The Sundress Academy for the Arts is thrilled to announce its Trans/Nonbinary Writers Retreat, which runs from Saturday, July 12th, 2025 through Sunday July 13th, 2025. This event will be entirely virtual held via Zoom. All SAFTA retreats focus on generative writing, and this year’s retreat will also include the following craft talk sessions: “Learning to Say ‘I’” and “Poetics of Resistance.” Our keynote address this year is “A Stake through the Heart: On Duende, Vulnerability, and the Self in Creative Writing.”
The event will be open to trans and nonbinary writers of all backgrounds and experience levels and provide an opportunity to work with many talented authors and poets from around the country, including workshop leaders Joy Ladin and SG Huerta, and keynote speaker Dani Putney.
Joy Ladin has long worked at the tangled intersection of literature and trans identity. Dubbed “the godmother of trans poetics” by T.C. Tolbert, she has written eleven poetry collections, including recently published Family;two Lambda Literary finalists, Transmigration and Impersonation (reissued in a revised edition by Doubleback Books); and National Jewish Book Award winner The Book of Anna. She has also written three trans-centered books of creative non-fiction: a memoir of gender transition, National Jewish Book Award finalist Through the Door of Life; a groundbreaking work of trans theology, Lambda Literary and Triangle Award finalist, The Soul of the Stranger; and last year’s Once Out of Nature: Selected Essays on the Transformation of Gender. Her writing has been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, and an American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellowship, among other honors. A nationally recognized speaker on trans identity, Ladin has been featured on a number of NPR programs, including an “On Being” with Krista Tippett interview that has been rebroadcast several times. Her writing is available at joyladin.wordpress.com.
SG Huerta is a queer Xicanx writer and organizer. A Roots Wounds Words Fellow and Tin House alum, they are the Poetry Editor of Abode Press. SG is the author of two poetry chapbooks and the nonfiction chapbook Good Grief (fifth wheel press 2025). Their debut full-length poetry collection, Burns, will be released by Sundress in 2026. Their work has appeared in Honey Literary, The Offing, Infrarrealista Review, and elsewhere. Find them at sghuertawriting.com, or in Tejas with their partner and cats, working towards liberation for oppressed peoples everywhere. They believe Palestine will be free from the river to the sea. They encourage you to find tangible ways to support Palestinian liberation.
Dani Putney is a queer, non-binary, mixed-race Filipinx, and neurodivergent writer originally from Sacramento, California. They are the author of Mix-Mix (Baobab Press 2025) and Salamat sa Intersectionality (Okay Donkey Press 2021), finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry. They are also the author of the poetry chapbook Dela Torre (Sundress Publications 2022) and the creative nonfiction chapbook Swallow Whole (Bullshit Press 2024). They received their PhD in English from Oklahoma State University and MFA in Creative Writing from Mississippi University for Women. They live in Reno, Nevada.
To apply for a fellowship, please send a packet of 5-12 pages of writing (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid) along with a brief statement on why you would like to attend this retreat no later than May 1st, 2025. Fellowships applications are available here.
Space at this workshop may be limited, so please reserve your place today.
This retreat is made possible by a generous grant from the Appalachian Community Fund.
