The Refinery Writing Studio was founded in 2017 by writer and editor Amy Paige Condon, Who wanted to create a Place for aspiring and established writers in Savannah and the surrounding community to flourish and hone their craft.
Grounded in the philosophy that all great stories are anchored by vivid characterization and rich details and underpinned by well-structured architecture, the Refinery helps writers embrace the fundamentals of storytelling while illuminating their unique voices.
Amy Paige Condon, Founder and Editor
Award-winning journalist and author Amy Paige Condon teaches creative writing and provides editorial services at the Refinery Writing Studio. She is a freelance journalist, cookbook collaborator, and biographer, who most recently served as editor and content coach at the Savannah Morning News.
She helmed Beacon, a quarterly investigative and solutions journalism-oriented magazine produced by Savannah Morning News from 2018-2020, and was an editor of the lifestyle publications Savannah magazine, Savannah HOMES, and Savannah Weddings.
Following an 18-year career as an urban and park planner in Fort Worth, Texas, and Miami, Florida, Condon earned an MFA in writing in 2011 from the Savannah College of Art and Design. With Cheryl and Griffith Day, she co-wrote the New York Times-bestselling The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook (Artisan 2012). She followed it with the Wiley's Championship BBQ Cookbook (Gibbs Smith), which was named the best cookbook of 2014 by the National Barbecue News. In 2021, Countryman Press released Matthew Raiford’s debut cookbook, Bress ‘n’ Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth-generation Farmer, an Amazon Editors’ pick.
She collaborated with James Beard-nominated chef Todd Richards on his 2024 cookbook Roots, Heart, Soul: The Story, Celebration, and Recipes of Afro Cuisine in America (Harper Collins). Her most recent cookbook collaboration is with Oakland, California-based chef Crystal Wahpepah, A Feather and a Fork: 125 Intertribal Recipes from an Indigenous Food Warrior (Rodale, 2026).
Condon's biography of late Miami News editor Bill Baggs, A Nervous Man Shouldn't Be Here in the First Place, was published by UGA Press in October 2020. It inspired the Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary, The Life of Bill Baggs.
She lives in Savannah with her husband Brian, her one-eyed rescue dog Addie, and an ornery pig named Gus.
Photo by Molly Hayden, 2019