We are pleased to announce that the following writers have been awarded residencies at Soapstone for 2009-2010.
Norina Beck
Jennifer Borges Foster
Wendy Breuer
Sharline Chiang
Kerry Cohen
Jenesha De Rivera
Tracy Debrincat
Monica Drake
Anita Feng
Sara Guest
Karen Holmberg
Fowzia Karimi
Jess Lamb
Kate Lebo
Ellen Lewis
Christina Lovin
Margaret Malone
Louanne Moldovan
Ly Nguyen
Pam Ore
Soham Patel
Deborah Poe
Andrea Stolowitz
Cheryl Strayed
Ellen Urbani
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Ann Whitfield Powers
Kathleen Worley
Bo Yu
We'd like to thank the readers on our selection committee: Anita Bigelow, Ruth Gundle, Kevia Jeffrey-West, Catherine Johnson, Nancy LaPaglia, Ellen Notbohm, Carla Perry, and Katy Riker.
Applications for 2011 will be accepted during the summer of 2010. For more information about our application process, please visit our website.
BRITTNEY CORRIGAN-MCELROY
Friday, October 2, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Writers at Soapstone: Luciana Lopez
Luciana Lopez wrote to tell us, “I greatly appreciate Soapstone’s policy of allowing month-long residencies to be taken in chunks and spread over several years, for those of us who can’t get away for more than a week or two weeks at a time. Over three residencies in 2006, 2007 and 2008, I worked on short stories, creative non-fiction, poetry and even a screenplay. 
I wrote a lot, felt free to experiment, and grew as a writer. Many of my best pieces originated at Soapstone and would never have been written if not for the time away from my hectic life as a reporter for The Oregonian.
“I'm grateful, too, that the community Soapstone builds doesn't end with the residencies. The annual work days were always more than just weeding or planting or doing repairs — they were a chance to get together with other writers who knew what it was like to spend time in these rooms, trying to bring something into the world, and to meet some of the extraordinary women who helped make this place a reality. I loved those days, the opportunity to contribute to the community that nurtured me and, of course, the chance to be at Soapstone, to see the retreat again and feel the joy that always helps me write.”
Luciana Lopez is now an economics reporter for Reuters in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies, including Portland Noir, Rio Grande Review, ZYZZVYA, and Lichen.
RUTH GUNDLE
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Writers at Soapstone: Cecelia Hagen
Cecelia Hagen was in residence at Soapstone for two weeks in October 2006. She wrote to us afterwards:
“I had planned on working with Ovid’s Metamorphoses during my stay, but as I read and researched other, less well-known works of his, I became more drawn to his Tristia and Letters from Exile. Being able to read for long stretches allowed me to be completely charmed by Ovid, and to immerse myself in his plight as a political exile on the Black Sea. The transformations described in the Metamorphoses are so often imposed from without--a god changes a girl into a tree or a swan in response to her request for help in escaping an attacker. Ovid was the first to write these stories down, but they weren't his. Many writers since Ovid have based works on his tales, and I had thought I would add my versions to the mix, but that task seemed less appealing the more I learned about Ovid's other works.
“His Letters from Exile sprang from his fervent desire to return to Rome, and he used all his rhetorical skill to convince his readers to do what they could to get the Emperor Augustus to reverse his sentence. Although this may sound like tedious reading, it's not at all, because it's done from the heart, and with consummate skill. I loved every page and was inspired to see how his plight, and his irascible wit, could seem so fresh even after two thousand years. This inspired me to open my heart and speak from there, rather than trying to impose any kind of outside change or template on my writing. My writing process often follows this circuitous path: I have something to say but start by backing away from it, looking for a handle that will allow me to pick up my subject without getting burned. But eventually I realize that I have to hold it in my hand, I have to seize it and get burned if I want the reader to feel what I'm feeling. The gracious shelter of Soapstone and the sense I had of the guiding presence of previous tenants of Wind studio made it possible for me to find my way into what I wanted to say.
“My new chapbook, Among Others, was conceived in the solitude of Soapstone. Most of the poems are persona poems, spoken by a character I conjure up. These characters are always like me in that they are outsiders, observers of their situation. I can enlarge my perceptions through these characters, can enter the depths of their experiences in an almost extrasensory way. I felt a great sense of permission to experiment at Soapstone, to play and explore all the sides of myself, to hear these other voices and get them on the page.”
Cecelia Hagen's chapbook, Fringe Living, was published by 26 Books; Among Others will be released by Traprock Books in 2010. She was the Fiction Editor for the Northwest Review for many years. Her work has been published in The Seattle Review, Prairie Schooner, Pedestal, Caffeine Destiny, Puerto del Sol, Burnside Review, and in the book, From Where We Speak: An Anthology of Oregon Poets. In 2007 she won first place in Passager magazine's annual competition (as a result of discovering Passager on the bookshelves at Soapstone).
RUTH GUNDLE
“I had planned on working with Ovid’s Metamorphoses during my stay, but as I read and researched other, less well-known works of his, I became more drawn to his Tristia and Letters from Exile. Being able to read for long stretches allowed me to be completely charmed by Ovid, and to immerse myself in his plight as a political exile on the Black Sea. The transformations described in the Metamorphoses are so often imposed from without--a god changes a girl into a tree or a swan in response to her request for help in escaping an attacker. Ovid was the first to write these stories down, but they weren't his. Many writers since Ovid have based works on his tales, and I had thought I would add my versions to the mix, but that task seemed less appealing the more I learned about Ovid's other works.“His Letters from Exile sprang from his fervent desire to return to Rome, and he used all his rhetorical skill to convince his readers to do what they could to get the Emperor Augustus to reverse his sentence. Although this may sound like tedious reading, it's not at all, because it's done from the heart, and with consummate skill. I loved every page and was inspired to see how his plight, and his irascible wit, could seem so fresh even after two thousand years. This inspired me to open my heart and speak from there, rather than trying to impose any kind of outside change or template on my writing. My writing process often follows this circuitous path: I have something to say but start by backing away from it, looking for a handle that will allow me to pick up my subject without getting burned. But eventually I realize that I have to hold it in my hand, I have to seize it and get burned if I want the reader to feel what I'm feeling. The gracious shelter of Soapstone and the sense I had of the guiding presence of previous tenants of Wind studio made it possible for me to find my way into what I wanted to say.
“My new chapbook, Among Others, was conceived in the solitude of Soapstone. Most of the poems are persona poems, spoken by a character I conjure up. These characters are always like me in that they are outsiders, observers of their situation. I can enlarge my perceptions through these characters, can enter the depths of their experiences in an almost extrasensory way. I felt a great sense of permission to experiment at Soapstone, to play and explore all the sides of myself, to hear these other voices and get them on the page.”
Cecelia Hagen's chapbook, Fringe Living, was published by 26 Books; Among Others will be released by Traprock Books in 2010. She was the Fiction Editor for the Northwest Review for many years. Her work has been published in The Seattle Review, Prairie Schooner, Pedestal, Caffeine Destiny, Puerto del Sol, Burnside Review, and in the book, From Where We Speak: An Anthology of Oregon Poets. In 2007 she won first place in Passager magazine's annual competition (as a result of discovering Passager on the bookshelves at Soapstone).
RUTH GUNDLE
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Writers at Soapstone: Angie Chuang
A poet and nonfiction writer, Angie Chuang’s work has been published in many literary magazines, including Calyx, Mizna, and The Grove Review. She is an award-winning journalist, and was, for seven years, The Oregonian’s first race and ethnicity issues reporter.
Angie was at Soapstone for a week in the spring of 2006 and again for another week during the winter of 2007; she worked on a memoir that came out of a reporting assignment after September 11 to "put a human face on the country we're about to bomb." It led her on a journey into an Afghan American family's life and story, and took her to 
ween American and Afghan cultural influences, and between optimism and despair. Ultimately, the family helped me see that
She wrote to us after her first week at Soapstone: “Days and nights took on an organic flow around writing--everything either was a preparation for (morning yoga and walks, making coffee and breakfast, tidying up around the house or hauling in wood), or a break from (reading a chapter in a book, making dinner, sleeping) writing. I found myself constantly thinking about what I was writing, but in the best possible way. I'd have breakthroughs and revelations while practicing yoga or on a walk, and I'd actually remember them later on! Luciana Lopez and I are both night owls, and did our most productive writing at night, sometimes very late. It worked out well for us, sitting in front of the Duchess together, writing in mostly silence, into the wee hours sometimes.”
She wrote to us after her second week: “Not only was I able to get more done than I ever would in a one-week period, my writing and thinking were deepened by the simplicity of life at Soapstone, the lack of real-world drains on energy and time. I had breakthroughs that were prompted by the unique environment. One afternoon, during a torrential downpour, watching and listening to the rain glide down the skylight, I was finally able to hone a pivotal chapter that hinged on the description of tropical rains in
She emailed just recently: “I've been thinking a lot about Soapstone recently because I just did a three-week residency this summer at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts that dramatically moved my project forward and changed how I see myself as a writer.” Angie is now an assistant professor at the American University School of Communication in
RUTH GUNDLE
Thursday, September 3, 2009
A Shout Out to the Spirit Mountain Community Fund
We are extremely grateful to the charitable foundation of the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde, the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, for a grant of $5000 in May to help finance the construction that's going on right now at Soapstone.
Since 1997, the Community Fund has distributed 6% of the profits from the Spirit Mountain Casino to nonprofit organizations in Western Oregon, fulfilling "their Native tradition of potlatch, a ceremony at which good fortune is distributed." We extend to them our sincere appreciation for their generosity to the community and their support for Soapstone's writing residency program for women.
Ancestors of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde have occupied Western Oregon since time immemorial, developing distinct lifeways through generations of interaction with this bountiful and diverse landscape. You can trace this journey by visiting Ntsayka Ikanum: Our Story, a multimedia exploration of the history and culture of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
The tribes that make up the Grand Ronde Confederation – Chasta, Rogue River, Umpqua, Molalla and Kalapuya – signed seven treaties ceding their vast lands to the federal government in the 1850s. Tribal members were force-marched 263 miles over 33 days in February and March of 1856 to Grand Ronde. The assault on the Tribes’ way of life continued until finally, in 1954, Congress passed the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act. The Grand Ronde Tribe was terminated. Tribal members were no longer acknowledged as Indians by the federal government and other tribes and had no rights to their reservation lands.
A relocation program, scattering members across the country, followed termination. But in 1972 a small group of tribal members began the work to restore the tribe. Their base of operation was a small shack without running water and electricity located on the only land officially left of the once large Grand Ronde Reservation – the 2.5-acre tribal cemetery. Tribal members held bake sales, car washes and get-togethers to raise money to fund restoration efforts. They earned the support of members of Oregon’s congressional delegation and local community members. Finally, on Nov. 22, 1983, President Reagan signed the Grand Ronde Restoration Bill, making Grand Ronde a restored and federally recognized tribe, and the work of rebuilding a nation began. Just last fall, they celebrated their 25th anniversary as a restored tribe.
Soapstone urges you to learn about the history of all the Oregon tribes at this excellent website.
RUTH GUNDLE
Since 1997, the Community Fund has distributed 6% of the profits from the Spirit Mountain Casino to nonprofit organizations in Western Oregon, fulfilling "their Native tradition of potlatch, a ceremony at which good fortune is distributed." We extend to them our sincere appreciation for their generosity to the community and their support for Soapstone's writing residency program for women.
Ancestors of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde have occupied Western Oregon since time immemorial, developing distinct lifeways through generations of interaction with this bountiful and diverse landscape. You can trace this journey by visiting Ntsayka Ikanum: Our Story, a multimedia exploration of the history and culture of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
The tribes that make up the Grand Ronde Confederation – Chasta, Rogue River, Umpqua, Molalla and Kalapuya – signed seven treaties ceding their vast lands to the federal government in the 1850s. Tribal members were force-marched 263 miles over 33 days in February and March of 1856 to Grand Ronde. The assault on the Tribes’ way of life continued until finally, in 1954, Congress passed the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act. The Grand Ronde Tribe was terminated. Tribal members were no longer acknowledged as Indians by the federal government and other tribes and had no rights to their reservation lands.
A relocation program, scattering members across the country, followed termination. But in 1972 a small group of tribal members began the work to restore the tribe. Their base of operation was a small shack without running water and electricity located on the only land officially left of the once large Grand Ronde Reservation – the 2.5-acre tribal cemetery. Tribal members held bake sales, car washes and get-togethers to raise money to fund restoration efforts. They earned the support of members of Oregon’s congressional delegation and local community members. Finally, on Nov. 22, 1983, President Reagan signed the Grand Ronde Restoration Bill, making Grand Ronde a restored and federally recognized tribe, and the work of rebuilding a nation began. Just last fall, they celebrated their 25th anniversary as a restored tribe.Soapstone urges you to learn about the history of all the Oregon tribes at this excellent website.
RUTH GUNDLE
Monday, August 31, 2009
Writers at Soapstone: Jennifer Culkin
Jennifer Culkin’s absorbing debut memoir, A Final Arc of Sky: A Memoir of Critical Care was published by Beacon in the spring of this year to much critical praise such as this, from Judith Kitchen: “I loved the stories, the language, the point of view, but what I loved most was the way this book was able to break my heart—then mend it.”
Much of the book focuses on Jennifer’s experiences aboard an emergency helicopter keeping victims of heart attacks and critically injured survivors of traffic accidents alive as they are being transported to hospital emergency rooms and the risks of being an emergency flight nurse—night flights, bad weather, human error—including dealing with the deaths of colleagues in helicopter crashes. A former neonatal and pediatric intensive-care nurse, she writes vividly of the tiny patients whose lives were in her hands.
Jennifer worked on A Final Arc of Sky during a two-week residency at Soapstone in the spring of 2006 and again for another two weeks in the winter of 2008. She wrote to us in March:
“I can't tell you how much the gift of concerted, focused, untroubled time helped me—time that was completely untethered from the stressors of job and home. At Soapstone each morning I journaled purely for fun over coffee in front of the Queen, worked on the material for my book up in the cube from late morning until mid-to-late afternoon, spent the last two hours of daylight riding my bike to Nehalem or Manzanita and back, a wonderful 25-mile ride out to the sea past the woods and the farms of the area; after a quick dinner I continued to work on the book up in the cube until 1 a.m.
“I never write in the evening at home—I have MS and am exhausted by the time evening rolls around—so this new capability surprised and delighted me. It was enlightening to discover how much I can do as a writer when the usual constraints and energy drains are removed.
“This gift of time is enhanced and heightened by the secluded beauty of the natural setting, by the house itself, and by your amazing management of the facilities. I love the house—it balances perfectly on the cusp between aesthetic and necessity. I love the natural materials, the simple comfort of the furnishings, the quirkiness of the Wind Studio. I love that it has absolutely everything one needs without any froufrou, and the same can be said of the Nehalem/Manzanita area, as well. The total environment you've created frees the writer to focus exclusively on the work and on forms of relaxation and inspiration that enhance the work.”
A 2008 recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, Jennifer lives on
RUTH GUNDLE
(Photo of Jennifer courtesy of Elisha Rain)
Monday, August 24, 2009
Andrews Architects
Martha and Jim Andrews shine out among Soapstone’s angels. As Andrews Architects, Inc., they designed the major construction project of 1997 which added the Water Studio, breezeway, hallway, etc., good naturedly putting up with a large committee of representatives from Soapstone who almost always had divergent opinions. All pro bono. Most recently, they designed a smaller, but significant improvement: the replacing of the ladder to the sleeping loft with stairs, which is in the process of being built now (they will have sides and handrails).
Over the course of six months, Martha and Jim once again worked with a committee to find the best solution to adding stairs built to code in a very small space. They provided drawings at various stages as well as final construction drawings. Again, all pro bono. This project, which required a small bay extension of the main room, will make the sleeping loft more accessible and user-friendly.
We are enormously grateful to them—and will always be—for their generosity, their creativity, and their community spirit.
Martha and Jim both grew up in Eastern Oregon, and have practiced in Oregon, except for a brief period, since 1976. In addition to raising a family and designing a wide range of commercial and residential structures, they always make time to serve their communities, working on political campaigns, being architects in residence in public schools, and serving on their neighborhood community organization board as well as on numerous professional, city, and state boards, including the Portland Planning Commission, the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission, the Portland Solar Access Task Force, and the Architecture Foundation of Oregon.
We love their playfulness (see Jim’s Avian Architecture), their love of and considerable knowledge about the natural world, their lovely pen and ink drawings in Soapstone’s journals, and their example of exemplary citizenship.
For more about the Andrews, check out this article on Soapstone's website.
THANK YOU MARTHA AND JIM!!!!!!!
RUTH GUNDLE
Over the course of six months, Martha and Jim once again worked with a committee to find the best solution to adding stairs built to code in a very small space. They provided drawings at various stages as well as final construction drawings. Again, all pro bono. This project, which required a small bay extension of the main room, will make the sleeping loft more accessible and user-friendly.We are enormously grateful to them—and will always be—for their generosity, their creativity, and their community spirit.
Martha and Jim both grew up in Eastern Oregon, and have practiced in Oregon, except for a brief period, since 1976. In addition to raising a family and designing a wide range of commercial and residential structures, they always make time to serve their communities, working on political campaigns, being architects in residence in public schools, and serving on their neighborhood community organization board as well as on numerous professional, city, and state boards, including the Portland Planning Commission, the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission, the Portland Solar Access Task Force, and the Architecture Foundation of Oregon.We love their playfulness (see Jim’s Avian Architecture), their love of and considerable knowledge about the natural world, their lovely pen and ink drawings in Soapstone’s journals, and their example of exemplary citizenship.
For more about the Andrews, check out this article on Soapstone's website.
THANK YOU MARTHA AND JIM!!!!!!!
RUTH GUNDLE
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