CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
FOR RESIDENCIES FROM JULY 2018 TO JUNE 2019
NOW OPEN
The A-frame house at
the edge of Roblin Lake was built in 1957 by Al Purdy and his wife Eurithe, who
had set aside $1200 dollars from CBC radio plays Al had written in Montreal.
They bought a piece of land and a load of used buildings material from a
structure being torn down in Belleville, then set to work, building from
architect’s plans ordered from a popular magazine. As Al made clear in his
autobiography, Reaching for the Beaufort
Sea, in the first years they endured fierce cold and poverty and worry.
“But Roblin Lake in summer, planting seeds and watching things grow; doing a
marathon swim across the lake while Eurithe accompanied me in a rowboat;
working at the house, making it grow into something that nearly matched the
structure already in your mind. Owls came by night, whoo-whooing in a row of
cedars above the house; blue herons stalked our shallows; muskrats splashed the
shoreline; and I wrote poems.” At 39 Al was a little known poet, still
publishing what he later decided was bad poetry. He called a book from that
period The Crafte So Long to Lerne.
But he and Eurithe hung on, and in the following years, Al’s poetry took a new
turn and his reputation began to grow. In 1965 he won the Governor-General’s
Award for The Cariboo Horses.
Many of Al Purdy’s best-known poems were written in
Ameliasburgh, a lot of them derived from the history and geography of the
village. He lived in the A-frame house—which was gradually improved and
expanded—for many years, and he spent at least part of every year at
Ameliasburgh until his death in 2000. He and Eurithe were always warm and
welcoming to writers who came to visit, and dozens—some would say hundreds—did. There is surely no house in
Canada so strongly connected with an important poet and his literary community.
The Purdy house is now the site of the A-Frame Residency
Program, under which writers are offered a time and place to work in a location
that is attractive and of historic significance. Each year between mid-April and
mid-November the house will be open for the residency. Writers who are Canadian
citizens or permanent residents may apply for a term of two to twelve weeks.
The residency will be open to all writers, but preference will be given to
poetry and poetry projects. Each year the Selection Committee will also consider
proposals for a one to four week project in critical writing about Canadian
poetry and will be open to unusual and creative ideas for residencies.
While the primary aim of the
A-Frame is to provide writers with time and space to concentrate on their
projects, the residency also gives them the opportunity to interact with the
community. As part of the residency plan writers are encouraged to develop a community-based project. Such projects
should provide the opportunity for writers to interact with the local community
but should not require more than one or two days of the writer’s time over a
four-week period. Katherine Leyton’s project was How Pedestrian. Katherine
travelled the community with a video camera and asked people to read Purdy
poems. She also had friends and other writers visit, and recorded their readings.
The recordings were posted to her blog and a final performance was held in
Rednersville at Active Arts Studio.
One possibility would be to invite other writers and
artists to visit, develop a performance event that could be staged at the
Townhall in Ameliasbugh. Writers are encouraged to be innovative about the
community project aspect of the application.
Travel to Ameliasburgh
will be paid.[1]
Those awarded the residency will be given a stipend of $650 dollars ($500
honorarium and $150 travel) a week[2] while
living in the A-frame, and will be free to spend their time on their writing.
Residents will be expected to participate in one public event for each four
weeks of their stay, or complete a community-based project as noted above—the
event could be a reading, lecture, workshop, an event in a local school or some
other literary activity—and to consider other reasonable requests. These events
will take place in one of the larger communities nearby, Picton, Belleville,
Kingston. Residents will be offered a temporary library card for the excellent
library at Queen’s University in Kingston, where many of Al Purdy’s papers are
held. Those awarded a residency will be asked to donate at least one copy of
one of their books to the Residency Library at the A-frame. Writers in
residence will also be encouraged to make themselves known at the Purdy Library
in Ameliasburgh and to donate a book. They may also wish to discuss with the
local liaison the possibility of working with local schools.
Applications should include:
A brief professional
curriculum vitae (max. 2 pages)
A plan for your residency at the A-frame (max. 2 pages)
A letter of reference
(if desired by the candidate)
A 10-20 page sample of
recent writing.
Community-based
project, if one is being proposed (1 page)
Applications should
consider “Why the A-frame?” and “Why now?”
Successful applications
will be asked to submit a grant proposal to the Canada Council for the Arts for
matched funding for the residency, and travel expenses. A final report is due three
to six months after the residency is complete.
Applicants should
propose alternate residency dates if possible.
Five hard copies of the
application and the accompanying material should be sent to:
Jean Baird
The Al Purdy A-frame
Association
4542 West 10th
Ave.,
Vancouver BC V6R 2J1
Electronic copies of the same
files should be emailed to jeanbaird@shaw.ca. Please send one email with all documents and a
subject line that includes your name and “2018 residency application.”
Any questions can be
addressed to jeanbaird@shaw.ca
Applications for residencies
from July 2018 to end of June 2019 will close on October 20, 2017—mailed materials
must be postmarked October 20, 2017 or before. Electronic copies must be
received by 4 p.m PT. If you wait until the last day—October 20, 2017—to mail
your hard copies please send by courier.
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