Our Dream for the Future

An unexpected treasure gift, this time at Write On, Door County.

Birds, butterflies, birches, night walks to see the sunset, the truly sacred meadow path. Each day, the words came easier, the vision clearer. I am leaving with new pieces and a clarity for the work that’s still ahead.

– Sheila O’Connor, Novelist, Keeping Safe the Stars, Sparrow Road writer in residence 20??

A story begins...

In the winter of 2011, a small group of people sensed a hunger within the Door County community to explore writing and reading more deeply. There seemed to be a renaissance of writing in our schools, our senior centers, and in reading and writing groups forming up and down the peninsula. Door County’s natural beauty has long attracted creative people, and the visual and performing arts in particular have thrived. Now it seemed time to shine a light on the literary arts. Write On, Door County was born.

We received an extraordinary gift of 39 acres in Juddville, and then in 2013, we found Jerod Santek, Program Director at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, to come and help bring the idea of Write On, Door County to life officially in 2014, when we earned our non-profit status.

Over the years, our organization has grown to welcome authors from all over the country to be writersin-residence. Hundreds of classes and programs for all ages and experiences have taken place, and we have welcomed writers to share their gifts in helping people write their own story.Beloved Now,Door it is time towriter writeNorbert the next chapter.

County Blei’s former writing coop and typewriters were relocated to Write On.

The path we’ve walked.

Jerod Santek’s 19-year history at The Loft formed an invaluable foundation of relationships with writers from all over the country. One by one they began to come for weeklong residencies in the home on our Juddville property. Word spread and now writers from all over the country, and beyond, are applying for residencies which are booking a year in advance.

Over 150 writers-in-residence have shared their creativity and expertise with our community in exchange for their week and two-week residencies. These writers have conducted classes, workshops, author readings, school visits, summer camps and mentorships. They’ve participated in writing conferences and special events throughout the county for all ages and experience levels. They’ve shared their skills and inspiration to explore poetry, memoir, nonfiction, children’s picture books, songwriting, graphic novels, multi-lingual and mystery writing.

We have seen remarkable engagement and a growing desire in people to write and share their stories.

We’ve seen lives grow and change through writing.

Timeline Tracy K. Smith, U.S. Poet Laureate, October 2018

Winter 2011 Write On is conceived 2013 Jerod Santek joins as Executive Director 2014 Collaboration with the Hal Prize and Door County Poet Laureate Program begins April 2014 Write On welcomes its first writer-in-residence Summer 2014 Norbert Blei’s Coop relocated from Ellison Bay 2015-2016 March 2017 Poet Naomi Shihab Nye visits October 2018 Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith visits

Todd Davis, Poet (Pennsylvania), reading October 2016

Once more, I come to you with a plotting challenge and you unraveled the knot.

Yes, I know: the pen was in my hand, but the quiet country beauty here unsnarled the tangle that waited in my head.

Looking out at the daisies in the meadow or that giant evergreen seen

Finding tranquility.

Walking the serene 39-acre property in Juddville is simultaneously calming and mesmerizing, centering and awakening. Writers-in-Residence are effusive about the land’s draw. Trails wind through trees. A meadow with junipers and wildflowers is the perfect place to sit in the sun and be inspired to write. Norbert Blei’s writing coop, relocated from Ellison Bay, is a silent haven where one can leave behind the bustle of daily life to refocus and re-energize.

For the last five years, Write On, Door County has been offering writers a creative space, immersed in tranquil beauty, to pluck that word from the orchard of the mind-to plant their seed in lines of verse.

from the bathroom window or the sky full of cities of clouds, well, it does release some latch that needed lifting.

– Faith Sullivan, Novelist, The Cape Ann; Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse; Gardenias and more, writer-in-residence 20??

The quiet woods discovered on the northern edge of the Write On property are a soothing discovery on a sunny day.

Gratitude.

The most prevalent feedback we hear can be summed up in one word: gratitude. A class participant is given confidence to her book into print. A grandparent is grateful for a memoir class that encouraged him to write down a few stories for his family to read. A teenager has the boldness to tell a painful story in a literary magazine, and we learn later that this experience was crucial to her mental healing. A writer who spends a week revising his manuscript is offered a book deal. Kids have fun at camp, and return to school better readers and writers.

These are the stories that help us to see the impact of Write On, Door County in people’s’ lives. Words can heal us and helps us. When we tell our stories, form our ideas, or create beauty with words, there is power for good.

Adult workshops offer untold opportunities.

Children’s author John Coy with DC Elementary students.

A child participates in a writing class.

In our precious time here, I sometimes found myself tearing up with sheer gratitude. I arrived harried and heartsore, after months of considerable stress. The silence and the space and the sanctuary offered here allowed the strain to gradually seep out of me.

To enter the day mindfully, with intention, through journaling and meditation, to pursue thoughts, read widely,

The next chapter.

As we turn the page to the next chapter of Write On, Door County, we are encouraged by our accomplishments and how closely tied we have remained to our mission: promoting and facilitating writing in Door County by nurturing the work of writers, supporting readers and audiences, and developing new opportunities that encourage broad participation. In short, we hope to realize our goal: to be locally loved and nationally recognized.

To reach that goal, we have aspirations and plans for two additions to our property: a writing center and a new residence.

make notes, try out ideas and new forms, has been invaluable to me.

– Catherine Jagoe, poet; author of Bloodroot and other collections; writer-in-residence March 2019 Poetry Workshop participants, Spring 2016

WRI TI NG CENTE R GAT HER I N G

PA R K I N G

Site Plan the study

an extended retreat

the niche

a sought break

the pause

an invited impulse WR IT ERS RESI DENCE

the commons a shared quest

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Go to the end of Juddville Road where it meets the bay. Go when the light in the backyard rises to the tops of the trees. Go as often as you can. The bay will give you different colors every time, and when it moves and laps and rocks — those will be different every time too.

My sincerest gratitude to the man at the Write On helm, the ever-amazing Jerod Santek, and his equally amazing board. What you’ve built has been a haven to me and will, I know, be so for many others to come. There’s nothing quite so rare and necessary for writers as quiet like this in nature that opens space in the mind and allows it to slow down to the level of the sentences, and at the same time to be more alert to the sound patterns inside them. I have loved the late afternoon light on apples in your woods, the wild turkeys running with their funny necks across the roads, the deer in the front and back paths that surprise me every time, even though I know to expect them, but never see until their tails are in the air.

Thank you all who’ve come to and through the house so quietly I didn’t know anyone was here. And thank you all who shared your art, your music, your books, and you who left your good writing energy at this desk before me.

With awe and gratitude,

– Leslie Adrienne Miller, Poet

Collections: Y, The Resurrection Trade, and others

The Writers Residence.

A short walk from our current home through the field, flowers, and trees, would lead to a new haven for writers: our residency. Five writers at a time can have the privacy and beauty of their individual spaces to create. Furnishings will be comfortable, yet simple, so that writers can work without distraction. Gardens outside their windows will inspire. When they are ready for collegiality, the common space includes a kitchen, library, and dining area with a shared table. There, writers can discuss their craft, gather feedback, or simply enjoy a meal together as they break from their work. Perhaps they will collaborate and plan their community outreach efforts as they sit together on the terrace to enjoy a night full of Door County stars. What part might Write On, Door County play in the great literature that has yet to be written?

OPENING FACING NORTH PATIO

Nature flows in...

UNDER COUNTER FRIDGE + SINK

QUEEN SIZE BED

BATHROOM BATHROOM

This writing room is meant to open fully to the outdoors when weather permits and remain strongly connected to theBATH landscape FULL SIZE SIZE BED BED even when closed.QUEEN A porch overhang is also a must for this layout.

This plan also lends itself to elegantly-integrated ADA accessibility.

BED FULL SIZE BED

BUILT IN WRITING DESK (ADA - ROLL UP)

CHAIR

BATHROOM UNDERCOUNTER FRIDGE + SINK

PEGS/HOOKS

SHELVING

UNDER COUNTER UNDERCOUNTER FRIDGE + SMALL SINK

FRIDGE + SMALL SINK

CHAIR

DISPLAY WALL

LINE OF SOFFIT ABOVE

SHELVING SHELVING

Inspired by the Coop...

CHAIR

CHAIR

The size and proportion of the writing space as you enter is WINDOW SEATING immediately reminiscent of Norb Blei’s chicken coop writing space.

All of the creature comforts are out of sight, beyond the doorway on the north side of the room, leaving the sensation intact. This version preserves the south facing orientation of Norb’s coop, but a north facing version would reduce glare in the writing space.

WRITING DESK DESK

BATH

SHELVING

This south-facing writer’s room is for the writer who prefers to turn away from the window in order to QUEEN concentrate.

The small movable SIZE BED table and wide window seat allows each individual to find their FULL SIZE BED perfect orientation.

WRITING TABLE

CHAIR

BATHROOM

The sun at your back...

SHELVING

Five residences offer five unique layouts.

WINDOWS FACING SOUTH

Write On, Door County has been a miracle. My week here as Hal Prize winner has felt like sanctuary. My goal was to finish my second novel and I came sooo close. I would not have been half as far without this Door County paradise. Today, my second to the last day, I walked your trail across the road and lines of poetry assaulted me as I wound through wood, leaf, and stone.

– Dawn Hogue, novelist, A Hollow Bone and 2017 Hal Prize Winner in Poetry, writer-in-residence September 2017

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The Writing Center.

Across Juddville Road, our new Writing Center will be the new heart of our home. In the space, we are eager to offer classes for community members. We are ready to gather in the new center’s library, or, weather permitting, around a fire pit to discuss the art of writing. We are excited to offer space for a writing group to critique one another’s latest chapter of a novel, or for an author to meet with an editor. A book club could meet in front of the fireplace in the cold of winter. Our summer kid’s campers could sit on the benches of the flagstone entryway before pairing off for the day’s writing fun.

Teens working on an essay could meet with a writing mentor. In our new writing center, we are bound by nothing.

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STO RAGE & M EC H

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Give. Build. Dream.

In Across Juddville Road, our new Writing Center will be the new heart of our home. In the space, we are eager to offer classes for community members.

We are ready to gather in the new center’s library, or, weather permitting, around a fire pit to discuss the art of writing. We are excited to offer space for a writing group to critique one another’s latest chapter of a novel, or for an author to meet with an editor. A book club could meet in front of the fireplace in the cold of winter. Our summer kid’s campers could sit on the benches of the flagstone entryway before pairing off for the day’s writing fun. Teens working on an essay could meet with a writing mentor. In our new writing center, we are bound by nothing.

I got some good work done in there. My stay coincided with a gloriously breezy, sunny stretch, which meant I got to write to the tune of my favorite soft symphony: summer sounds through an open screen. There were disruptions, of course. Specifically, a hummingbird, two spotted fawns, and a persistent gopher. And I did have to struggle back to civilization at least twice a day for fresh coffee. But each time I flagged, I looked at the varnish on the low table before me, and knew it had the sort of shine that only comes from a pair of elbows regularly applied, and I got back to work.

– Michael Perry, New York Times best-selling author (Truck: A Love Story; Population 485), writer-in-residence July 2016

Everyone has a story to tell.

In uddville Road, our new Writing Center will be the new heart of our home. In the space, we are eager to offer classes for community members. We are ready to gather in the new center’s library, or, weather permitting, around a fire pit to discuss the art of writing. We are excited to offer space for a writing group to critique one another’s latest chapter of a novel, or for an author to meet with an editor. A book club could meet in front of the fireplace in the cold of winter. Our summer kid’s campers could sit on the benches of the flagstone entryway before pairing off for the day’s writing fun. Teens working on an essay could meet with a writing mentor.

In our new writing center, we are bound by nothing. be the new heart of our home. In the space, we are eager to offer classes for community members. We are ready to gather in the new center’s library, or, weather permitting, around a fire pit to discuss the art of writing. We are excited to offer space for a writing group to critique one another’s latest chapter of a novel, or for an author to meet with an editor. A book club could meet in front of the fireplace in the cold of winter. Our summer kid’s campers could sit on the benches of the flagstone entryway before pairing off for the day’s writing fun. Teens working on an essay could meet with a writing mentor.

In our new writing center, we are bound by nothing.

Artistic Director

Managing Director

Board of Directors Vinni Chomeau Myles Dannhausen, Jr. Anne Emerson Bill Guenzel George Harmon Ann Heyse Caitlin Oleson Dee Paulsen Sara Sohns Jerod Santek, Artistic Director Lauren Bremer, Managing Director Michael Brecke, Founder, Development Consultant

Write On, Door County

Write On, Door County • PO Box 457 • Fish Creek, WI 54212 • 920.868.1457 • WriteOnDoorCounty.org