Stuff for Women Writers
Residencies
Books about Writing
FAQs
Insights & Issues
Residencies
Some residencies are free, some are not, all are competitive. What you
get: free time, peace and quiet, and the space to work unencumbered.
Of course, to participate, you have to be in the situation in which
you can afford to take time off from making a living or running a household
(no one has worked that glitch out yet ...)
For a good online guide to residencies across the U.S., try the Alliance of Artists Communities.
For a printed guide, try Blue Heron Publishing. There's a meaty excerpt online. They also offer a warmly written online guide to publishing -- especially for regional markets.
For older women writers, there's a wonderful fellowship at Ragdale , which is located at the edge of 80 acres of prairie surprisingly close to Chicago.
For a brief but current online list of grant, publishing, and residency opportunities, try West Virginia's Commission on the Arts site. It's idiosyncratic: for instance, the commission once listed the Gottlieb Foundation's special grants for mature artists who need financial assistance due to unforeseen catastrophic accidents. That's pretty nice!
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Recommended Books about Writing
It appears that books that appeal to some writers drive other writers
crazy. Some writers like advice (Bird by Bird); others like rumination
(What is Found There). We'll keep adding as people pipe up with
alternatives.
Ellen
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, (Anchor: 1995)
Writing from the Body, John Lee (St. Martinís Press: 1994)
Mary
Ellen
Wild Mind, Natalie Goldberg (Bantam: 1990)
Don Quixote Meets the Mob, Susan Taylor Chehak (XLibris Corp:
2000)
Lee
What is Found There, Adrienne Rich (W.W. Norton & Co.:1993)