Residency Dates: February 21, 2021 - March 13, 2021
Application Deadline: September 20, 2020
We are very hopeful that we will be able to hold Residency #180 and have waived the application fee. Also, due to COVID-19 and the immense stress it has put on artists, ACA will be offering FULL scholarships to all accepted artists! The Board of Trustees and staff feel protecting our core mission is paramount, and are grateful to the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation for allowing us to make this commitment to funding exceptional artists during these times.
Randall Silvis is a Pabst Endowed Chair for Master Writers
Randall Silvis is a winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, two NEA Literature Fellowships, a Fulbright Senior Scholar Research Award, and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree for “a sustained record of distinguished literary achievement.” Also a prize-winning playwright and produced screenwriter, Silvis is the author of 18 critically acclaimed books this far (one story collection, 16 novels in various genres, and one book of narrative nonfiction.) His work has appeared on Best of the Year lists from the New York Times, the Toronto Globe & Mail, SfSite.com, Strand magazine, and the International Association of Crime Writers, and has been hailed as “masterful” not only by the New York Times Book Review but also by Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Mystery Scene magazine, and several other review sources. Silvis’s fiction has been marketed as literary/mainstream, magical realism/fabulism, literary mystery, and psychological suspense. His two novels from 2017 (Two Days Gone and Only the Rain) were Amazon #1 Bestsellers; Two Days Gone is currently in its 10th printing. His 17th novel and 2nd story collection are scheduled for publication in 2019, and another novel in 2020. Additional work-in-progress includes a 2nd book of creative nonfiction.
For more information, please visit https://www.randallsilvis.com/.
Residency Statement
I look forward to working with writers of unconventional fiction and creative nonfiction. By “unconventional” I do not mean experimental; I mean accessible work that does not concern itself with the conventions of genre, does not worry about including all the right tropes or genre expectations, but creates its own expectations, whether through structure, voice, hybridization of genres, or any other means–work that is distinctive and unique and not an imitation of any other writer’s work. I envision our group spending three weeks in a casual workshop format reading and reacting to Associates’ work, individually and as a group, so that every Associate returns home with a useful insight or two into how to craft work that rises above mere convention. I would like to spend each of the first ten sessions work-shopping one short piece (10 pages or so) from each of two different Associates; this should leave plenty of time for questions and conversation, and will allow each Associate to showcase two different pieces before the final week. That week will be reserved for catching up (if we have failed to get two critiques in per day) and individual meetings with me.
Application Requirements
Up to ten pages of prose and a brief narrative summary of your publications and writing goals.
Scholarships / Financial Assistance
Only accepted Associate Artists may apply for financial assistance. For details, please visit the master artist details page.
Application fee: FREE! Click here to Apply! ($25 fee has been waived)