Writers For Seattle Cottage Needed

Want to come live and write in Seattle for a year? Apply to be a writer-in-residence and live in a downtown Seattle cottage.
The Hugo House is accepting applications now! You can even bring your significant other and he-or-she can McJob it for a year as a barista or something.

The Richard Hugo House is a great Seattle writers guild with tons of classes, readings, and writers groups. It’s on Capitol Hill, a very arty district in Seattle, and they’ve scored some historic housing from the Parks Department for their writers. The Hugo house that will provide two writers with subsidized housing in Seattle’s historic Belltown Cottage, plus the opportunity to teach in Hugo writing classes. The deadline is June 1st and the year of residency begins Sept 1. I couldn’t find the information on the Hugo House website. So I included everything that was emailed to me in this post, so read on to find out the details.

Oh, won’t someone fun come write and play with me?

Seattle – Richard Hugo House is accepting applications for its arts residency
program­the ³Hugo Huts²­that will provide two writers with subsidized housing
in Seattle¹s historic Belltown Cottages, plus the opportunity to teach in the
Hugo Writing Classes.

Each writer will begin his or her residency on September 1, 2007, with a term
of 12 months, subject to a month-to-month approval of the Parks Department.
The below-market rent does not include utilities. Applications are due by June
1 (see full details below).

The Belltown Cottage Park Project is a collaboration between ³Friends of
Belltown P-Patch,² Seattle Parks and Recreation and Richard Hugo House. Each
applicant will be housed in a refurbished former cannery cottage at Elliott
and Vine streets in Belltown, an evolving neighborhood north of downtown
Seattle. A third cottage at the site is available as a community venue for
neighborhood meetings and events. Each cottage is 440 square feet, with a
bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and living room.
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Hugo House, a 10-year-old literary arts center based on Seattle¹s Capitol
Hill, has a philosophy of seeking to support writers with the resources they
need. One need of most practicing artists is affordable housing. Current
studies on urban affairs show that communities thrive with the meaningful
participation of artists. Belltown is a neighborhood that once surged with
artists but has been overtaken with development and expensive housing. The
cottages can help in returning artists to the neighborhood.

The cottage residences are part of Hugo House¹s Writers-in-Residence Program,
which has three other writer/mentors­including one teenager­who serve our
community by holding office hours (open to the public by appointment) and by
participating in innovative programs to serve the Seattle community.

The writers who take residency of the cottages will: 1) hold open office hours
one afternoon a week in the community cottage or a nearby coffee shop; 2) make
a public presentation of their work; and 3) have the opportunity (under
separate contract) to teach in the Hugo Writing Classes at Hugo House or in
the community cottage. Each cottage will be limited to two people, one of whom
will be the applicant writer.

To apply, send the following by June 1 to ³Hugo Huts,² Hugo House, 1634 11th
Ave., Seattle, WA 98122:

A letter of interest which explains why the cottage residency would
serve your artistic needs;

A resume, or statement of your writing history;

A description of your proposed writing project; and

Names of three references attesting to your ability to pay rent,
treat the property respectfully and interact in a lively urban environment.

A writing sample of 5-7 pages

The criteria for selecting the writers will include:
* Artistic quality of writing sample;
* Applicant¹s desire to live in an ultra-urban neighborhood (the cottages must
be lived in, not used as studio space in addition to another residence);
* Applicant¹s ability to hold open office hours and keep appointments with the
public, one afternoon a week;
* Statement of need;
* Design of and participation in a public presentation of applicant¹s work;
* Applicant¹s reliability in paying full rent on time.

The selection process will be complete by the first two weeks in July. For
more information about Richard Hugo House, please see www.hugohouse.org. No
phone calls, please.

About the Writers-in-Residence program

Richard Hugo House has five writers-in-residence, including one youth
writer-in-residence. They are available to meet, by appointment, with writers
who want one-on-one feedback on their own work. There is no charge for the
meeting and all appointments are held at Hugo House. In 2008 Hugo House will
add two theater residencies to the program.

About Richard Hugo House

Richard Hugo House is a home for writers and readers. Our mission is to
provide writers of all ages and backgrounds with the resources they need,
connect audiences with the world of writing, foster the creation of new work
and promote the literary arts as a vital part of our culture. Hugo House is
located at 1634 11th Ave., Seattle.

Richard Hugo House receives support from the Seattle Foundation, Tides
Foundation, ArtsFund, the Boston Foundation’s Sara Delano Redmond Fund, The
Charles Engelhard Foundation, 4Culture, Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural
Affairs and The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, The William Randolph Hearst
Foundation, Washington Mutual Foundation, the Piper Jaffray Foundation, Neukom
Family Foundation, NEA, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Medtronic
Foundation.

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