Three years ago, the Alumni Council of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards created a residency for Alumni. A Suite of One’s Own: A Writer’s Residency at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in the heart of New York City was created to give the gift of time and space for a writer in need of a retreat from, in the words of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards founder Maurice R. Robinson, “the standardizing pressure of adult life.” This year, two Alumnae, Olga Rukovets and Shannelle Mills, participated in the residency. Here’s what they had to say about their time at The Roosevelt Hotel:

Olga Rukovets

“The experience was definitely helpful to me . . . I revised some pieces that I have been working on that I had put aside. I also began working on a few new poems based on interactions/people I met while traveling through Europe in the fall. I am still revising and continuing to work on what I started at the residency, but being alone in a room and knowing there is a limited amount of time to write was helpful to me as a writer. It also made me want to seek out more things like this residency in the future. I also applied to be a poetry reader for a couple of literary magazines while at this residency, so I’m happy to say that this will continue to keep me connected with poetry this year.”

Shannelle Mills

“I was able to finish the final draft of the essay I used for my writing sample . . . I feel very grateful to have been gifted the time, space, and financial resources to write . . . Again, I’m very appreciative to have been given this opportunity.”

Are you an Alumni of the Scholastic Awards in need of a break from the day-to-day hassles so that you can work on your writing? Then apply for the Alumni Writer’s Residency! Applications are open until January 6, 2019.