We are excited to announce the first two Residents of A Suite of One’s Own, our newly launched Writers-in-Residency Program for Alumni of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards! The residency will be held at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
Katie McGinnis, novelist
E.J. García, poet
García and McGinnis were selected from a competitive pool of Alumni submissions. The Residents will have a week-long retreat at New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel, where they can escape from the pressures and myriad distractions of life during which they can devote time to the creative process.
Residency submissions were judged by acclaimed writer Natalie Diaz. She has been awarded numerous prizes and fellowships including the Lannan Literary Fellowship, Native Arts Council Foundation Artist Fellowship, as well as a US Artists Ford Fellowship. Diaz currently teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts Low Rez MFA program.
In reviewing Katie McGinnis’ excerpt from her novel Platte, Diaz says “She has built a setting and character that are moving into and against one another in a compelling way, creating tension, momentum, expectation…I was pulled through her story excerpt. The language is beautiful and electric.”
McGinnis is a current PhD Candidate in Fiction at the University of Missouri-Columbia whose writing often celebrates the tension between the real and the imagined. Below is a brief excerpt from her novel Platte.
E.J. García is a graduate of Princeton University who was selected in 2011 as a National Chapbook Fellow. Her poem, Your Bright Hand, was published by the Poetry Society of America. She is currently completing an advanced degree at Yale. Simultaneously, she is a candidate for Holy Orders and will return next year to Boston to serve as a priest and teacher.
Of her poetry Natalie Diaz notes, “In this collection of poems, the poem works like a nautilus that turns me deeper and deeper inside. Each time I read this collection, I found some new emotion in me. The language is precise and energetic, sometimes quiet, sometimes thunderous, and not a single word is wasted.” Below is a sample of her poetry.
Congratulations to our Residents, and thanks to the Roosevelt Hotel!