From the Farmhouse Table: January 2026
New leadership at Hedgebrook
It was all I could do to hold my tongue when Sheryl Feldman and Nancy Nordhoff, Hedgebrook's co-founders, pulled up to the land for an impromptu visit last October.
It was a misty afternoon and the old friends were reminiscing about turning a farm overlooking Whidbey Island’s Deer Lagoon into a sanctuary where thousands of women-identified writers have found literary respite, radical hospitality and their many, varied and important voices. Sitting in the Gathering Space with their backs to a roaring fire, they were celebrating what their vision had become.
I joined in.
I told them how durable their vision has been. How it would outlive all of us. How there was no way to count the many lives touched by words written on this one-time dairy farm. How transformative the experience of a Hedgebrook residency remains. How grateful I was to have had a chance to shepherd this dream through the uncertain years of the Covid pandemic to stability. How lucky I felt to have learned from them.
What I wasn’t ready to tell them that day was that I had decided to step down after five years as Hedgebrook’s executive director. I needed a few more days to tell the Board and staff. When I shared the news with Nancy and Sheryl, I thought of our earlier conversation before the fire. I wanted to give myself what they had given so many other women: time, space and permission to write.
Because of them.
Work life has taken me from behind the counter at a Häagen-Dazs branch in Stamford, Conn., to the sales floor of a nearby Ann Taylor store and a very short-lived stint working inside the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel; from numerous congressional internships to cater waiter gigs in Charlottesville, Va. and Washington, D.C., to a tiny closet office in the White House Press Room to a desk overlooking a valley of Prim'Holstein dairy cows in a region of southwestern France known for its prehistoric caves, medieval castles and fortified villages, from the old Seattle Post-Intelligencer newsroom overlooking Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains to an airport runway in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and the sun-filled offices of a private foundation in Portland’s Pearl District, I have worked in some interesting places.
Along the way, my creative writing has lived on the margins of my life, through journalism, philanthropy and yes, here, at Hedgebrook. (The cobbler’s children really have no shoes!)
On this farm, I have squinted up at noble red-tailed hawks and proud Great Horned owls swooping overhead, prey clinched and wriggling. My winter jackets carry the faint scent of cedar smoke from the fire pit and the clouds that billow from cottage chimneys. And even on moonless nights, my steps have grown sure on the footpaths that curl through these 48 acres.
These five years have changed me. But I haven’t prioritized writing, the one thing that helps me find meaning and process the world. I was ready to upturn my life to place my writing practice at its center.
Nancy heard me out. Her response was as generous as anyone who knew her would expect. She offered thanks, encouragement, laughter and warmth. That was her way. We discussed Equivox 2026, Hedgebrook’s signature brunch fundraiser (get your tickets now for the March 22 event!). She was excited that we’d invited Erin Holloway, executive director at Storyknife Writers Retreat, and acclaimed mystery author Dana Stabenow, Hedgebrook alumna and StoryKnife’s founder, to be my guests at Equivox. She was looking forward to seeing them there.
Nancy died on Jan. 7. She took a piece of my heart with her. And I’m not alone in my grief. Each of us at Hedgebrook, those who knew her across Whidbey Island and the region, folks at Mount Holyoke College, at StoryKnife, at Goosefoot, we are changed. So, too, every writer who has crossed the Farmhouse threshold, and every reader, theatergoer, listener and viewer of the works created here. We are indebted.
At the end of March, a few days after Equivox, I will hand over Hedgebrook’s reins to our Interim Executive Director, Claudia Castro Luna, Washington State Poet Laureate, illustrious Hedgebrook alumna, and a recent member of Hedgebrook’s Board of Directors. Two months out, I have just one goal: the most successful Equivox we’ve ever hosted, celebrating Nancy and Sheryl and the living legacy they created.
We’re expecting a full house. I look forward to seeing you in the room or online.
-Kimberly A.C. Wilson
Executive Director, Hedgebrook