Recently, a group of writers landed on Martha’s Vineyard to commit the remainder of May to honing their craft. Nine writers from across the country and around the world will live together and work on their poems, novels and other writing projects for two weeks as part of the Noepe Center for Literary Arts writer’s residency program.
“Our mission is to provide time and space to writers,” said founder Justen Ahren. “I want to know that the time that we give them is really vital to the making of their project.”
Stephanie Smith, a repeat Noepe resident, drew inspiration directly from the Island for her eighth novel. She entered the program with a couple of outlined scenes and left with four complete chapters of a summer novel set on the Vineyard.
“Some portion of all of my recent work actually happened on the Vineyard, which is true of this novel as well,” she said. “And this time, part of it takes place on the Island so it was good to actually be there.”
Sara Goudarzi, a freelance journalist who lives in Brooklyn by way of Iran, is also a repeat resident. She associates Noepe with productivity.
“What I usually accomplish at home in six months I can get done at the residency in 15 days,” she said.
Residents live together and often dine together at the former Point Way Inn on Main Street in Edgartown, which is now the Noepe Center. “It’s basically like staying in the best bed and breakfast you’ve ever seen, but it’s a ridiculous deal,” said Julia Dahl, a murder mystery novelist and also a repeat Noepe resident.
The writers bond over shared meals cooked out of a communal kitchen. Perhaps most important to Mr. Ahren, and to the writers he selects, is the sense of community that forms.
“It’s a lonely thing we do as writers,” he said. “We are by ourselves most of the time while we’re doing it. It’s the nature of what we do. It’s also very competitive and full of rejection and so to get filled up with energy and to receive encouragement from other writers, I can’t think of anything better.”
Mr. Ahren founded Noepe in 2007, after obtaining his MFA and returning to the Vineyard, where he had lived previously. A writer himself, Mr. Ahren started the program in order to replicate the environment he had been immersed in while in school. “I missed being around writers all the time and going out after workshops and classes and talking more and getting into the craft,” he said.
Recently, Noepe was named one of the most desirable writer’s residencies in the country by The Write Life. Over the years, Noepe has also broadened its scope and evolved into an arts organization that invites poets, literary agents, fiction and nonfiction writers to lead summer workshops that are open to the public.
This summer’s lineup includes a week-long, joint workshop led by International Creative Management literary agent Kristine Dahl and her husband, the writer Richard Zacks. The pair will review workshop participants’ nonfiction projects and lead them through the entire nonfiction process for adult books and memoirs, from selecting an idea to finding an agent to selling the finished book to a publisher.
“This is a golden opportunity for an author to get their book seen by one of the top literary agents in the country,” said Mr. Ahren. Other workshops include an ‘intuitive writing workshop’ on ‘befriending the inner critic,’ led by mindfulness and meditation coach Julie Ann Otis. There will also be workshops on cooking and travel writing.
On July 11, Noepe board member Geraldine Brooks will host a reading of her forthcoming novel, The Secret Chord. The event will benefit Noepe’s scholarships for Island writers and teachers.
New this year will be a weekly open house on Thursday evenings during July and August, which will feature readings, appetizers and live music. These gatherings will provide the public with opportunities to visit the center, see the building, and network with other Islanders who love literature and writing.
But at its core, Noepe remains a place that nurtures writers and writing by providing a space to be still and get the work done. Julia Dahl credits Noepe with having turned her into a professional writer.
“I don’t know if I would have finished my first book if I hadn’t come here,” she said. “And if I hadn’t finished the first then I wouldn’t have written and second and be coming back to write the third. I credit Justen and the center. They enabled me to take myself and my work seriously.”
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