21 Residencies for Writers in 2015

Would you like a month in south-east France to work on your manuscript? Or perhaps an idyllic nature preserve in Kentucky would provide you with the inspiration you need to start a new project? These residencies provide writers with a chance to escape daily life’s distractions and focus on their work. Each residency has its own terms and conditions, so please read the relevant websites thoroughly before commencing any applications.

James Merrill House Writer-in-Residence Program
James Merrill House, located in Stonington, Connecticut, offers one four and a half residency between mid-January and the end of May, and three or four shorter residencies of 2 to 6 weeks during the months between Labor Day and mid-January. The fellowship provides living and working space to a writer in search of a quiet setting to complete a project of literary or academic merit. The Writer-in-Residence program includes a US$5000 stipend for the extended term with smaller stipends offered for the brief residencies. Applications close 15 January.

Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing
This residency is hosted by Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Named for the University’s renowned literary alumnus and initiated in the fall of 1993, the Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing offers up to four months of unfettered writing time for a writer working on a first or second book. The program provides lodging in Poets’ Cottage and a stipend of US$4000. Applications close on 1 February.

Can Serrat Residency 
Each year Can Serrat Centre near Barcelona, Spain, offers two writers a full stipend which entitles them to a 30-day residency including free accommodation, breakfasts and dinners. The residency is open to writers in all fields regardless of nationality or age. All chosen candidates have the opportunity to do a reading / exhibition at the centre. There are two selection rounds: the first closes on 1 March and the second on 1 August.

Literary Journalism at The Banff Centre
This month-long residency offers eight established writers of non-fiction an opportunity to develop a major essay, memoir, or feature piece for a CA$2000 commission. Held at The Banff Centre’s Leighton Artists’ Colony studios, it enables writers to work on their manuscripts during individual consultations with faculty and during round-table discussions. Participants are required to arrive with a fully reported and typed first draft of their project, and must complete a final, publishable draft of between 5000 and 7500 words by the time they leave.  Past participants of the program have represented thought-provoking writers across Canada, however international applications are equally welcomed. The application deadline is 18 March.

Jack Kerouac Writer in Residence Project
The Kerouac Project provides four residencies a year to writers living anywhere in the world. Each residency consists of approximately a three-month stay in Orlando, Florida, in the cottage where Jack Kerouac wrote his novel Dharma Bums. Utilities and a food stipend of US$800 are included. The Project also offers opportunities for residents to participate in readings, workshops and to interact with the central Florida writing community. Applications for the 2015-2016 residencies close on 31 March and results will be announced in May.

Danish Centre for Writers and Translators
Since 1999 the Danish Centre for Writers and Translators has offered writers, translators and illustrators free working residencies at the old manor Hald Hovedgaard, situated 10 kilometres from the town of Viborg, in the middle of Denmark.The Centre offers four-week residencies to published international authors who have had at least two books of fiction or poetry published. Applications are expected to open in March and close in April.

Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony
The Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony offers Summer Fellowships for fiction, nonfiction and poetry writers during the second half of 2015 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Five applicants (including one from the State of Utah) will be chosen for this in-residence program. Each successful fellow receives full tuition and housing for the entire three-week period of their stay. Applications close in April.

Centre d’Art Marnay Art Centre
The Centre d’Art Marnay Art Cenre offers residencies year-round to writers and other artists in the Champagne-Ardenne region of northern France. The program aims to support residents in their ‘creative explorations, investigations, and professional growth, within an environment of communication and exchange.’ Residents are housed in seven recently renovated studios. The centre offers two scholarships for two-month retreats, one is co-sponsored by UNESCO and the other sponsored by the Ténot Foundation. General applications are considered on a rolling basis.

Gladstone’s Library Writers in Residence
Built in 1902, Gladstone’s Library is the UK’s only residential library. The Library’s Writers in Residence program began in 2011. Four residencies are offered each year with each writer staying at the Library for a month. The Writers in Residence are asked to keep a blog about their stay, as well as running a creative writing workshop. Residents receive full room and board, reimbursement for travel expenses and a small stipend of £100 per week. Applications close 29 May.

Hedgebrook Writers in Residence Program
This residency for women writers is located on Whidbey Island, about thirty-five miles northwest of Seattle. The program is open to all women writers, whether their work has been published yet or not. Applications open in June.

Scotland Writing Residency
The Scotland Writing Residency is located in Brora, a coastal village in the east of Sutherland in the Highland area of Scotland. The writer resides, for one week during summer or fall, in a furnished and recently renovated, traditional croft cottage, containing three-bedrooms. The residency does not come with a cash prize. Applications close 12 August.

Jentel Artist Residency Program
Jentel is located on a 1000 acre working cattle ranch 20 miles southeast of Sheridan, Wyoming. It offers individuals a supportive environment in which to further their creative development. Applications for Summer/Fall Residencies close in January and applications for Winter/Spring Residencies closes on 15 September.

Vermont Studio Center’s Residencies for Writers
Founded by artists in 1984, the Vermont Studio Center is the largest international artists’ and writers’ residency program in the United States.Each month the Center hosts 16 writers from across the country and around the world, as well as 24 painters/mixed-media artists, 12 sculptors/mixed-media artists, 2 printmakers and 2 photographers. The residencies take place on a historic 30-building campus along the Gihon River in Johnson, Vermont, and run for between 2 and 12 weeks. The next three applications rounds in 2015; the deadlines are 15 February, 15 June and 1 October.

Brown Foundation Fellows Program
This program is offered by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. It offers residencies to mid-career professionals in the arts and humanities, including writers. The residencies last between one and three months and take place at The Dora Maar House in Ménerbes, France. For fellowships between 1 February and 30 June 2016, applications must be submitted by 15 October.

Berton House Writers’ Retreat
Berton House is located in Dawson City, Yukon. Professional Canadian writers who have published at least one book and are established in any creative literary discipline (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, play/screenwriting, journalism) may apply for a three-month residency. Applications close in October.

Writers Omi at Ledig House
Since it was founded in 1992 it has hosted hundreds of authors and translators, representing more than fifty countries, including Gary Shteyngart, Kiran Desai and Colum McCann. Ledig House located in Ghent, New York, two and a half hours from New York City and guests may select a residency of one week to two months. Applications close in October.

Rocky Mountain National Park Artist-in-Residence Program
This program offers professional writers, as well as composers and visual and performing artists, the opportunity to ‘pursue their artistic discipline while being surrounded by the park’s inspiring landscape’. Selected artists stay in a historic cabin for two-week periods from June through September. Applications are expected to close in November.

Amsterdam Writers’ Residency
The Amsterdam Writers’ Residency was established by the Dutch Foundation for Literature (Nederlands Letterenfonds). Since it began over eight years ago it has provided a space for international writers to live and work in the city. Residents are provided with an apartment located above the Athenaeum Bookshop. Residents are required to cover their own travel costs, though the program will actively work with writers to help locate other funding schemes to assist with such costs. 

Cove Park Literature Residencies
Cove Park is a Scottish artists’ retreat located on the Rosneath peninsula, an hour’s drive west of Glasgow. Literature residencies take place between March and September and last for between one and three months. Applications are invited from established writers of short and long fiction; poetry; creative non-fiction and memoir; work that crosses these genres and also writers who have made their reputation in one field and wish to develop in another. To be eligible for consideration, writers must have published at least one full-length book in their field. Applications close in December.

Fine Arts Work Center
This is a unique residency for writers in the crucial early stages of their careers. Located in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the Work Center provides seven-month fellowships to twenty fellows each year in the form of living/work space and a modest monthly stipend. Residencies run from 1 October 30 April. Applications close on 1 December.

Sarabande Writing Residency
The Sarabande Writing Residency offers an annual residency of two to six weeks to a poet, fiction writer, or creative nonfiction writer at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, a 14,000-acre nature preserve near Louisville, Kentucky. Residents receive a US$500 travel stipend and a two to six-week stay in a private, fully equipped cottage on the Bernheim grounds. Residents offer one public reading or discussion during their tenure and may devote the rest of their time to writing in Bernheim’s extensive forest, gardens and arboretum.

 

Title image by ‘Psycho Della’ via Creative Commons

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