Yaddo, MacDowell, UCross, Millay Colony for the Arts... I've certainly heard of different residencies over the years but I've generally steered clear of them because when writing, I just want to be alone. Or so I thought. Earlier this year, I was invited to be a writer-in-residence at ArtPark, an energized arts festival that takes over upstate's Lewiston in New York each summer. Under the inspired guidance of its president, Sonia Kozlova Clark, the programming is a wild mix of classic rock, interdisciplinary happenings, new music, and even some theater. I got to hear the sublime Jeremy Dutcher and alt icon Tori Amos during my stay there, and was part of a handful of poets who opened for Third Coast Percussion (who were terrific). Other participating writers in the residency included Ana Božičević, Robert Giannetti, Joshua Thermidor, Philip Metres, Hilary Plum, Zach Savich, and Spencer Williams. But shout out to Rachelle Toarmino, the Peach Mag editor/poet who, although a last-minute substitution for the Foundlings Press event I read at, knocked it out of the park.
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