SmArts

April 25 - May 1, 2016

On the Edward Albee House

By Molly Rector

This week I learned that I have been awarded a month-long residency at the William Flanagan Memorial Creative Persons Center, better known as “The Barn,” through the Edward F. Albee Foundation – named for and founded by the playwright Edward Albee, who has received numerous awards for his plays, including three Pulitzer prizes for drama. Perhaps his most famous work is “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

While the residency doesn’t come with a stipend, it does mean four cost-free weeks of undisturbed writing time in a space shared with visual artists and other writers in Montauk, on Long Island. I’ve never had the chance to visit that part of Long Island before, and I’m told is incredibly beautiful – I can only imagine how the loveliness of the beachy landscape will be multiplied by the presence of other people doing creative work.

I feel unbelievably honored to have been selected for this residency, and it could not have come at a better time. I’ll be visiting in August, just as I am about to enter the final year of my MFA program, working on a manuscript for my thesis, which I expect will eventually morph into a first book of poetry. I’m particularly excited to see how the quiet and the newness of the landscape find their way into my work.

Molly Rector is a staff writer for the Daily Record. Contact her at molly@dailydata.com.