Author. Storyteller. Retreat Leader.
Brie Doyle
Brie Doyle writes nonfiction and fiction about motherhood, presence, and the inner lives of women. She is the author of You Should Leave Now (Broadleaf Books, 2021), a book on the power and practice of retreat, and a TEDx speaker whose 2024 talk, "Recovering the Lost Self through Retreat," explores why stepping away can bring us home to ourselves.
Her nonfiction on motherhood, presence, and youth mental health draws on research in attachment psychology, neuroscience, and cultural history. She also writes fiction that uses story as social commentary. Her short fiction has appeared in River & South Review, and she writes regular essays for her Substack, Women Who Know.
A former middle and high school English teacher in New York City and Boulder, Brie founded She Glows Retreats in 2016 and has since guided more than 1,000 women through retreats in the US and abroad. She continues to host a small number of retreats each year.
She lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband and three children. Brie is represented by Keely Boeving at WordServe Literary.
Hi, I'm Brie.
I've been a teacher in some capacity for over twenty-five years, but I've been a student of contemplative practice for as long as I can remember.
As a kid, I was fascinated by Catholic nuns who lived in solitude to cultivate their inner lives and I thought maybe I'd be one someday. When I was 19, I lived in Nepal and studied yoga, Buddhism, and philosophy with teachers who planted the seeds for everything I've done since.
I taught middle school in NYC and started an initiative that brought meditation into the classroom. I brought regular yoga classes to Division I college football programs. I've worked with mothers in Nepal, executives at Google, and people of all ages and stages of life who long to heal and live more fully.
Then my own crisis came. After having my third child, I hit a low. I was thrilled to be a mother, but I was struggling internally. I tried everything I could think of: shifting my eating habits, monitoring sleep, exercise, bodywork, writing, meditation.
But it was going on retreat that brought me back to myself.
That experience became the foundation of my work. In 2016, I founded She Glows Retreats, and since then I've held space for more than 1,000 women on their own journeys of self-discovery. It also became the heart of my book, You Should Leave Now, and my TEDx talk.
But writing was never the side project. It was the thing underneath everything else. I read constantly in psychology, neuroscience, cultural history, spirituality, and attachment, and I bring what I learn into every retreat. I write about motherhood, presence, and what's happening to our kids. I also write fiction that asks uncomfortable questions about the world we're building.
I still host a retreat or two a year, but the page is where I live now.
Thanks for popping by. You can find me more regularly on my Substack, Women Who Know.
