Richard C. Morais's Blog

1st Retreat of the Milford Writing Institute Successfully Concluded

Excerpt from the Pike County Courier article “Inaugural Writing Institute Comes to Town” by Marilyn Rosenthal:

Four attendees in the group with a variety of different backgrounds, different genres, and different stages in their writing were Michael Montoya (who is writing a memoir about his gender transition while teaching in a prison system); Isabel Voegele (who came from Switzerland and is writing a murder mystery about a London auction house art heist); Kit Kleinow (who is writing a dystopian novel about a 16-year-old fighting for their sanity in a threatening world); and Nikhil Hutheesing (a journalist who is writing an historical novel about his grandmother, Krishna Nehru Hutheesing, the youngest sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, the former Prime Minister of India).

Often in writing workshops, the leader just talks about themselves, even reading from their own work as examples of the “right” way to write. Or, in many cases they intimidate attendees as they read from their work and turn them off completely. Sometimes it can get pretty vicious. Morais is very aware of this and works to set the tone for people to be respectful of one another.

“Some workshops destroy more writers than they make,” he said.

“The vibe and tone that Richard sets is just magical,” Montoya said. “He makes us feel safe.”

“Richard knows my novel better than me. He is so kind and always presents the positive first,” Voegele said.

“Richard built a level of confidence in me that I didn’t think was possible,” Kleinow added.

Hutheesing pointed out that Morais always gives constructive criticism. “He’ll say, ‘This is what you do really well. This is what you need to work on.’”

Announcing 2025 TriVersity Writer Scholarships at the Milford Writing Institute

Wendy Stuart Kaplan, a board member of the TriVersity Pride Center, has released the following statement:

“I am delighted to announce the winners of the inaugural TriVersity Writer’s Scholarship, allowing a new queer literary voice to attend the Milford Writing Institute’s 2025 Fall Program. The Scholarship Selection Committee were asked to pick from four finalists, a shortlist culled from dozens of submissions. The Committee informs me the finalists displayed such a variety of uniqueness and strengths, they had trouble choosing a single winner. For that reason, TriVersity has decided to award not one but two scholarships this year. The 2025 TriVersity Writer’s Scholarship winners are –

Michael Montoya and his memoir Man Reformed, the moving and enlightening story of a parent transitioning to a man while teaching prisoners in New York State’s penitentiary system. Michael Montoya is a transgender teacher and professional development speaker with 30+ years of experience in both arts and academic education, working with students in public, private, and correctional settings. He has published articles, created teaching materials, and produced a documentary film designed to help teachers support LGBTQIA+ students in arts education. For his expertise in arts education, Michael has been awarded the distinction of New York State Teaching Artist by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable. He has also received recognition for his work from the Dallas City Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Reel Affirmations LGBTQ Film Festival of Washington, DC.

And Kit L. Kleinow and his novel Unseen Scarlet, a dystopian fantasy of the future where a mentally unstable 16-year-old is trying to survive his controlling parents and a world run by autocratic billionaires. Kit has been writing on an almost daily basis for close to 20 years now, having started with poetry and fiction novels in middle school as a taught coping skill. He studied Creative Writing at both Susquehanna University and Reading Area Community College, where he was invited to present an essay about the history and impact of the Stonewall Riots. He writes the TriVersity Newsletter, and serves in the role of the head researcher and cohost for a queer history podcast.

A warm congratulations to our winners.

I’m happy to report Milford Writing Institute founder Richard Morais has decided to give a private masterclass to the two runners up – Fabrice Houdart and Alex Buda – in the belief they are equally important literary voices in the making and should also be given a leg up.”

Milford Writing Institute’s 2026 Spring Program: Cascais, Portugal

Chuffed to announce that I have been invited by the Fundação Dom Luis I — an arts & culture foundation in Cascais, Portugal — to be their international writer-in-residence from March 31 to April 30, 2026. I am touched. Cascais is where I was born, where I had the happiest moments of my childhood, and I can’t wait to return, at this stage in life, to see what new works get stirred up by the smells of grilled sardines and spit-roasted cabrito.

But here’s the point of this missive: I’ve decided to use one of my writer-in-residence weeks to host the Milford Writing Institute’s Spring 2026 Program in the beautiful village where I was born, often referred to as the “Portuguese Riviera.”

This luxurious MWI event will be an international food-and-writing retreat for amateur-to-mid-level writers, and will involve having one unique Portuguese culinary event every day, a prompt to trigger an hour or two of sensory-driven writing in the afternoon. At the end of the retreat week, I will assemble everyone’s food-larded work and create a stylish zine with bylines from all the MWI’s attendees. This digital magazine will then be distributed globally by the Cascais Tourist Board. So the MWI Spring 2026 Program guarantees to be luxurious, serve up unique culinary experiences, and end in a byline for all attendees, fulfilling the MWI’s mission to create writing experiences that mix “leisure with learning.”

If you are interested in possibly attending this event during a yet TBD week in April 2026, drop me a line at richard@richardcmorais.com with “Portugal” in the header, and I will put you on the “guest” list and make sure you get the details as soon as they are available. I am currently lining up the retreat’s surprises with the help of the Cascais government. (Teaser: If all goes well, we will be staying in the former King of Italy’s villa in Cascais, where Umberto II went into exile after the Italian monarchy was abolished in 1946.)

Milford Writing Institute’s 2026 Program: Cascais, Portugal

Chuffed to announce that I have been invited by the Fundação Dom Luis I — an arts & culture foundation in Cascais, Portugal — to be their international writer-in-residence from March 31 to April 30, 2026. I am touched. Cascais is where I was born, where I had the happiest moments of my childhood, and I can’t wait to return, at this stage in life, to see what new works get stirred up by the smells of grilled sardines and spit-roasted cabrito.

But here’s the point of this missive: I’ve decided to use one of my writer-in-residence weeks to host the Milford Writing Institute’s Spring 2026 Program in the beautiful village where I was born, often referred to as the “Portuguese Riviera.”

This luxurious MWI event will be an international food-and-writing retreat for amateur-to-mid-level writers, and will involve having one unique Portuguese culinary event every day, a prompt to trigger an hour or two of sensory-driven writing in the afternoon. At the end of the retreat week, I will assemble everyone’s food-larded work and create a stylish zine with bylines from all the MWI’s attendees. This digital magazine will then be distributed globally by the Cascais Tourist Board. So the MWI Spring 2026 Program guarantees to be luxurious, serve up unique culinary experiences, and end in a byline for all attendees, fulfilling the MWI’s mission to create writing experiences that mix “leisure with learning.”

If you are interested in possibly attending this event during a yet TBD week in April 2026, drop me a line at richard@richardcmorais.com with “Portugal” in the header, and I will put you on the “guest” list and make sure you get the details as soon as they are available. I am currently lining up the retreat’s surprises with the help of the Cascais government. (Teaser: If all goes well, we will be staying in the former King of Italy’s villa in Cascais, where Umberto II went into exile after the Italian monarchy was abolished in 1946.)

Aug 15 Deadline for the TriVersity Writers Scholarship at the Milford Writing Institute

Study at the Milford Writing Institute

The TriVersity Writers Scholarship at the Milford Writing Institute is designed to help aspiring LGBTQ+ writers establish their literary voice, lift the quality of their writing to professional levels, and provide them with a bestselling author as guide and mentor.

Scholarship applicants must meet the following requirements:

Be a mid-to-advance- level LGBTQ+ fiction or nonfiction writer.Have made a significant start on an ambitious work.Live in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or New York.Able to participate in the MWI retreat from early evening Friday Sep. 12th to end of workday on Sep. 19th, 2025.

Scholarship benefits:

As outlined in the MWI Fall 2025 Program. The winning candidate will have his/her/their participation in the MWI Fall 2025 fully paid for by The TriVersity Writers Scholarship Fund, under the terms and conditions laid out in the “Local Cost” section of the Program.

Scholarship Application Process:

Assemble the following items:A short bio, with email address and cell phone numberA three-paragraph synopsis of your ambitious work in progress and one final paragraph on what you hope to get out of the MWI ProgramThe first 20 pages of your work in progress.Email the above three items to richard@richardcmorais.com . Your application must have “TriVersity Writers Scholarship” in the email header and be submitted by August 15th, 2025.Institute founder Richard C. Morais will then contact you for a 30-minute interview. His shortlist of scholarship candidates will be passed on to the independent TriVersity Writers Scholarship Selection Committee, which will make the final decision as to the winner.

Key scholarship dates:

Application Deadline: August 15th, 2025

Scholarship-Selection Committee Winner Notification: By August 29th, 2025

TriVersity Publicly Announces Scholarship Winner: September 1st, 2025

Scholarship Winner Attends the MWI Fall 2025 Program: Sep. 12th, 2025

 

MILFORD MOONS Book Launch and Fundraising Event June 7th at the Hotel Fauchère in Milford, Pa.

My Latest Book Coming Soon: The New Rules of Investing with UBS Global CIO Mark Haefele

A book from my other life: Had the privilege of co-authoring with UBS’ Global CIO, Mark Haefele, The New Rules of Investing: Essential Wealth Strategies for Turbulent Times, a barn-burning investment book that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about capital markets and how to build wealth wisely in the 21st Century. You will learn how to follow the “Big Money” and how to master your weird personal money issues that are sabotaging your financial results. Published by HarperCollins Leadership. Out January 28, 2025.

My landlord gently suggests you pre-order now.

My Review of Amy Ferris’ MIGHTY GORGEOUS

Amy Ferris is a very special friend of mine, an important person in my life, but when it comes to writing, I switch into professional mode, my worldview built on a fundamental belief that writers have a higher duty, when picking up the pen, to tell the truth to their audience. So, I trust the review I write here about MIGHTY GORGEOUS, Amy’s soon to be released book, will be taken at face value:“Halfway through MIGHTY GORGEOUS, I took issue with the promotional pitch that this book was a ‘memoir.’ It was, to my mind, a collection of social-media-length essays on how to live a life fully, offering practical (not Pollyannaish) advice and musings on how we can go about our day with a big heart. Well, it turns out I was wrong. What I didn’t factor in was Amy’s considerable talent as a writer. While the individual essays touched me to a more or lesser degree, I found I was, in the end, floored by the sum of the parts, which delivered nothing less than an emotional haymaker. For example, a sweet and lightly dispatched essay about escorting a lonely male friend to the hospital for a medical procedure, gains huge emotional meaning and resonance by the end of the book, when the author produces a virtuoso piece of writing about her father’s final (and tragic) days in a hospital. No preaching – just a real-life lesson in how our personal wounds can later in life be turned into genuine acts of love.“Men, in particular, should not be put off by the book’s ‘girly’ cover. Amy is a strong-arm feminist who deeply and authentically loves men, flaws and all, and you will be deeply moved and uplifted by the essays where her father and much-loved husband Ken make their appearances. The essay about Amy’s and Ken’s dead apartment refrigerator getting moved, only to reveal all this hidden ‘dreck’ under the surface, is a fantastic piece of writing about the special kind of love that is required to sustain a marriage. Buy this book – it slides down the gullet like a joyously light glass of Sauvignon Blanc, but the resonance of this vintage is deep and lasts long past the last sip is taken.”

Rainbow Railroad Road to Freedom Literary Festival in NY January 12th, 2023

“Oh Baby, Baby it’s a Wild World” by John Brooks
graphite and colored pencil on paper

I have founded a literary festival and fundraiser in New York to support a wonderful Canadian NGO called the Rainbow Railroad. It’s going to be a special event. Please come:

Five Queer Writers to Headline New Literary Festival:‘Road to Freedom’ All proceeds to benefit the Rainbow RailroadThe Rainbow Railroad is thrilled to announce its inaugural Road to Freedom Literary Festival, centered around the theme that “storytelling helps heal humanity’s wounds”. On January 12, 2023 at Penn 1, the newly renovated tower above Penn Station, the Road to Freedom Literary Festival will contribute to that healing when prominent Queer writers, together with select beneficiaries of Rainbow Railroad, share moving and inspiring stories from their ‘roads to freedom.’The Rainbow Railroad, like the Underground Railroad of lore, saves the lives of Queer people who are in mortal danger from their governments because of who they are and who they love. There are 69 UN countries that outlaw same-sex love, and in 11 of them the sentence is death.In addition to the rich literary experience on offer at the festival, hosted by award-winning journalist and novelist Richard C. Morais, Rainbow Railroad beneficiaries will share personal stories alongside Kimahli Powell, Executive Director of the Rainbow Railroad. The festival brings together the following literary and political talents: Chen Chen, poet and author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, a National Endowment of the Arts Fellow in literature; Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of the bestselling and critically-acclaimed novels Patsy and Here Comes the Sun, and a two-time Lambda Literary Award Winner; Richie Hofmann, Stanford professor, poet, and author of A Hundred Lovers and frequent contributor to the New Yorker and The Atlantic; Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby, which won the 2021 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction; and Peter Staley, HIV/AIDS activist and author of Never Silent: ACT UP and My Life In Activism, prominently featured in the documentary How to Survive A Plague.A very limited number of tickets, which includes food and drink, are available at $150 each. A bargain. Act now to lock in a ticket: https://www.rainbowrailroad.org/the-latest/rainbow-railroad-road-to-freedomPicture above is a work by acclaimed artist John Brooks and will be auctioned off on the night.

What Readers are Saying About THE MAN WITH NO BORDERS

Whether he’s untangling the strands of José’s dark inner world or offering a glimpse of a milieu where money serves as both lubricant and salve, Morais effectively reveals how heartbreakingly inadequate even vast resources can be in providing a bulwark against the assault of life’s most formidable challenges. A meticulous unearthing of the painful contradictions in a privileged life. – Kirkus Reviews

An absolutely astounding example of a sometimes strange and sometimes unsympathetic character revealing elements of the universal human story, the search for meaning in our lives, through our actions, our legacy, the people we have touched and who touch us. I cannot recommend this book more highly. So skillfully done, so moving. Finished it in a coffee shop and I still couldn’t keep myself from crying. – Rational Reader

When I finished Richard Morais’ latest book, The Many with No Borders, I took a breath so deep my wife asked me what was wrong. – Nikhil Hutheesing

At the heart of this book are the secrets that sustain us as individuals and that sustain our businesses, and how they also eat us alive. This is a fun book; it explores big issues of personality and society. There are lush descriptions of Spanish life that evoke Hemingway, including salmon fishing adventures, crave-inducing meals, and a remarkable cameo by Franco. – Michael Maiello

A fluid, lyrical look at a dramatic and often traumatic life. Fans of Anthony Doerr will enjoy this sweeping novel’s sumptuous locales and heart-wrenching vignettes. – Booklist

I loved the flow of this man’s memories, his demons and his wonders at the grandness of life. I strongly recommend it. – Maev

Best book I’ve read in years. I cannot stop thinking about the main character and his family. I normally do not give books five stars unless it’s a classic book by a classic author. However, in this case I truly believe that Richard Morais is one of the most talented writers that I’ve read this century. – E. White

Fictional tour de force. – Audiofile Magazine (Golden Earphones Winner)

This is a beautifully written book. The author manages to slip effortlessly from a reportorial style into dazzling images with a minimum of verbiage. What Barbara Kingsolver did for butterflies (Flight Behavior), and Richard Powers (The Overstory) did for forests, Morais does for fish. – A. Mayten

The Man with No Borders may have me reading novels again. After the first few chapters, I was reading at night until my eyes wouldn’t stay open. – Nancy NC

Morais uses elegant sentences to weave a story filled with emotion and deep insight. The brilliant descriptions of salmon fishing in Spain made me want to book a trip. And the denouement in which José changes his will to divide his fortune is a tour de force of wisdom. This is a deeply affecting book and I can’t get it out of my mind. – T. Ryder