Live from Storyknife June 2025

Click here to watch the recording!

Join us on Thursday, June 19 at 6pm Alaska time for Live from Storyknife featuring June’s writers in residence. The session will be live on Zoom and the recording will be posted on this page after the reading.

Abegunde is a memory keeper, poet, and ancestral priest. While at Storyknife she is drafting a healing text for those who conduct field work at sites of violence and genocide. Her writings on her experiences in Juba, South Sudan have been published in the Massachusetts Review, North Meridian Review, and Tupelo Quarterly. She is an Assistant Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University Bloomington.

Clementine Bordeaux is Sicangu Lakota Oyate (Rosebud Sioux Tribe) and grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Currently, Clementine is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Riverside, supported by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant. Clementine’s research and writing interests include Lakota creative practices and community-based participatory projects. 

Abigail Chabitnoy is the author of In the Current Where Drowning Is Beautiful and How to Dress a Fish (Wesleyan 2022, 2019). She teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts low-residency MFA and is an assistant professor at UMass Amherst. Abigail is a member of the Tangirnaq Native Village.

Angie Chuang writes in many nonfiction forms, from memoir to literary journalism to scholarly research. She’s currently at Storyknife working on a memoir in essays called The Unbecomings. Her first memoir, The Four Words for Home, was published in 2014. She lives in Denver and is on the journalism faculty at University of Colorado Boulder. 

Mary Leauna Christensen’s (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) poetry can be found in Southern Humanities Review, Denver Quarterly, and Gettysburg Review, among others. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Common and in Black Warrior Review. She was also named a 2022 Indigenous Nations Poets fellow for the inaugural In-Na-Po retreat. 

Kirsten Imani Kasai is an Assistant Professor of Popular Fiction at Emerson College in Boston. She’s the author of three novels: The House of Erzulie (Shade Mountain Press, 2018), Ice Song (Del Rey, 2009) and Tattoo (Del Rey, 2011). According to Foreword Reviews, “Kirsten makes the macabre beautiful.”

Alyssa Velazquez is a curator, playwright, and has written for Material Intelligence, The Establishment, Burnaway, AutoStraddle, and Carnegie Museum of Art. She is an inaugural fellow of Critical Insight through the American Theatre magazine, a 2024 Lambda Literary fellow, and was invited to join The Playwrights Cohort at PlayPenn, Class of 2024-25. Since 2022, Velazquez has also held residences at Bischoff Inn and Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh.

Storyknife application and adjudication process

Sure, it’s just the beginning of June. Heck, the June cohort of writers has barely gotten their desks positioned and their routine down (whatever that routine is….hope it includes a little nap on rainy days). But in July and August, Storyknife is open for applications for the 2026 residency season. I thought you might like to know a little about the application and adjudication process.

Our full application process is outlined on our website at this link: https://storyknife.org/how-to-apply/. The page describes the questions that are part of the application and what format the writing sample should be in. Pretty much everything you need to know to be ready to apply in July is there. (That’s where the apply button will be on July 1.)

But what happens next? After the application period is over (August 31 at midnight), the applications are adjudicated by teams of former Storyknife writers in residence. At no point during the adjudication process do any adjudicators see the names of the applicants. In the first two rounds, adjudicators only see the writing sample. They are instructed to give a thumbs up to the work that is strongest or to samples that show that a writer is trying something new and difficult, whose skill might not be up to their aim.

If a writing sample makes it through the first two rounds, that means that four writers have read it and thought it was strong enough to move to the final round where five adjudicators read the answers to the application questions. They rank each application 1-5 based on how highly they recommend the applicant for a residency. Every applicant who gets to the third round is either offered a residency or put on the wait list. In 2024 for the 2025 residency season, there were 108 applicants who made that final round. 52 were offered residencies immediately, and at this point three people from the waitlist have been offered residencies.

As you can see, it’s a long and complicated process. We’re extremely grateful to the former Storyknife writers in residence who take the time to help adjudicate. It really means so much to know that every applicant’s work is taken seriously by excellent writers. The adjudication panels are never the same from year to year, but they are always filled with people who understand both good writing and the ethos of Storyknife.

If you thinking about applying this year and you still have questions after you look at the How to Apply page, just shoot me an email.

Take care, stay safe, keep writing,
Erin

June Opportunities

Join us on at the Porcupine Theater on Wednesday, June 4th at 7pm for Alan Lightman and Maria Popova in Conversation “Do Art and Science Represent Opposite Truths?” This event is co-sponsored by the Bunnell Street Arts Center and Storyknife Writer’s Retreat, tickets available at The Porcupine Theater.

Alan Lightman is a physicist, novelist and MIT’s first pressor with dual appointments in science and humanities. Maria Popova is an essayist, poet, cultural critic and author of the blog, The Marginalian.

Admission is $25 general; $20 discounted, proceeds support both sponsoring organizations. Beer and wine will also be available for purchase.

Purchase tickets for Popova/Lightman event

Free Workshop by Angie Chuang
on June 18, 6-7:30pm

U.S. fiction and nonfiction writers have been trained to follow “universal” rules of story structure: The Aristotelian plot arc. Three-Act Structure. The Hero’s Journey. In recent years, diverse voices in prose writing and craft have called for expanding these norms. “it’s about time that individual agency stops dominating how we think about plot or even causality. If we canonize E. M. Forster and Aristotle, it should be as representatives of one tradition among many,” Matthew Salesses writes in Craft in the Real World. In this workshop for prose writers of all levels, we deconstruct both western and non-western story structures and storytelling conventions to better understand how our own work might draw from, and fit into, a literal world of stories. We’ll read stories and watch short films as examples, and experiment with both generative writing and restructuring

Angie Chuang is an associate professor of journalism at University of Colorado Boulder who writes and teaches a wide range of nonfiction forms. Her memoir, The Four Words for Home (Aquarius Press/Willow Books, 2014),won an Independents Publishers Award for Multicultural Nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in Narratively, Creative Nonfiction, The Asian American Literary Review, Litro, The Washington Post, Hyphen, as well as anthologized in A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays, and multiple editions of The Best Women’s Travel. Prior to entering academia, she was a newspaper reporter for 13 years, as a staff writer for The Oregonian, The Hartford Courant, and the Los Angeles Times. Her crossover scholarly book, American Otherness in Journalism, is forthcoming later this year (Routledge, November 2025).

Registration limited. Closes on June 16 or when full. Class held in person at Homer Council on the Arts.

Click here to register for Angie Chuang’s free class

Live from Storyknife May 2025

Click here to watch

Join us on Thursday, May 22 at 6pm Alaska time for Live from Storyknife featuring May’s writers in residence. The session will be live on Zoom and the recording will be posted on this page after the reading.

Bella Bravo is a fiction writer living in Seattle. Their stories have appeared in NY Tyrant and Driftless Magazine. In 2022, they earned an MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Their work has been supported by Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Storyknife.

Shannon Kelly Donahue lives on Jilkáat Aani, Haines, Alaska, where she works to protect bears, rivers, and salmon. Her heart’s other home is West Kerry, Ireland. Shannon’s memoir-in-progress explores ecological grief, remembering lost language, and her family’s banshees. Her lyric essay, “Salt Cures,” appears in the spring issue of Catamaran.

Asa Drake is a Filipina/white poet in Central Florida. She is the author of Maybe the Body (Tin House, 2026) and Beauty Talk (Noemi Press, 2026), winner of the 2024 Noemi Press Book Award.  Her poems can be found on The Slowdown Podcast, The American Poetry Review, and Poetry Daily. She is the inaugural Rona Jaffe Fellow for Storyknife.

ire’ne lara silva, 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate, is the author of five poetry collections, most recently, the eaters of flowers, a comic book, VENDAVAL, and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán. Her second short story collection, the light of your body, will be published by Arte Publico Press in Spring 2026. 

Doubly Resolved

Mt. Iliamna peeking out on a bluebird sky day in April
(which means it’s sunny and still pretty nippy, but a welcome break from April showers). 

At the end of March, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference brought together close to 14,000 writers in Los Angeles. On that first Thursday evening, close to 80 people gathered to listen to Storyknife alums read from their work and I sat in their midst. Yes, the venue was a little louder than I would have liked, but the readings filled my heart. The impossible beauty of Storyknife writers lifting up Storyknife writers. The cohorts huddled together around tables. The cheering. The sheer joy at the shared endeavor of the written word.

In fact, the whole conference was one joyous rush of Storyknife alums supporting each other. Oh how I wish that everyone could have been there, that I could have cheered on your publishing news and shared the weight of these times on your shoulders.

For it is impossible not to acknowledge that the experiences of women and nonbinary people are being actively suppressed at this time in our history. And so at Storyknife we are doubly resolved to our task – to provide a place of deep comfort and sustenance for writers to find the space and time to do their important work.

The April cohort is here in the cabins. I’ve been in contact with the writers who are coming later in the season, assuring them that yes, Storyknife is here for them. Will be here for them. We’ve built Storyknife to last. And it will. You can help by doing the good work of reading books written by women authors, talking about them, sharing their words. You can help by sharing the work of Storyknife with other people who also understand that women writers are changing the narrative and that is important work in these times. You can help by donating and helping us over the finish line with the Founder’s Challenge – we’ve a bit left to go to reach Dana’s $16,500 goal and only two weeks to reach it. Every donation, no matter the size matters. (Click here to reach our secure online portal, or send a check to PO Box 75, Homer, AK 99603)

And if you are a woman writer, you can help by having faith in your own work. Knowing that at Storyknife, we’re cheering you on. We’re holding you in our hearts when the weather is blustery and the world feels uncertain, hoping you can feel our belief in you.

May Spring bring you all good things,
Erin

Support Storyknife Writers

Preparing for the 2025 Writers!

Over thirty-five years ago when Dana Stabenow was just starting out as a novelist and short story writer, she was awarded a residency at a new residency center just for women writers, Hedgebrook. The experience planted a seed that these many years later has blossomed into Storyknife.

Each year, Dana offers a challenge match. This year, she’s increasing the impact with a $16,500 challenge. For the month of April (but honestly, let’s give her a little latitude and say from now until April 30th), Dana will be matching dollar for dollar every donation until we meet that challenge.

Meant to coincide with the first residency month of the year, this challenge grant is even more important this year than ever before. Why? Well, it isn’t a stretch to admit that  there is a rising tide of action to silence women, to in effect nullify their stories, their writing, their very autonomy.  Storyknife exists to foster women’s voices. We’re helping change the narrative.

We know that the world is a little topsy-turvy right now for everyone, but we also know that you believe, as we do, in what Storyknife offers women writers – the time and space to devote to their craft.

If you’ve ever wondered what your donation supports:

  • For $5500 an individual or organization can sponsor a fellowship for one writer in residence for one month.
  • $1250 donation pays for one month of facilities maintenance including groundskeeping and landscaping.
  • $800 donation pays to feed one writer for a month.
  • $500 donation pays to keep the gas stoves in the cabins and Eva’s House lit for a month.
  • $300 donation pays for one round of housekeeping for the cabins (done at the end of each residency period).
  • $150 donation pays for one month of phone and internet.
  • $50 donation keeps the lights on for one writer for a month.
  • $25 donation connects one writer to the internet for a month.

Any contribution helps make Dana’s dream a reality. Please consider donating toward her challenge match to honor her hard work and determination. Please consider donating toward her challenge match to honor her hard work and determination. Click here to reach our secure online portal, or send a check to PO Box 75, Homer, AK 99603

Sincerely,
Erin

And don’t forget, if you’re attending the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Los Angeles!

The Bitter Winds

February is a changeable month in Homer, Alaska. Some years, very cold and snowy. Other years, mud and freeze/thaw cycle. It’s a hard month to predict. This year, everyone is feeling the raw winds of change. At Storyknife, the winter storms come roaring off Cook Inlet and slam into the little cabins and Eva’s House. But everyone here is undaunted; we are looking forward to continuing to fulfill our mission: to give women writers the time and space to devote to their craft, to provide them with a community that supports them.

When thinking about the future of Storyknife, I have many times in the past few months turned to a quote that I keep on a postcard beside my desk written by the incomparable Isabelle Allende:

“Women are 51 percent of humankind. Empowering them will change everything, I can promise you that. Women working together, linked, informed, and educated, can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet.”

When I write a grant, when I talk with other women writers, when I ask for donations to put delicious food on Storyknife’s table and keep the lights on, I think about how the women writers of Storyknife are changing the narrative, telling a new and different story.

From the very beginning, Storyknife has chosen to lift up the voices of women from historically excluded communities. Founder Dana Stabenow said, “The women of Storyknife should represent the world.” We’re just as committed to our mission as ever. Just as committed to voices that have been shut out, voices that have been pushed beyond the margins.

I have another quote beside my desk from Maya Angelou:

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.”

Please know that even as the strongest winds arrive, Storyknife will be here to shelter, nurture, nourish, lift, and support women writers. It’s our mission, and we’re grateful that we have such a large community of like-minded people who agree – Women writers deserve the time and space to devote to their craft.

Sincerely,
Erin

Thank you!

January in Alaska is a time of long, dark mornings which foster reflection. It’s a time to look back in gratitude and forward in hope.  

Let me take a moment to thank the 296 individuals, businesses, and foundations that supported the women writers of Storyknife last year. (Please take a moment to go to the oage and see who they are.) Without you, we couldn’t provide the space and the time that writers need to devote themselves wholeheartedly to their craft. Your generosity puts flowers by the bedsides, gorgeous food on the dinner table, heat in the cabins, and lights at the desks. More, it provides this magical place where women writers are told in every detail and every day, YOU are important and your story is important.

Storyknife is a very young organization, in existence for less than ten years, offering our full slate of residencies for four years and entering our fifth. In 2025, we will surpass 225 writers who’ve had an opportunity to immerse themselves in their work. In cooperation with our alum, we’ve been investigating how to grow our support as they continue their writing journey. It is an exciting time. We’re creating a foundation of steady support for the organization of Storyknife itself so that it can continue to fulfill its mission for decades to come.

Yesterday, I was responding to an email from one of the 2024 alum writers, and I offered a tiny bit of advice as we all go forward into a new year with all its attendant excitement and anxiety.

“Please remember that your job is to bring your individual talent to the world in service of the stories that will help the people who find them. We cannot fix everything or reach everyone, but we can do our work with all our hearts.”

I send that wish to all of you. That you will know that your words, your story, your very presence as a creative and vital person in this world, all are important and valuable.

Thank you again for being part of building Storyknife and supporting the women writers that come here.

Sincerely,
Erin

Gratitude for 2024 and hope for 2025!

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Here at the end of calendar year 2024, we greet you from a threshold. One season ends, and we look ahead to another beginning. The New Year tradition of making resolutions is an expression of hope. At Storyknife, we prefer value clarification. When the Storyknife Board and solitary staff member (me) got together in 2018 to write a strategic plan, we identified cultural impact, validation, support, and openness as our core values. As we move into a new year, please know that we will always be making decisions that reflect those values as we provide women writers the time and space to devote to their craft.

The facilitator of the strategic plan asked us to envision what we wanted to accomplish in ten years, looking forward to 2028. We discussed and considered and finally landed on: Writers who attend a residency at Storyknife say, “I went to Storyknife and my whole life changed.” It’s a lofty goal, and we’re looking forward to 2025 as another chance to work toward it.

Storyknife could not survive without the generosity of so many people. Look in January for our annual supporter page to update, but for now, a HUGE SHOUT-OUT of gratitude to the 288 individuals and foundations that donated to Storyknife this year. A special extra hug of thankfulness to the 145 individuals who donated in the last three months of the year to help us make our challenge match of $50,000! We crossed that threshold just last week and if you couldn’t hear me hollering and cheering in my car at the Homer Post Office parking lot as I opened the mail (and then Dana hollering and cheering when I texted her that through the generosity of our donors we’d made the challenge match), well, it was a loud celebration.

May the new year bring peace, light, love, and good writing. May each of you put words to paper that are needed in this world. May you know, deep in your heart, that your story is important.

Sincerely,
Erin

#GivingTuesday

We just can’t wait to show you this delightful highlight reel.

2024 has been an absolutely superb year and it’s all because of the amazing writers who’ve been in residence at Storyknife. But hot on the heels of those incredible folks our gratitude goes to all the people who have donated to support women writers having the time and space to devote to their craft.

December 3 is Giving Tuesday – an international coalition of nonprofit organizations coming together to remind everyone to donate to support the causes that they love. We hope that you’ll help Storyknife to meet the Challenge Match that a wonderful cohort of donors has offered. We’ve $16,000 to go to meet our $50,000 target. 

Your gift will help change the narrative, lift women’s stories, and bring new writing into the world. Please help the women writers of Storyknife reach that challenge by donating today.

The video below will help you see the writers who you are supporting (or at least who was supported this year). 

We are grateful,
Erin

Hope you’ll enjoy this wonderful video and hope you’ll donate to support what the 2025 Storyknife writers will bring into the world!

Click here to donate to support the Women Writers of Storyknife