The first two weeks of September have been a glorious end to summer here at Storyknife. In fact, it’s been a year stuffed full of goodness.
In the beginning of the year, the board of Storyknife and I worked with the Foraker Group as part of the Pre-Development Program. We talked about dreams, goals, a vision for where Storyknife will grow, and the outcome was a strategic plan. Then we talked about budgets, costs, impact, constituents, and so much more and finally the outcome was a business plan that is sustainable.
I want to share the envisioned future of Storyknife from our strategic plan:
- Fostering women’s powerful and necessary voices
- Providing women a supportive community and the time and space to devote to writing
- Lending cultural weight to women’s writing
- Creating an environment of caring and hospitality
- Creating a bedrock upon which women writers feel secure in exploring difficult, experimental, and engaging work
- Providing a place that is beautiful, thoughtfully constructed, and nurturing
- Fostering a level of respect (cultural and personal) for each woman and her creative process
June rolled around and we began to host our 2018 fellows, Ching-In Chen, Sharbari Ahmed, and Casandra Lopez. Three extraordinary women writers that were chosen from 97 applicants. It’s hard to express how much it saddens me when the letters go out to say sorry, you were not chosen this year. There was not one woman writer who applied who did not deserve to have her voice respected, fostered, taken care of. And the Storyknife call for applicants did not reach even a fraction of the women writers who deserve a residency.
Over the next few months, we’ll be sending out newsletters to let folks know what’s in store and how you might help. So many exciting things are in the works, and we can’t wait to share them with you. One way you can help that takes almost no effort at all: please share our website, our Facebook page, our newsletter signup link with everyone you know that believes that women’s voices matter.
Thank you for all your support in the past and we look so forward to moving into the future together.
Sincerely,
Erin Hollowell, Executive Director Storyknife
Storyknife Writers Retreat 