of laughter, we watched sails fill, passed waterfront homes that looked straight out of a Nancy Meyers movie, and let the rhythm of the water slow us down.

For a few hours, the world felt very far away.

Chapter Three: The Unexpected Detour

And then came one of our favorite kinds of Literary Escape moments.

Someone suggested we go to Montauk. Not because it was scheduled. Not because we had to. Simply because we could. So off we went.

There was something unexpectedly special about bringing our books with us and stepping into the place that had been living in our imaginations for weeks.

Standing there with copies of Montauk in hand, seeing the landscape, feeling the weather, and connecting the setting to the story made the entire experience feel fuller somehow.

Books have a way of making places feel personal.

And places have a way of making books stay with you.

Chapter Four: The Parts You Cannot Schedule

Of course, there were beautiful meals.

Long breakfasts. Good wine. Quiet reading moments. But the things we keep talking about are not the things that made the itinerary.

It was the late-night conversations. The stories that appeared unexpectedly. The inside jokes.And a game of Heads Up that started as friendly competition and somehow ended with half the room wiping away tears from laughing. The kind where nobody wanted to stop because everyone knew those are the moments you remember later.

Those little pockets of joy are becoming one of the signatures of Literary Escape. They cannot be planned. But somehow they always happen.

The Twist

We say this after every retreat and every time we mean it.

The destination is never really the point.

Not Palm Springs.

Not the Hamptons.

Not wherever we go next.

The women are always the story. Each person arrived carrying her own season of life, her own perspective, her own reasons for saying yes. And together they created something softer, funnier, more meaningful, and more memorable than we could have planned.

By the time suitcases were packed and goodbyes were exchanged, the weekend felt both impossibly short and surprisingly full. New friendships had formed. Books had been discussed. Stories had been shared. And as always, everyone left with a little more than they arrived with.

Ready for the Next Chapter?

If you’ve been craving a weekend that feels slower, more connected, and a little like stepping inside your favorite novel, we would love to have you with us.

Follow along on Instagram @literaryescapeadventures and subscribe to Notes From the Margins to see where the story takes us next.