• The Goldfinch Writing Residency at Looking Glass Arts is very specifically for writers over the age of 45 who have always had a writing practice, but for whatever reasons, couldn't make it a career and are unpublished by a major publishing company.

    This residency was established in 2022 to honor the father of a dear friend of mine. His name was Tom Kelly. And Tom had been an attorney his whole life. And in his retirement, we all discovered that he had always wanted to be a writer. And so this Goldfinch Writing Residency was set up to honor him.

    The application for the Goldfinch Writing Residency is available to people who are writing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenplays, plays, graphic novels, cartoons, anything you can think of. If you're writing it, please apply.

    When you come to Look in Glass Arts for your residency, you will receive three meals a day from an experienced chef. You will have housing either in the farmhouse or in the home or house of our neighbors. You will have a number of spaces on the property to choose from to work in. You can work in your bedroom. Each bedroom is equipped with a writing desk. We also have a huge barn that we also use for recording residencies. But for the writing residencies, we set up with a long table, so if you need especially a lot of space, it's a great place to write.

    We also have space in the milk house. The milk house, this was a dairy farm, so the milk house is where the milk was stored, and that is equipped with a big table and a desk, and it also looks out onto the field. Additionally, where the bull was kept, it's called the bullpen, and that is another space in the barn that is set up with a big table for people to write at. And additionally, there, there's huge windows and it looks right out onto the looking glass field. So there are number of spaces in the house, in the bedrooms, there's spaces in the barn. And then there's also the front porch, the backyard of the house to also use as you wish.

    When you come to Looking Glass Arts for the Goldfinch Writing Residency, you can use your time as you wish. We are here to support artists, so we are not attached to your productivity in any way. If you wake up and you need to take a four hour walk, if that's a part of your process, that's great. If you need to sleep in, we support that as well. We know that you're coming here to do work and we know that you'll do it in the time that you have available to you that makes best sense.

Goldfinch

Writing Residency

Mon. August 3 - Fri. August 7

The Goldfinch Writing Residency at Looking Glass Arts will be offered to three writers who are not yet published by a major outlet. This fully-funded writing residency was established to support writers 45+ who demonstrate a unique commitment to their craft. We recognize that some writers come to their writing practice as very young people and others begin writing as mature adults. This residency is catered to writers who have a dedicated writing practice but for whatever reason(s), have not been able to make writing a full-time career. Works can include a novel, collection of short stories, poetry, memoir, graphic novel, play, screenplay, essays or hybrid work. 

The Goldfinch residency includes 5 days at Looking Glass Arts. There is a writing desk in each bedroom with additional places to write throughout the property. There will be 3 delicious meals served each day, with dietary restrictions taken into account. The residency comes with an honorarium for each writer. We encourage people of the Global Majority to apply.

closed for 2026

Application Deadline: April 17, 2026. 5pm