Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Amtrak Launches Writers Residency

Okay, so I discovered through and LA Times article written by Carolyn Kellogg that Amtrak launches writers residency after author request. In the article, Ms. Kellogg writes the following:
Ask and ye shall receive. At least when it comes to authors and Amtrak.

Amtrak has launched a still-unstructured writers residency program thanks to an offhanded remark by Alexander Chee and some impassioned pleas on Twitter.

In a PEN Ten interview that posted Dec. 23, Chee, author of the forthcoming novel "The Queen of the Night," said that trains are his favorite place to write. He then commented, "I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers."

Not two months later and Amtrak does. The first writer to accept its residency and blog about it is Jessica Gross, who traveled from New York City to Chicago and back.

That's kind of cool that Amtrak is now offering a writer's residency! I like taking Amtrak from my home here in Carpinteria, California down to San Diego to see my parents. If I'm traveling alone, I find myself reading a book during my five hour train ride... Just imagine the writing one could accomplish in five hours?

2 comments:

  1. I wish that there were more Amtrak trains out west. I took Amtrak from Colorado to NY. It was a long ride and was NOT cheap. But I really enjoyed it. This is neat!

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    1. Amtrak isn't cheap for long trips, but I do live riding on trains. My hubby & I want to take the train from Santa Barbara, California to Seattle, Washington someday. :-) I think this would be fun to do during the autumn months.

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