Update: This posting is now closed. Thank you for your interest. Only successful applicants will be contacted.
Geist is looking for writers-in-residence.
Has COVID-19 impacted your ability to find time and space to write? Apply for a seat in our Gastown office, where you’ll be able to split your time between working on your own project and contributing to a community of Geist readers.
ABOUT GEIST
Geist is a Canadian literary magazine of ideas and culture. We publish narrative (fiction and non-fiction), essays, poetry, reviews, photography, drawings, comix, puzzles and little-known facts of interest—with a special interest in fresh interactions between text and image. We strive to be articulate, humorous and identifiably Canadian. Our mandate is to find and encourage a wide audience for new and established Canadian writers and artists of merit. Over the course of our 30-year history, we have published the work of more than 1,500 emerging and established writers and artists from across the country, many of whom were published for the first time in the pages of Geist.
As our writer-in-residence, you will:
- Have a desk in our office space, as well as access to our collection of books and literary magazines to borrow
- Have time to work on your own writing project (approx. 50% of your time at Geist)
- Work with an editor to develop a dispatch for an upcoming issue
- Plan and host in-person workshops or events that engage the literary community*
- Help name our collection of office plants
HOW TO APPLY
There are two positions open. The first residency will take place from July 4 to October 31 2022, and the second will take place from November 15 2022 to March 15 2023. Hours are flexible, as long as you’re able to meet the deliverables listed above. We are able to offer each writer an honorarium of $10,000 for the duration of the residency.
This Writer-in-Residence program is only open to those who self-identify as women, trans, or non-binary, in recognition of the gendered impacts of the pandemic on economic recovery and labour participation**. Due to funding eligibility constraints, we can only accept applicants who can commit to in-person participation.
To apply, please send your resume, a writing sample of 5 pages maximum, and a statement of intent to geist@geist.com.
The statement of intent should be no more than 500 words and answer the following questions:
- What personal writing project would you like to work on during your residency? (i.e. what is the project, where are you at with its development, where do you see it going?)
- How will taking part in the residency support your writing process?
- What kind of event or events would you like to plan and how would they contribute to the literary community? (i.e. reading groups, workshops, visiting speakers, manuscript review sessions)
- Would you like to be considered for the July to October residency, the November to February residency, or would either work for you?
We don’t expect you to have concrete plans, and there will be plenty of room to explore and collaborate once you get here. If you lack direct experience facilitating events and would like to invite someone to help you deliver the event, we can support this and provide instructor fees. We’re interested in learning how you would like to spend your time here, and what you’ll get out of it.
The deadline for applications is June 15th at 11:59 pm.
*We recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, and are committed to working with our writer-in-residence to establish adequate safety protocols for in-person events in order to increase accessibility.
** Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: https://monitormag.ca/articles/women-bearing-the-brunt-of-economic-losses-one-in-five-has-been-laid-off-or-had-hours-cut/ Labour Market Information Council: lmic-cimt.ca/women-in-recovery-covid-19-and-womens-labour-market-participation/
