Mineral School: Washington State Artist Residency Wants Canadians!

Hey BC (and Alberta) writers! A residency in the States! That likes Canadians!

Mineral School in Mineral, Washington is offering four two-week residency programs this summer. The residencies will take place in an old, abandoned (haunted!?) schoolhouse. You stay in a modified (haunted!?) classroom, complete with bed, writing desk, etc. My guess is the bathrooms are down the hall, and the (haunted!?) men's room has one of those trough urinals that have sadly fallen out of fashion (which, like all trough urinals, is most definitely haunted).

Applications for Summer 2016 are due in on February 15th, and can be sent in via Submittable.

Fellowships are available for each of the four residency periods, and cover all expenses beyond transportation. One fellowship is available per residency period, and they are open to writers from BC, Alberta, and the Yukon.

The application fee is $25 USD, or $2,000 Canadian at the current exchange rate. Non-funded residency spots can be purchased for $400 USD, which really is a terrific deal despite the exchange rate and (I suspect, I fear) the complete lack of ghosts.

Here's the letter of invitation, from Jane Hodges:

Dear British Columbia Authors,

I'm one of the founders of Mineral School (www.mineral-school.org), a new artists residency in a former 1940s grade school near Mt. Rainier, in Mineral, WA, a funky and forgotten fishing lake town that's two hours southeast of Seattle or about five hours from Vancouver. I wanted to pass along to Canadian writers some information about residency opportunities on the west coast for summer 2016 -- and the fact that we have some fellowships for Canadian writers.

We hosted our first year of residencies in 2015 and have just opened up 2016 summer residency applications for our four two-week residency periods -- the application deadline is Feb. 15, 2016. We have five fellowships for Northwest writers, including four applicable to writers from Western Canada, so we wanted to get the word out to writers in your community -- MFA students, creative writing faculty, alumni etc.

We'll host 15 writers this year. Non-funded residencies are a very nominal $400 (US). All residents are fed all meals (allergies accommodated), and we'll host visiting writer readings as well as a residents' reading for those who care to share their work with the public.

We're an all-volunteer organization founded by writers and creatives and we're doing this all on a shoestring and as a labor of love (even our chefs are volunteers -- in '15 they were grad students in nutrition at a WA state holistic college), and we appreciate any word-of-mouth you care to share on our behalf with writers seeking a summer residency in a pretty place.

We hosted MFA candidates from Sarah Lawrence and U Michigan this past summer, as well as established authors working on second or third books -- including a few who were nominated for Pushcarts, members of the Seattle University and Pacific Lutheran University faculty, and a poet who was published in Best American Poetry 2015.

More information can be found on our Submittable page: https://mineralschool.submittable.com/submit or on Facebook or our web site.

I'm happy to answer any questions (jane(at)mineral-school(dot)org).

Yours in literature,
Jane Hodges
Seattle

Mineral School (Ghost added for effect and NOT TO SCALE)