Genre: Poetry

Vermont Studio Center

The Vermont Studio Center offers two-, three-, and four-week residencies year-round to poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and translators in Johnson, Vermont, a village located in the heart of the northern Green Mountains. Residents are provided with time and space to write, as well as readings, craft talks, and one-on-one manuscript consultations with invited visiting writers. Residents receive a private room, a private studio, and meals. The cost of the residency is $2,700 for a two-week stay, $3,825 for a three-week stay, and $4,950 for a four-week stay.

Type: 
RESIDENCY
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
yes
Event Date: 
May 28, 2025
Rolling Admissions: 
no
Application Deadline: 
March 31, 2025
Financial Aid?: 
yes
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
March 31, 2025
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

Vermont Studio Center, 80 Pearl Street, P.O. Box 613, Johnson, VT 05656. (802) 635-2727.

Contact City: 
Johnson
Contact State: 
VT
Contact Zip / Postal Code: 
05656
Country: 
US
Add Image: 
A large red building with a gray roof next to a river.

In Medias Res

5.27.25

In storytelling, the narrative strategy of beginning in medias res is to launch into the middle of a plot. Frequently applied to the composition of contemporary novels and films, such as Fight Club, Forrest Gump, and Raging Bull, the storytelling device can be traced back to Homer’s Greek epic poem The Iliad, which opens at the tail end of the Trojan War. This week write a poem that begins in medias res. Think of a story you’d like to recount in narrative verse and then select a starting point that may be much later than the logical or conventional beginning of the action. Sprinkle in flashbacks and recollections of memory to fill in any necessary pieces of context that allude to earlier events.

Marilyn Chin: Sage

Caption: 

Marilyn Chin reads from her sixth poetry collection, Sage (Norton, 2023), and answers questions about the public role of the modern poet and her references to ancient traditions and pop culture in this 2023 virtual installment of the Hugh C. Hyde Living Writers’ Series hosted by San Diego State University’s Creative Writing program.

Genre: 

How to Live

5.20.25

On her website, The Marginalian, Maria Popova writes about her admiration for Marie Howe’s poem “The Maples,” which appears in her Pulitzer Prize–winning collection, New and Selected Poems (Norton, 2024), and describes it as “spare and stunning.” The poem begins by asking a question that has fueled philosophical discussions for centuries: “How should I live my life?” The speaker poses this question to nearby maple trees to which they respond, “shhh shhh shhh,” and their leaves “ripple and gleam.” Compose your own poem that attempts to ask and even embody this big life question, situating a speaker in a setting in which their connection to the surrounding environment is incorporated into the answer. Do you find yourself drawn toward nature or somewhere else?

Poetry Night Panel: Brandel France de Bravo and Julie Choffel

Caption: 

In this Poetry Night Panel event at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., Brandel France de Bravo, author of Locomotive Cathedral (The Backwaters Press, 2025), and Julie Choffel, author of Dear Wallace (The Backwaters Press, 2024), read a selection of poems and join María Fernanda for a conversation about how literature helps one grapple with the challenges of life.

Genre: 

Hope as Home

Caption: 

“Are those who don’t know history only doomed to resell it at a higher price?” In this short film directed by Jasmine Ogunjimi, award-winning slam poet Pages Matam reads their poem “Hope as Home.” The film was produced by Da Poetry Lounge Co. and executive produced by HOPE, Inc., an organization that provides support for those experiencing housing discrimination.

Lies and Nightingales

5.13.25

Diane Seuss’s poem “Romantic Poet,” which appears in her collection Modern Poetry (Graywolf Press, 2024), is a reference to John Keats and his famous poem “Ode to a Nightingale.” Seuss writes: “You would not have loved him, / my friend the scholar / decried. He brushed his teeth, / if at all, with salt. He lied, / and rarely washed / his hair.” This week write a poem about someone or something you love that takes inspiration from Seuss’s poem and the ways in which her verse spans the universe of mundane actions and the sublime. Consider how to apportion the profane and the profound with alternations. How can the rhythm, pacing, and sound of your lines introduce a tension between what you love and the reality of what you love?

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