Writers at Soapstone: Rosalind Bell

Rosalind Bell wrote at Soapstone for two weeks in the winter of 2003. She wrote about her time there:

"I arrived expecting to bring my story to conclusion. What happened instead was that I realized the story was not ready to end. Words rushed out like that river roaring in front of my window as the story opened up. I left with sixty pages of new material.

Gwen Morgan and I didn’t know each other before we arrived, but we nixed the kitchen times starting on day one and co-habited the space like we'd been roomies for years. It was non-intrusive and worked well for us. The guidelines are ideal for most people who don't know each other; for renegades who like to color outside the lines when the feeling is mutual, they were still handy.

Back in Tacoma, I was not prepared for the comedown from such an exhilarating high. For days I wandered about in a sort of no-woman's land, searching for my bearings, longing for Soapstone. Sometime during our last week, Gwen and I fantasized about boarding up the place, refusing to leave, and threatening the two newbies with buckshot if they came any closer! Yes, we had it baaaaaad.”

Rosalind Bell has authored five screenplays, two novellas, a novel and a collection of short stories. She received a Callaloo Literary Journal Fellowship. A short film of one of her stories, "Tootie Pie," was screened at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2006 and The Port Townsend Film Festival in 2009. In 2007, her play The New Orleans Monologues was produced by the University of Puget Sound. She is currently an artist in residence at the university and is working on 1620 Bank Street, a play about love, family and integration at her Louisiana Catholic high school.

RUTH GUNDLE