Bookshop Santa Cruz and The Wellstone Center in the Redwoods have partnered together to offer a sponsored, two-week writing residency since it was inaugurated in honor of Bookshop Santa Cruz’s 50th anniversary in 2016. No residency will be offered in 2020, because of COVID-19. The deadline for applications for the 2021 residency will be June 1, 2021.

Located at the Wellstone Center in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains and run by Sarah Ringler and best-selling author Steve Kettmann, the residency provides a room and most evening meals for the selected writer for fourteen days. The writer can also participate in Wellstone offerings, including weekly yoga and OpenMic Night and will receive a consultation session with Bookshop Santa Cruz buyers to discuss their project in relation to the marketplace. This residency sponsorship will be offered annually through 2020. The first author chosen was novelist Thad Nodine, author of Touch and Go, who spent his two weeks in residence at WCR in December 2016. The winner for 2017 was Kate Schatz, the New York Times-bestselling author of Rad American Women A-Z and Rad Women Worldwide. In 2018, it was Maxim Loskutoff, author of Come West and See: Stories. The 2019 winner was Lexie Bean, queer and trans author and multi-media artist.

Writing residencies can jump-start a writer to make dramatic progress. The Wellstone Center in the Redwoods offers immersion in an environment of spectacular beauty sure to inspire any writer not only to find new directions to make progress with a writing project, but also a chance to pamper oneself with a break from many of the distractions of day-to-day life. The resident writers will stay in the Zen Suite, with a balcony looking down on the forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains and, in the distance, Monterey Bay, and a rear exit toward a grove of redwoods.

The residency is open to any author working on a work of fiction. Preference is given to either a California writer or an author working on a book that takes place in California. Preference will also be given to writers with a previously published book or with a literary agent or contract for their book. Nonetheless, all writers of fiction are encouraged to apply.

To apply, submit a cover letter (200-300 words) explaining why you think you would be a good fit for the residency, a recently updated resume, a brief description of your project (no more than one page) and a 1,000-word writing sample to Sarah@wellstoneredwoods.org. Applications for the 2021 residency are due June 1, 2021.  The winner will be notified by July 1.  The residency can take place anytime between September 2021 and December 2021 (extenuating circumstances may allow the residency through spring 2020).

Bookshop Santa Cruz is a large, independent bookstore and cultural hub located in the heart of downtown Santa Cruz, California. Celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in fall 2016, Bookshop Santa Cruz is the central coast’s premier bookstore for a wide selection of books and gifts with a nationally recognized author events program and deep involvement in the community. For more information, visit http://www.bookshopsantacruz.com/writing-residency.

ABOUT THE WELLSTONE CENTER

Founded in 2012 by Sarah Ringler and Steve Kettmann, the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods was named to San Francisco Magazine‘s 2013 “Best of the Bay” issue for its weekend workshops. The Wellstone Center works to nurture and inspire writers of all levels – from award-winning novelists to emerging writers to up-and-comers who live with us for three months at a time as resident interns  – through writing residencies and author events, and also by offering a calm, beautiful environment, surrounded by nature, ideal for disconnecting from the fast-paced, plugged-in Mobius Strip of contemporary life. We also publish a select number of books, distributed nationally by PGW/Ingram, through our Wellstone Books imprint.

TESTIMONIALS

You know that quiet street you often drive to clear your head and gather your thoughts? Or that coffee shop that knows you well enough to know how you like your latte and how you like to be left alone to read or write? It’s like that one room in your home where the door shuts tight, the walls are insulated just enough, or the space warrants a level of privacy. I don’t know about you, but I have all of these places and they are sacred, nearly too sacred to share. To that list of sacred places, where there’s no time or space, I could easily add the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods. I’ve had a very turbulent year of passing; people, time and opportunities included. After searching far and wide for a place to retreat, I found WCR. And with great preparation, and patience from my clients, I became as selfish as possible for seven days and gave myself back to myself.  Maybe you will write, from sunup to sundown. Maybe you will read and run through the redwoods. Maybe you walk barefoot on the land and in your mind. Maybe you will lose connection to the outside world and strengthen connection to your creative spirit. Feel free, feel completely free to create like your life depends on it. Because it does.

–Shalishah Franklin