Attention: Soon you’ll be able to do a writing residency in Ursula Le Guin’s home.
Ursula Le Guin’s family and Literary Arts in Portland announced today that Le Guin’s old home will become soon become the Ursula K. Le Guin Writers Residency. That’s right, you might be able to write at the desk where Le Guin wrote classics like The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, and The Lathe of Heaven. And also where she wrote a beloved series about a wizarding school and didn’t descend into hateful and reactionary politics—it’s possible!
To answer your (and my) first question: no, applications for the residency aren’t open yet, but keep an eye on the Literary Arts website.
The plan to turn her home into a residency has been years in the making, and Andrew Proctor, director of Literary Arts, said that Le Guin “had a clear vision for her home to become a creative space for writers and a beacon for the broader literary community.”
The planned residency will host one writer at a time throughout the year, and Le Guin’s son, Theo Downes-Le Guin, wants the residency to “feel inclusive, available to a wide range of authors, and selective.”
Literary Arts is also seeking donations to keep up the house and operate the residency, if you want to support this project. In the meantime, starting polishing your pages for when submissions open up!
