2018 Residents Announced!

We made it to year four! In a competitive process that drew 246 applicants from throughout the United States and Canada, a panel of five Northwest writers and four artists have blindly selected 12 talented literary writers and four visual artists who will live and work in Mineral this summer, advancing their work in poetry, memoir, fiction, painting, and other visual art forms during June, July, August and September. 

“Our jurors had a tough job this year, in the best way,” said Nicole Hardy, advisory board member (as well as poet and memoirist) who led the literary jurying. “The caliber of writing they read, from an international pool of writers, working in a wide range of genres, was impressive. So we’re thrilled to host such a talented group of residents this year.”

This summer’s writing residents include four June Dodge Fellows, a program which fully funds writers who hail from the Northwestern United States (Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, or Washington) or western Canada, and one Erin Donovan Writing Fellowship, a residency spot created in memory of Erin Donovan, a fiction writer and teacher who passed away in Oregon during 2015 and whose friends and family support a residency in her memory. Among visual artists, 2018 marks the debut of the new Mona Lisa Roberts Visual Arts Fellowship, family-funded in memory of artist Mona Lisa Roberts for a Northwest visual artist who identifies as LGBTQ.

Fellows include:

• Judy Bolton-Fasman (Newton, MA), Erin Donovan fellow in nonfiction, is an essayist working on her second memoir, which traces the history of the women in her family and her Jewish-Cuban heritage.
• Nancy Grace Campbell (Olympia, WA), June Dodge fellow in nonfiction, is dividing her time between multiple manuscripts. Her chapbook Girlie Shorts is forthcoming from Black River Press.
• Meg Hartwig (Seattle, WA), Mona Lisa Roberts visual artist fellow, is a sculptor. A hands-on artist and artisan, she also helps lead Sawhorse Revolution, a youth carpentry skills initiative.
• Donna Miscolta (Seattle, WA), June Dodge fellow in fiction/nonfiction, is the author of a novel and the recent story collection Hola and Goodbye (Carolina Wren Press, 2016) and is at work on essays.
• Lacey Rowland (Boise, ID), June Dodge fellow in fiction, is a recent graduate of Oregon State University’s MFA program and is completing a short story manuscript that mines her history in the American West.
• Ely Shipley (Bellingham, WA), June Dodge fellow in poetry, has published three collections and teaches at Western Washington University. He has also taught teens and adults outside academic settings.

Additional residents include:

• Jill Carley (Angels Camp, CA), poet, works for a mechanical engineering firm by day and is at work on a collection of poetry called “Don’t Ever Doubt Me,” which she calls “a fierce love song to my home.”
• Cristina Cortez (Bothell, WA), poet, is a first-generation Latin American writer earning her MFA at the University of Washington-Bothell. In 2017 she presented a TedX Everett talk on the power of belief in potential.
• Linda Malnack (Seattle, WA), poet, is the author of two chapbooks and is currently at work on a new manuscript. Co-editor of Switched-on Gutenberg, she is also a reader for Crab Creek Review.
• Gage Opdenbrouw (Oakland, CA), visual artist, is a painter, teacher, and furniture carpenter who draws inspiration from nature and the outdoors, among other subjects.
• Bonnie Nygren (Auburn, WA), visual artist, is a self-taught painter and illustrator who also volunteers by teaching art to kids and seniors with developmental disabilities.
• Anastacia-Renée (Seattle, WA), poet, has published multiple collections of poetry, teaches, and created “9 Ounces: A One Woman Show.” She is currently Seattle’s Civic Poet and is at work on new poems.
• Carina Del Rosario (Seattle, WA), visual artist, works in several media and her art work and installations have appeared in museums as well as urban collections. She is a teaching artist who works with youth, and she is also on the faculty of the Washington State Teaching Artists Training Lab.
• Claudia Savage (Portland, OR) poet, has published three collections. An Arab-American poet, her essays, interviews, and collaborative work appear in print, onstage, and in museums and often explore the theme of diaspora.
• Rob Schlegel (Portland, OR), poet, is the past winner of the Colorado Prize for Poetry and is at work on a new manuscript called Lucid Ruse, which explores themes of domesticity.
• Laura Stanfill (Portland, OR), fiction, has completed one novel and is now at work exploring her family history and which genres best express its stories—essay, memoir, or fiction.

Residents will receive room and board, with meals prepared by culinary volunteers including Theadora Tolkin (New York), Val Cashman (Portland), and Laura Gilliam (Seattle), who will work with produce from a local CSA farm, among other food sources. Board members, alumni and supporters including Kirsten Anderson (painter), Katy Hannigan (arts administrator, Artist Trust), Jane Hodges (board), Jess Martin (marketer, board), Brittney Corrigan McElroy (’17, poet), Urban Waite (’17, fiction), will help host residents.

“We’re honored to host our fourth year of residency, and grateful to our hard-working board, volunteers, donors, and to Mineral,” said Jane Hodges, Mineral School founder. “We continue to breathe new life into the school that is the backdrop for our vision, while sharing this process with the community and helping artists grow.”