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From her home just outside of Fairbanks proper, a poet subverts mainstream Alaskan imagery to conjure the reality of her writing life, which includes a local waste transfer site, muddy shoulder seasons, and slow internet.
“I think that literature is really needed, and art in general. It’s saying something that cannot be said in any other way, and that’s why you do it.” In this interview, Norwegian author Jon Fosse, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023, talks about how music inspired him to write at a young age, and how pauses and silences are used to generate rhythm in his work.
“The sun had just gone out / and I was walking three miles to get home. / I wanted to die. / I couldn’t think of words and I had no future / and I was coming down hard on everything.” In Linda Gregg’s poem “New York Address,” which appears in her retrospective collection, All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 2008), the speaker recounts bleak existential angst. Despite the pain and darkness, there are glimmers of light. In the second half of the poem, questions are stubbornly answered with snappy, tidy pacing: “Yes I hate dark. No I love light. Yes I won’t speak. / No I will write.” Write a poem that goes all in on angst, channeling a time that felt overwhelmingly uncertain and full of trepidation. How can you experiment with sound and diction to gently steer the dramatic toward the life-affirming?
MacDowell offers residencies of up to six weeks year-round to poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and translators on 450 wooded acres near Mt. Monadnock in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Residents are provided with a private studio and work space, as well as access to the James Baldwin Library. Stipends and travel reimbursement grants are available based on financial need.
MacDowell, 100 High Street, Peterborough, NH 03458. (603) 924-3886, ext. 135. Julie Hamel, Scheduling and Fellows Engagement Manager.
The Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference, sponsored by the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University (ASU), was held from October 10 to October 12 at the Memorial Union community center on the university’s campus in Tempe, Arizona. The theme for the 2024 conference was “Craft. Culture. Community.” Programming included craft talks, classes, generative workshops, panels, readings, and events focused on the business of writing for poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and translators.
Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference, c/o Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, P.O. Box 875002, Tempe, AZ 85827. (480) 965-1243. Sheila Black, Assistant Director.
The seventh annual Frost Farm Poetry Conference was held from August 16 to August 18 at the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire. The conference featured workshops, readings, and one-on-one consultations for poets. The faculty included poets Ned Balbo, Meredith Bergmann, Joseph Bottum, Brian Brodeur, Midge Goldberg, and Jane Satterfield. Poet A. M. Juster delivered the keynote address. The cost of the conference was $450, which included tuition and meals. Lodging was available at area hotels and inns. Writers registered by August 1. Visit the website for more information.
Frost Farm Poetry Conference, Trustees of the Robert Frost Farm/Hyla Brook Poets, 280 Candia Road, Chester, NH 03036. (603) 845-6931. Robert Crawford, Conference Director.
Taleamor Park offers two- to four-week residencies from April to September to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers on a working grain farm and nature preserve with walking paths in northwestern Indiana between the towns of La Porte and Rolling Prairie, near Lake Michigan and Chicago. Residents are provided with a private room in a restored 1854 brick Italianate house, work space, and a shared kitchen and bathroom. Residents have access to Taleamor’s library and the La Porte County Public Library.
Taleamor Park, P.O. Box 456, LaPorte, IN 46352. Clifford Peterson and Lisa Lee Peterson, Codirectors.
Storyknife offers two- to four-week residencies from April to October to women poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers on ten acres of wilderness overlooking the Aleutian Range outside of Homer, Alaska. Each resident is provided with meals and a private cabin equipped with a bathroom and a living room that includes a desk and work space. Residents are responsible for their own travel expenses; travel cost stipends may be requested via the application form. To apply, writers submitted up to 10 pages of poetry or prose with a $40 application fee by August 31.
Storyknife Writers Retreat, P.O. Box 75, Homer, Alaska 99603. (907) 302-6032. Erin Coughlin Hollowell, Executive Director.
Willapa Bay AiR offers monthlong residencies from April through October to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers on 16 wooded acres near Oysterville, Washington. Residents are provided with a private cottage with living and work space, a bathroom, and all meals. The residency is free to attend. To apply, writers submitted up to 10 pages of poetry or no more than 20 pages of prose with a $30 application fee by August 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Willapa Bay AiR, P.O. Box 209, 32101 Douglas Drive, Oysterville, WA 98641. (360) 665-6782.
The Celia and Wally Gilbert Artist-in-Residence Program offers residencies of one to three weeks year-round to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers looking to “explore the scientific process and interact with international scientific staff and visitors” at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) on the wooded north shore of Long Island, New York. Residents are provided with a dorm room, a private bathroom, all meals, and a $1,000 to $1,500 stipend, depending on availability and the length of the stay.
Celia and Wally Gilbert Artist-in-Residence Program, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Library and Archives, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724. Tricia Loria, Fellowship Coordinator.
