Mesa Refuge, a writers’ retreat in Point Reyes Station, announced the appointment of a new executive director this week. Susan Page Tillet formerly led a Chicago retreat for writers, where she raised more than $10 million to diversify the program, restore historic structures and develop community outreach, according to the board. The retreat, founded in 1998 by Working Assets co-founder Peter Barnes, offers two-week stays to writers seeking “solitude, the company of other writers, and the blissful absence of noise, demands and daily chores” in a cluster of sheds overlooking the Giacomini wetlands and the Inverness Ridge. Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, George Lakoff’s Thinking Points and Terry Tempest Williams’s Leap were each conceived or written, at least in part, at the retreat, among many other works. For more information visit mesarefuge.org.