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Bookshop Santa Cruz Writing Residency

At the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods

Bookshop Santa Cruz and The Wellstone Center in the Redwoods are partnering together to offer a sponsored, two-week writing residency, now in its fifth year since it was inaugurated in honor of Bookshop Santa Cruz’s 50th anniversary in 2016. No residency was offered in 2020, because of COVID-19. The deadline for applications for the 2021 residency will be June 1, 2021.

Located at the Wellstone Center in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains and run by Sarah Ringler and best-selling author Steve Kettmann, the residency provides a room and most evening meals for the selected writer for fourteen days. The writer can also participate in Wellstone offerings, including weekly yoga and OpenMic Night and will receive a consultation session with Bookshop Santa Cruz buyers to discuss their project in relation to the marketplace. This residency sponsorship will be offered annually through 2020. The first author chosen was novelist Thad Nodine, author of Touch and Go, who spent his two weeks in residence at WCR in December 2016. The winner for 2017 was Kate Schatz, the New York Times-bestselling author of Rad American Women A-Z and Rad Women Worldwide. In 2018, it was Maxim Loskutoff, author of Come West and See: Stories. The 2019 winner was Lexie Bean, queer and trans author and multi-media artist.

Writing residencies can jump-start a writer to make dramatic progress. The Wellstone Center in the Redwoods offers immersion in an environment of spectacular beauty sure to inspire any writer not only to find new directions to make progress with a writing project, but also a chance to pamper oneself with a break from many of the distractions of day-to-day life. The resident writers will stay in the Zen Suite, with a balcony looking down on the forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains and, in the distance, Monterey Bay, and a rear exit toward a grove of redwoods.

The residency is open to any author working on a work of fiction. Preference is given to either a California writer or an author working on a book that takes place in California. Preference will also be given to writers with a previously published book or with a literary agent or contract for their book. Nonetheless, all writers of fiction are encouraged to apply.

To apply, submit a cover letter (200-300 words) explaining why you think you would be a good fit for the residency, a recently updated resume, a brief description of your project (no more than one page) and a 1,000-word writing sample to Sarah@wellstoneredwoods.org. Applications for the 2021 residency are due June 1, 2021.  The winner will be notified by July 1.  The residency can take place anytime between September 2021 and December 2021 (extenuating circumstances may allow the residency through spring 2022).

Congratulations to the 2021 Winner

Congratulations to Dominica Phetteplace who will receive Bookshop's 2021 Writing Residency at The Wellstone Center in the Redwoods. Dominica Phetteplace writes fiction and poetry. Her work has appeared in Zyzzyva, Asimov’s and Analog, among other places. Her honors include two Pushcart Prizes, a Rona Jaffe Award and fellowships from Tin House, Djerassi and MacDowell. While in residence, she will work on her debut novel Robot Country, a dystopian science fiction novel which imagines robots as the agents of the next wave of American colonization and forced resettlement.

About the Bookshop Santa Cruz Writing Residency at the Wellstone Center

Located at the Wellstone Center in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains and run by Sarah Ringler and best-selling author Steve Kettmann, the residency provides a room and most evening meals for the selected writer for fourteen days. The writer can also participate in Wellstone offerings, including weekly yoga and OpenMic Night and will receive a consultation session with Bookshop Santa Cruz buyers to discuss their project in relation to the marketplace. This residency sponsorship will be offered annually through 2020.

The first author chosen was novelist Thad Nodine, author of Touch and Go, who spent his two weeks in residence at WCR in December 2016. The winner for 2017 was Kate Schatz, the New York Times-bestselling author of Rad American Women A-Z and Rad Women Worldwide. The 2018 author was Maxim Loskutoff, author of the New York Times Editor’s Pick, Come West and See. The 2019 author was Lexie Bean, author of the novel The Ship We Built as well as the feature-length screenplay based on the novel.

Writing residencies can jump-start a writer to make dramatic progress. The Wellstone Center in the Redwoods offers immersion in an environment of spectacular beauty sure to inspire any writer not only to find new directions to make progress with a writing project, but also a chance to pamper oneself with a break from many of the distractions of day-to-day life. The resident writers will stay in the Zen Suite, with a balcony looking down on the forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains and, in the distance, Monterey Bay, and a rear exit toward a grove of redwoods.

The residency is open to any author working on a work of fiction. Preference is given to either a California writer or an author working on a book that takes place in California. Preference will also be given to writers with a previously published book or with a literary agent or contract for their book. Nonetheless, all writers of fiction are encouraged to apply. Information on applying for next year's residency will be posted in 2020. Read more here.

ABOUT THE WELLSTONE CENTER

Founded in 2012 by Sarah Ringler and Steve Kettmann, the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods was named to San Francisco Magazine‘s 2013 “Best of the Bay” issue for its weekend workshops. The Wellstone Center helps create the writers of tomorrow and helps free the writer living inside all of us. We do this by bringing people together in a tranquil and peaceful environment to provide them with new ideas and inspiration and also by publishing a select number of books through our Wellstone Books imprint.