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Writers' Residencies Planned for Pagosa |
Special to the Post | 3/25/08
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Writer Lisa Lenard Cook will participate in the new Pagosa Springs Writer's Residency program. |
Pagosa Springs arts writer Leanne Goebel was awarded a $500 Small Steps Grant from the Colorado Council on the Arts to develop the Pagosa Springs Writer’s Residency Program. The goal of the residency program is to provide economic development and attract more cultural-minded tourists to the area.
Goebel plans to implement the residency program in 2008. She is working with local vacation rental property owners to donate 2-4 weeks lodging during the non-peak vacation seasons of spring and fall. Working with the Town Tourism Committee and other nonprofit organizations, Goebel wants to provide these property owners a tax-deductible receipt for their in-kind donation.
Writers are being invited to attend the inaugural year of the residency program and next year Goebel hopes to select writers through an intense juried selection process. This first year writer’s will stay rent-free and have the freedom to work on a project of their choice. Writers are required to provide a give-back to the community in the form of a workshop, reading or by working with youth or seniors in the community.
Lisa Lenard Cook is the first writer to participate in the Pagosa Springs Writer’s Residency. Lisa’s residency is May 9-23 with www.pagosarental.com and Craig & Mable Murray generously providing her lodging.
 Lisa Lenard Cook’s novel Dissonance won the Jim Sagel Prize for the novel while still in manuscript form. Published by University of New Mexico Press in 2003, Dissonance was selected as book of the year by the Tucson-Pima County Public Library and Cincinnati Public Library. It was short-listed for the PEN Southwest Book Award. Her second book Coyote Morning was selected as a Southwest Book of the Year and short-listed for the New Mexico Press Women’s Zia Award.
Lisa recently finished The Mind of Your Story, a book about fiction writing to be published by Writers' Digest Books in April 2008. Lisa's monthly column at www.authorlink.com, The Art of Fiction, has been called "a refreshing approach to the art of fiction writing."
She is a faculty member at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and Narrative Art Center, and, in addition to being a popular conference and workshop speaker, she teaches fiction writing in private classes, works as a freelance writer and editor, and takes particular joy in mentoring both beginning and more experienced fiction writers.
Lisa Lenard-Cook holds a B.A. with departmental honors from SUNY Buffalo and an M.F.A. in fiction writing from Vermont College.
Goebel would like to invite two more writers to participate in a residency in 2008 and is looking for additional lodging. Ultimately, Goebel hopes to create a nonprofit organization and expand the residency program to include a literary festival that would include an extensive list of authors providing readings and workshops, bringing literary tourists to the area.
For more information on the Pagosa Springs Writer’s Residency program or to donate your cabin or lodging, contact Leanne at 970-731-1841. |
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