Young Writer Residency Program

How Do the Residencies Work?

This January, Edgewood Arts inaugurated its Writer Residency Program. Over the course of the year, Edgewood will offer a competitive fifteen-week residency to six young writers, aged 20-28. We will host two writers at a time in three residency periods: fall session, spring session, and summer session.

Each of our resident writers will be provided with a private bedroom and bathroom in a home shared with our three directors. Together, the residents and the directors will form a community of writers, providing one another with constant input and inspiration in weekly readings and critiques. At the end of four months, each writer will submit a finished work.

StoryBoard: What Makes Us Different

While many artist residencies encourage writers to hole up in a tiny studio in the woods, The Edge believes that writers learn the most and have the most to say when they are knee-deep in the world. To this end, Edgewood Arts structures its residencies to give writers a wide variety of exciting and inspiring life experiences to feed their art. While our chautauquas and critiques will help residents get the most out of each other, our StoryBoard program will give them the chance to learn from an entirely different kind of artistic community.

Edgewood Arts trains all of our writers to serve as teachers in our StoryBoard Program. Teaching a skill is one of the best ways to learn it: it requires you to boil down everything you know until you have left only the most essential, most useful crystals. Having to do this week in and week out (and we can say this from experience) is enormously rewarding as an artist. In addition to this, our residents will feel satisfaction from supplementing these students’ arts education. They will get to partner with the school system in teaching students one of the most valuable lessons they can learn: to speak and think for themselves.

The Details

Our residency sessions are scheduled as follows:

Spring Session: January 9 – April 24

Summer Session: May 8 - August 21

Fall Session: September 4-December 18

The residency fee is $1950. This includes a private bedroom and bathroom, as well all your meals for the entirety of the fifteen-week program - not to mention the invaluable help and guidance of having four other dedicated writers to help you create your work!

Some financial assistance may be available for those with demonstrated need. The Edge also provides accepted residents with a sponsorship kit to help you find financial support from businesses in your community, and with assistance finding part-time work in Savannah, should you choose (a great way to get involved in the community and support yourself at the same time).

Edgewood Arts offers its resident writers a cozy and inviting atmosphere

Our home looks out onto Savannah's beautiful Daffin Park - a perfect environment for writing and reflecting