A Year's Sustenance for Women Writers | Online and In-residence at Craigardan
Led By: Kate Moses, author and literary mentor
Bring your book project and your literary practice to full fruition in Bookgardan, a year-long program of sustained, one-on-one mentorship and Master Class-level craft curriculum created by an acclaimed writer, seasoned editor, and devoted & inspiring literary mentor, shared with an intimate cohort of like-minded literary artists.
Hone your work-in-progress, develop your technical expertise, and refine your inimitable artistic process over twelve months of online connection bookended by two full weeks as fall writers-in-residence during at Craigardan.
THE PROGRAM
Bookgardan is a 12-month, low-residency program where participants devote a year to their book projects, writing and learning in community with an intimate group of dedicated women writers, guided from start to finish by the extraordinary literary mentor, Kate Moses.
The program opens and closes with week-long fall residency intensives at Craigardan, during which participating writers are both Craigardan artists-in-residence and participants in the Bookgardan program — Bookgardaners. From the first residency onward Kate provides writers with the structure, foundational philosophy, technical tools, editorial and professional expertise, and individualized guidance required to develop and sustain their artistic practices, cultivate their manuscripts, and nourish their artistic and professional development, with the goal of bringing projects to an advanced level of fruition (a full first draft, a revised draft, or meeting an individual goal) by program's end.
During Residency 1, scheduled to coincide with the Adirondacks’ dramatic fall color, each writer works with Kate to create a goal for their Bookgardan year and a plan to reach that goal. Residency 1 is also an in-depth introduction to Kate and the cohort, a rich opportunity to get to know each writer in the group and their aspirations, talents, and challenges, and what they bring to the group’s shared experience.
Throughout the year, writers will make monthly submissions of pages and receive individual conference feedback, online craft lessons and workshop discussion, ongoing mentorship, and opportunities for connection with like-minded artists sharing in an often solitary endeavor.
The Bookgardan program culminates after twelve months — once again syncing with the arrival of breathtaking Adirondack autumn — during a second residency focused with the input of the cohort: previous themes of Residency 2 have been the business of writing and publishing, generative revision, writing intensives, and peer teaching. Always, Residency 2 includes individual conferences with Kate and the sustenance of lasting fellowship among the members of the cohort.
Bookgardan is ideal for writers who are working on long-form narrative book projects, whether literary fiction (novel, novella, or short stories), memoir, creative nonfiction topics, or hybrids of those forms, and think they would benefit from a seasoned professional’s perspective, ongoing guidance, and mentorship, and the support and creative energy of an engaged group of peers.
Maximum 6 participants. LEARN MORE about Bookgardan HERE.
Program Tuition: $10,900 via check or $11227 via square
Note: Beyond the non-refundable application fee, our payment preference is by check. Checks payable to Craigardan can be mailed to: 9216 NYS RT 9N, Elizabethtown, NY 12932 in advance of each deadline. While we do accept digital payments via debit or credit card, an additional 3% fee will be applied.
Application Fee: $50 non-refundable application fee is due at the time of submission.
Deposit: Applicants who are accepted and enroll will be credited $50 toward their $500 deposit due upon enrollment. Minus the $50 application fee, a deposit is due upon enrollment ($450 via check or $463.50 via square).
Program Balance: The balance of program fees ($10,400) will be divided between 3 payments due:
Payment 1 due September 1st: $5000 via check or $5150 via square
Payment 2 due January 1st: $2700 via check or $2781 via square
Payment 3 due April 1st: $2700 via check or $2781 via square
Payment in full due September 1st: $10,400 via check or $10712 via square
CANCELLATIONS: If an accepted applicant needs to cancel all or part of their participation in Bookgardan for any reason, we are only able to offer up to a 90% refund prior to the September 1st deadline. After the September 1st deadline, refunds are not available for payments made at subsequent deadlines.
Tuition includes:
12-months of literary mentorship with Kate Moses, including monthly 30-page manuscript submissions and individual conferences; online group curriculum including monthly craft seminars and conversations with guest writers; weekly cohort meetings and Group Writes; and a final full manuscript reading & evaluation with Kate following the ending residency in October 2024. You can expect:
170+ hours of group curriculum and instruction with Kate.
100+ hours of individual, focused attention on you and your work, including a minimum of 60+ hours devoted to one-on-one conferences.
Ongoing private community space and access to your program archives.
Two 7-day in-person residencies at Craigardan including:
Lodging in individual, private tiny cabins, designed as a very modern take on the Adirondack Lean-to and shared living spaces on the main campus.
Access to all Craigardan programs, staff, and ongoing support.
All meals
Full days of daily group seminars and individual conferencing with Kate.
Beginning Residency 1 at Craigardan: Monday October 16, 2023 - Monday, October 23, 2023;
Ending Residency 2 at Craigardan: TBD Fall 2024.
Following the Bookgardan year, the option of continuing individual mentorship with Kate in the Bookgardan program style, at the price of an Individual Mentorship ($5400/year), or Alum Membership only (online group curriculum, weekly cohort meetings, Group Writes) for a sliding-scale fee.
The option to submit your completed, polished book manuscript via Birds & Muses to our partnering Literary Agents. Note: While submission is not a guarantee of representation or publication, it is a choice opportunity to have a full manuscript reading by one or more highly regarded agents
Tuition does not include:
Airfare or other long-distance travel costs to in-person residencies, which must be arranged and paid separately by the participant. Craigardan is able to pick up residents for a flat-fee from the local Amtrak station (Westport), and bus stations (Keene, Keene Valley). Further guidance on travel is available upon request and will be included in informational materials provided to accepted applicants.
For optional pre-Bookgardan manuscript reading:
$5/page or 2¢/word
(Note: a full manuscript reading & assessment at the end of the year’s program is included in the Program Tuition; a pre-Bookgardan reading fee is for participants who wish to have a full or partial work-in-progress read prior to the start of the program)
FELLOWSHIPS
Every year we award one Fellowship for enrollment in Bookgardan to a writer who is accepted into the program and could not otherwise attend due to financial constraints. The Fellowship covers 25% of program costs and a preliminary Manuscript Reading of 200 pages (if needed).
To be eligible, you must be accepted into the program; be a single mother; Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian; Disabled; or identify as LGBTQIA+. Expanded eligibility is available for 2023-2024 to include: Ukrainian women displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; or those severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Bookgardan program applicants who indicate their intent to apply for a Fellowship will receive additional instructions upon acceptance.
Kate is the author of the internationally acclaimed Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath, published in sixteen languages, and Cakewalk: A Memoir, chosen by National Public Radio as one of their favorite memoirs of 2010. Recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Best Fiction by an American Woman, an American Book Award, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a Prix des Lectrices de Elle, and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Headlands Center for the Arts, Karuna, and The Lighthouse Works. Kate is also co-editor of two bestselling anthologies of essays on motherhood, Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood and Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About Children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race & Themselves. A founding senior editor and staff writer of Salon, former literary director of Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, and former senior acquisitions editor of North Point Press, Kate has taught writers at two dozen universities in the U.S. and U.K.; through Birds & Muses she works with writers in the U.S., Canada, the Middle East, several European and African nations, and New Zealand. Learn more about Kate's books and mentoring at katemoses.com and birdsandmuses.com.