May 2022

Pushing Onward

Writing Residencies are one way to guarantee yourself uninterrupted time to work on a project. You place yourself into a setting conducive for inspiration, one with no interruptions, no obligations for upkeep and maintenance, where the only focus is on writing. This complete dedication to the purpose of writing gives you time and space away from daily routines. Writers compete to attend residencies because they provide an extremely productive environment for good writing.

A residency usually provides room and board. You retreat to a private space, released from all daily obligations other than writing. And when you take a break, the marvels of nature or the city where you are staying are only a step out the door. 

Most residencies require an application process. To apply for a writing residency, you must fill out an application. It can be fee-free but most applications require a fee (EX: $25USD).

The application may (or not) request a CV, a portfolio, a writer’s statement of purpose, and the residency may (or not) include obligations to perform readings or teach. 

The residency selection process is competitive. You must be selected to attend.   

Writers selected to attend a residency receive varying amounts of support.  The free residency can be fully subsidized. Or it can be partially funded. Or it can be self-pay for all expense. Some of the non-competitive self-pay residencies fill available slots on a first-come, first-served basis for eligible applicants. Some exclusive free residencies cover travel and may include a stipend in addition to paying for residency expenses.

Fee-based, self-pay residencies are great for emerging writers with financial resources but little or no record of publication. Most applications request a sample of your work and a statement of purpose for the writing residency.

Attending a writing residency has many advantages. Not only are you in a place which limits distractions and allows you to concentrate and write your best work, but by attending, you expand your writing network. Residency attendance connects you with other artists, usually ones at a similar level of artistic achievement. And since other writers and artists in attendance have competed to come for the same purpose—you tend to cross pollinate as a group. You tend to bring out the best in each other. You end up revitalized and while you are there, you write with vigor and excitement. What you write might even move in a new, unexpected direction. Writing that surprises you has a greater possibility to do that for your reader.  

A writer residency is an excellent place to move a writing project to completion. Whether the deadline is defined by contract with a publisher or editor, or even though it’s internal and self imposed, there’s value because you achieve what you set out to do. This completed book may have many years and tears in the making. It deserves a final wrap up, tie on a ribbon, present it to the world where the work stands alone. Once work is finished, you set it aside and there’s the satisfaction of release. You give yourself permission to move on. After a writing residency, you have the space and time to devote to new work. 

These writer residency musings are the result of reading Erika Dreyfus’s May Blog Post: Fee-Free Writing Residencies: Erika provides a list of residencies that 1) charge no application fees and 2) charge no fees for participation.   https://www.erikadreifus.com/resources/grants-fellowships-and-awards/fee-free-writing-residencies/

I highly recommend Erika Dreyfus, she’s a self-proclaimed writer and resource maven who delivers good writer sustenance. She’s a fine published poet who shares weekly to monthly gleanings on the poetry market and places to publish. I encourage every writer to register for Erika Dreyfus free online resource: The Practicing Writer, a resource for fee-free (and paying) calls, competitions & writer resources for fiction, poetry & creative non-fiction: HOME » RESOURCES » GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND AWARDS » FEE-FREE WRITING RESIDENCIES  Please subscribe (or resubscribe) at Substack!

Here are two other links to writer residencies you may wish to check out:

1- International opportunities for Writers & Literary Professionals - by: Krakow: UNESCO CITY OF LITERATURE. http://krakowcityofliterature.com/networks/international-opportunities/

2- Bomb Magazine has a great list if writing residencies in the US. Fellowships and Residencies Spring 2022 by - BOMB Magazine

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Good luck if you apply for a residency!!