The Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) is now accepting applications for short-term writing residencies in all genres—poetry, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, journalism, academic writing, and more—for their fall residency period which runs from August 21st to December 31st, 2023. These residencies are intended to provide writers with the time and space they need to finish their creative ideas in a peaceful and effective environment.
Each farmhouse residency is $300/week, covering a private room as well as access to our shared kitchen, bathroom, office, and living area, plus wireless internet. Writers Coop residencies are $150/week and include your own private dry cabin in addition to access to the farmhouse amenities. Due to the low cost, we rarely are able to provide scholarships for Writers Coop residents.
Residents will stay at the SAFTA farmhouse, located on a working farm on a 45-acre wooded plot in a Tennessee “holler” perfect for hiking, camping, and nature walks. The farmhouse is a half-hour drive from Knoxville, a vibrant city with a strong literary and artistic community. For writers seeking a rural retreat with urban amenities, SAFTA is ideal.
SAFTA’s residencies offer a unique and engaging experience in addition to free access to workshops, readings, and events. Residents can participate in local writing workshops, lead their own workshops, and have the opportunity to acquire life skills like gardening and animal care.
As part of our commitment to anti-racist work, we use a reparations payment model for our farmhouse residencies which consists of the following:
- 3 reparations weeks of equally divided payments for Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers at $150/week
- 3 discounted weeks of equally divided payments for BIPOC writers at $250/week
- 6 equitable weeks of equally divided payments at $300/week
Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers are also invited to apply for a $350 support grant to help cover the costs of food, travel, childcare, and/or any other needs while they are at the residency. We are currently able to offer two of these grants per residency period (spring/summer/fall). If you would like to donate to expand this funding, you may do so on our website.
For the 2023 Fall Residency Period, SAFTA will be offering the following fellowships:
- Fellowships for Women & Nonbinary Writers: one full and one 50% fellowship for women and nonbinary writers
- Fellowship for Black & Indigenous Writers: one full fellowship for Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers
- Limited partial scholarships are also available to any applicant with financial need.
The judge for our fellowship for women & nonbinary writers is Ada Wofford. Wofford is a trans/genderqueer, asexual writer interested in Dadaist and Absurdist thought. They hold an MA in English and an MA Library & Information Studies. Their first chapbook, I Remember Learning How to Dive, was published in 2020 and earned them a Pushcart Prize nomination. Their writing has appeared in The Blue Nib, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Autostraddle, Capable Magazine, Sundress Reads, and more. They are also the Nonfiction Editor at Stirring: A Literary Collection and an Associate Poetry Editor and the Lead Grant Writer at Sundress Publications. They recently published a YA novel under a pen name available at losgannpress.com.
The application deadline for the fall residency period is May 1st, 2023. Find out more about the application process at www.sundressacademyforthearts.com/residencies.
The application fee is waived for all BIPOC identifying writers. For all fellowship applications, the application fee will also be waived for those who demonstrate financial need. All other application fees will go directly towards travel grants for Black and/or Indigenous writers.
