Genre: Fiction
Being Both
“I cannot help but admire Rooney the storyteller, willing to toe that tricky line between the pleasure-read and philosophy, determined to choose cooperation over cynicism,” writes Jessi Jezewska Stevens in her review of Sally Rooney’s latest novel, Intermezzo (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), published in 4Columns. In the article, Stevens considers the task of a work of literature that attempts to be both a novel-of-ideas and a realist romance. This week compose a short story that simultaneously explores a philosophical idea close to your heart and chronicles a romantic relationship’s ups and downs. Do your characters discuss large issues with each other in pages of dialogue or through e-mail correspondences, or do they embody the ideas in another way? Are there additional ways you can think of to accomplish portraying both tasks?
Han Kang and Deborah Smith
DISQUIET International Literary Program
The 2025 DISQUIET International Literary Program, sponsored by Dzanc Books and Centro Nacional de Cultura, will be held from June 22, 2025, to July 4, 2025, at the Centro Nacional de Cultura in Lisbon, Portugal. The conference features workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as a multi-genre Writing the Luso Experience workshop, lectures, craft talks, and literary walks. The faculty includes poets Erica Dawson, Diana Khoi Nguyen, and Terri Witek; fiction writer Gabriel Bump; and fiction writer and translator Bruna Dantas Lobato.
DISQUIET International Literary Program, 610 South Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01002.
Studio Faire
Studio Faire offers two- or four-week residencies year-round to artists and writers, including poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and translators, at an early 19th-century house in Nérac, France. The residency accommodates up to six visitors at a time. Residents are provided with a private work space and bedroom and two bathrooms, as well as access to a common kitchen, dining room, and garden area.
Studio Faire, 58 Avenue Georges Clemenceau, 47600 Nérac, France. Julia Douglas, Cofounder and Residency Coordinator.
Essere Writer & Artist Residency
The Essere Writer & Artist Residency, which will be held from May 10, 2025, to May 24, 2025, and again from September 13, 2025, to September 27, 2025, offers two-week residencies at the medieval Camporsevoli estate in the Cetona province of Tuscany, Italy. The residency features programming for poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and translators, including craft talks by poet John Roedel, fiction and nonfiction writer Danielle Trussoni, and nonfiction writer Jennie Lee, as well as individual mentorship meetings with the guest artists in residence.
Essere Writer & Artist Residency, P.O. Box 39, Kailua, HI 96734. (978) 771-4000. Jennie Lee, Residency Director.
Yaddo
Yaddo offers two- to eight-week residencies year-round to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers on a 400-acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Residents are provided with a private bedroom, work space, and meals. To apply for residencies from May 2025 through March 2026, submit up to 10 short poems or an excerpt of a longer poem totaling no more than 10 pages, or up to 20 pages of prose with a $30 application fee (an added fee of $5 to $10 for media uploads may apply) by January 10, 2025. A two-page preview of the work sample is also required.
Yaddo, 312 Union Avenue, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. (518) 584-0746. Christin Williams, Program Director.