Mackie Lake House Writer-in-Residence Program

The Mackie Lake House Writer-in-Residence program has been offered since 2003 and nine authors have published work created at the residency.

Paddy Mackie was an educator, visual artist and musician who left his family estate to the Vernon cultural community. In order to honor him, ten years ago the Mackie Lake House Society entered into a partnership with Kalamalka Press and Okanagan College that resulted in a writer-in residence program. Canadian writers who participated in these residencies included Dr. Ronald Ayling, Dennis Cooley, David Pitt-Brooke and Christine McPhee, Robert Kroetsch, Dawne McCance, Gary Geddes, Peter Midgley, Mona Fertig and Brenda Schmidt.

The Residency Programs are for professional authors in any literary discipline (fiction, poetry, journalism, non-fiction) and are designed to offer established Canadian writers with the solitude and time to write. These residencies include a two-week stay free of charge at the beautiful Mackie Lake House in Vernon BC and $1000.00 honoraria.

 

Location

The Mackie Lake House was built over 100 years ago on the shoreline of Kalamalka Lake in Vernon, British Columbia, at the north end of the Okanagan Valley. The house is beautifully preserved both inside and outside, and retains virtually all of its original building fabric and heritage character.

 

Dates

Fall Residency - September 29 - October 12, 2013
Applications must be received by June 15, 2013.

Winter Residency - January 26 - February 8, 2014
Applications must be received by October 31, 2013.

 

Obligations

While the intent of the writer-in-residence program is to offer authors the opportunity to work on their writing projects, it is hoped that the authors will provide presentations to Okanagan College and high-school students, be available to local media, and participate in one public reading at the Mackie Lake House. Other opportunities for public engagement may be available.

 

Applications

To apply for the residencies, please complete the application form and submit it to info@kalamalkapress.com

With any questions regarding the Mackie Residencies, please email your query to: info@kalamalkapress.com

 

Previous Mackie Residents

For details on Mackie Residency Publications, see here.

 

The Writers in Residence for 2012-2013 were:

September 2012 – Terry Jordan

Terry Jordan is an award-winning fiction writer, essayist and dramatist whose stage plays have been produced across the country. His book of stories It's a Hard Cow won a Saskatchewan Book Award and was nominated for the Commonwealth Book Prize. His first novel, Beneath That Starry Place was published internationally and was nominated for two Saskatchewan Book Awards, and the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel award. The Toronto Globe & Mail called it "an achingly beautiful book." Jordan received the first fellowship to live and write in the Wallace Stegner House in Eastend, SK and was the first Margaret Laurence Fellow at Trent University. Recently, he facilitated the Fiction workshop at Sage Hill Writing Experience. This past year he served as Writer in Residence at the Winnipeg Public Library.

 

January 2013 – Kath McLean

Kath McLean is a multi media artist living in Edmonton. She writes poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, reviews, performance poetry & drama. Since the publication of her award winning first book, For a Cappuccino on Bloor, Kath MacLean’s writing has been generating critical acclaim across Canada, United States, & recently, Europe where she toured this spring. An instructor of creative writing much of the time & previous high school teacher, MacLean has also been WIR for the CAA in Edmonton. Earning the first & only Ph.D. in creative writing at the U of A, her recent work includes: Seed Bone & Hammer, (performance poetry with Lane Arndt (2009), There Was A Young Man (2009/2010), Kat Among the Tigers (2011), poetry based on the journals & correspondence of Katherine Mansfield, & Doo-Da-Doo-Da, a videopoem from Kat which won her the “Best of Fest” at its first national & international screening last fall. Inspired by the writing of Robert Kroetsch, this year MacLean’s poetry was short-listed for the Robert Kroetsch Innovative Poetry Award. In October she received the Anne Green Award for her excellence & innovation in film, poetry, & performance. Fascinated by modernism, she returns to visit its early years in her manuscript in progress -- poems on H.D`s sessions with Freud (1933-1934) & in her longer work of nonfiction on the Spanish flu of 1918, both of which she hopes to be working on during her residency.