A Year's Sustenance for Writers | Online and In-residence with Craigardan
Led By: Kate Moses, author and literary mentor
Grow your book project to its fullest flowering in Bookgardan's year-long program of intense one-on-one literary mentorship and online group workshops, bracketed by two fall workshops with an intimate community of fellow writers here at Craigardan.
THE PROGRAM
Bookgardan is a 12-month, low-residency program designed for writers of literary fiction and creative nonfiction book projects who want guidance and support to develop and finish their manuscripts. Participants will devote a year to writing their books in community with a small, supportive group of equally dedicated writers, nurtured from start to finish by acclaimed author and literary mentor Kate Moses. The Bookgardan year opens and closes with week-long fall workshop intensives at Craigardan. A seasoned teacher and editor, Kate will provide writers with the structure and guidance required to cultivate and nourish their manuscripts, with the goal of bringing projects to fruition by program's end. Throughout the year, writers will make monthly submissions of pages and receive individual conference feedback, online craft lessons and workshop discussion, ongoing mentorship, and opportunities for connection with like-minded artists sharing in an often solitary endeavor. Bookgardan culminates twelve months later— again in October, in the richness of autumn—with a second Craigardan workshop focused on revision, fellowship, and celebration.
THE SETTING
Bookgardan takes place both virtually and during the two week-long residencies at Craigardan. Between residencies, as they hone and refine their manuscripts throughout the year, participants will require a few days of computer and wifi access per month to participate in 11 monthly manuscript submissions followed by video or audio phone conferences with Kate, scheduled online workshops, and craft discussions with the group; email access and a dedicated online discussion area will be available to all participants.
The two week-long workshops will take place at Craigardan’s mountainside retreat. Participants will be lodged in a simple and beautiful shared house, with access to any number of indoor and outdoor communal spaces for writing and thinking. Residency craft seminars and workshops will be held in these shared spaces, where participants will also gather for meals prepared by our head chef.
WHO SHOULD APPLY
Bookgardan is ideal for writers who are working on long-form narrative book projects, whether literary fiction (novel, novella, or short stories), memoir, creative nonfiction topics, or hybrids of those forms, and think they would benefit from a seasoned professional’s perspective, ongoing guidance, and mentorship, and the support and creative energy of an engaged group of peers. Participating writers may be at any stage of their project’s development, from a crystallizing idea to a full draft that needs refinement. Enrollment in Bookgardan is by application -- not to be elitist or intimidating, but to make sure that your project is something Kate feels she could help you to advance and improve (“a good fit,” in other words). Email Kate if you have any questions about whether Bookgardan is right for you and your book.
WHAT IS INCLUDED
Two 7 night/6 day workshops at Craigardan with lodging in a private room/shared bath; all meals; daily group yoga instruction; transportation to/from local train station or airport
All instruction & program fees for both Craigardan workshops
1 year of mentorship with Kate, including 11 20- to 30-page manuscript submissions, 11 monthly individual conferences, monthly-plus online group activities, and final manuscript reading prior to the ending residency in May 2019
Fee: $7800 per person | Maximum 6 participants
Beginning Workshop at Craigardan: Monday, October 21, 2019 - Monday, October 28, 2019
Ending Workshop: October 5, 2020 - October 12, 2020
Accepted applicants must submit a nonrefundable $500 deposit to hold their spot. Final payments will be due by April 21, 2019.
Kate is the author of the internationally acclaimed Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath, published in sixteen languages, and Cakewalk: A Memoir, chosen by National Public Radio as one of their favorite memoirs of 2010. Recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Best Fiction by an American Woman, an American Book Award, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a Prix des Lectrices de Elle, and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Headlands Center for the Arts, Karuna, and The Lighthouse Works. Kate is also co-editor of two bestselling anthologies of essays on motherhood, Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood and Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About Children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race & Themselves. A founding senior editor and staff writer of Salon, former literary director of Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, and former senior acquisitions editor of North Point Press, Kate has taught writers at two dozen universities in the U.S. and U.K.; through Birds & Muses she works with writers in the U.S., Canada, the Middle East, several European and African nations, and New Zealand. Learn more about Kate's books and mentoring at katemoses.com and birdsandmuses.com.