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In their words

“Saltonstall was a gift of focus and clarity; poems and bodies of work with which I was having trouble, I finally could make real progress. I could be a full-time poet, every day, reading, writing, rereading, rewriting. It was a deep, nourishing joy. Poetry is sustenance and Saltonstall allowed me to feast, to savor. Discoveries made at Saltonstall are ones I will carry with me for years to come.”

—CHEN CHEN (’14)

“I had an incredibly lovely and productive stay at Saltonstall for three cold weeks in January 2013. Each day, luxuriously long, consisted of reading, writing, and occasionally taking a break to stomp through the snowy woods behind the house. Although I live in Manhattan, I’m from Syracuse, and I found it blissful to sink back into the quieter rhythms of life upstate – especially quiet at Saltonstall where the only distractions are the lit magazines left behind by other residents. I churned out more pages in three weeks than I have in a very long and I hope to return again soon.”

—RACHEL FRIEDMAN, WRITER (NYC)

“Before Saltonstall, I considered myself a small poet. After the residency, where I had space to commit to meditation and to the work of the writer, I understood myself as Author. I may have gotten lost many times on the trails around the property, but what I found transformed my sense of the writer within me, and it renewed my belief in words. I fell in love with the sentence again, even in its fragmentation. Especially the fragment. And I felt brave, in a way that I had not felt in years.”

—SARAH JEFFERIS (’14)

“I can’t thank you enough for the amazing experience I had this month at Saltonstall. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of work done, both in completing my Treece project and jumpstarting something new. The month there was incredibly invaluable.”

—DINA KANTOR (’13)

Dina Kantor

“I just wanted to take a moment to thank you and the foundation for making retreat space available. My time last week was a huge boon to the novel. I was able to write 20,000+ new words and begin to shape the end, and because all I had to do was write and think and reflect, I worked 10 or more hour a day and still came home rested and renewed. What a gift!”

—SUSAN MOREHOUSE, WRITER (ALFRED)

“From the moment I arrived at Saltonstall, I felt like I could just focus on my work in a way that I have rarely experienced. It was an extraordinary experience, and I left not only with a new body of work, but with a whole year’s worth of ideas and research.”

—LAUREN FEREBEE (’14)

“I enjoyed a perfect storm at Saltonstall this past September. It’s the convergence of so many ideal circumstances: hours of solitude in a spacious studio; exceptional food; a gracious and remarkable group of fellow artists; and a real sense of caring that makes Saltonstall feel like home—without the distractions. I’ve gotten good work done elsewhere, but Saltonstall is unique.”

—JONATHAN BLUNK (’12)

“I still don’t know how I came to receive such a gift as this. Like other residencies, Saltonstall offers open time to set into your own creative pace… But unique to Saltonstall is an especial quiet and spaciousness. The small and devoted staff made it possible for us to work, eat, sleep, and relax as if there was absolutely nothing else the world could ask of us.”

—ANNIE JACOBS (’12)

“I can’t thank you enough for the opportunity to be a resident at Saltonstall during ICSD’s spring break this year. It is not often that my lives as a school-based OT and as a fiction writer can come together, and my job and role as a mother leave very little time and peace for writing. Thank you for giving me both.”

—ANGELINA MIRABELLA, TEACHER/WRITER (ITHACA)

“I just thought of you because the short story I worked on during my residency last year was published this week, and I wanted to express gratitude for the Saltonstall stay, since the piece would not have come into existence otherwise.”

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