soapstone.org :: How to Apply

How to Apply for a Residency

To Apply > Click here to download and print the Soapstone Application Form. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader (a free download at adobe.com.) Or send a self-addressed stamped envelope (one first-class stamp) to Soapstone, 5252 NE 57th Avenue, Portland, OR 97218.

You will be asked to send:
• three copies of the completed application
• a writing sample (no more than three pages of poetry
• or five pages, double-spaced, of prose)
• a $20 nonrefundable application processing fee

Applications must be postmarked no earlier than July 1 and no later than August 1 each year.

Writers may receive up to four weeks of residencies in any five-year period. (One 4-week residency, two 2-week residencies, four 1-week residencies, etc.) Former residents will be considered on the same basis as all other applicants.

"Even when I wasn’t physically writing—putting words on the page—I was always writing in my head. The quiet, the isolation, and living by Soapstone Creek surrounded by forest took me deeper than I had expected. I felt myself slowing down. The lack of distractions allowed me to fill my head and heart with language and let it reside there, uninterrupted."

—Gail Robinson