Residencies
Most MFA programs send graduates off with a diploma and a thesis ready for publication. Texas State University does that plus provides two graduates every year with writing residencies.
The program selects graduating MFA students for one of two writer-in-residence positions at either the Katherine Anne Porter House in Kyle or the L.D. and LaVerne Harrell Clark House in Smithville. Both residencies exist to protect the thing that’s hardest to find after graduation: uninterrupted time and space to write.
Katherine Anne Porter House Residency for a Graduating MFA Student
Live and write in the childhood home of Katherine Anne Porter, one of the most celebrated short story writers in American literature. Now a National Literary Landmark, the house sits on Center Street in Kyle, Texas, and has hosted a Texas State writer-in-residence every year since 2000. The program is sponsored by the Burdine Johnson Foundation, the Board of Preservation Associates, and Texas State University—who furnishes and maintains the home. A newly built literary center hosts public events behind the historic home. The writer-in-residence is chosen from that year’s graduating students in Texas State’s Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing.
What the residency offers:
- A one-year appointment beginning July 1.
- A furnished, well-maintained historic home that is simple but comfortable.
- An annual salary to help the Director of the Visiting Writers Series coordinate public readings, assist with events in the house, and coordinate tours. Tours of the house are available only by prior arrangement with the Writer-in-Residence, who will be expected to connect visitors to a designated tour guide but not lead the tour.
- For more information on the history of this house, visit https://kapliterarycenter.txst.edu/
Clark House Residency for a Graduating MFA Student
The L.D. Clark and LaVerne Harrell Clark House provides a quiet and comfortable writer’s retreat in Smithville, 55 miles east of the Texas State University campus.
The historic home on Smithville’s Main Street was the residence of the writers L.D. Clark and LaVerne Harrell Clark. The Clarks donated their home and other property to Texas State in 2009 to create an endowment to support writers-in-residence.
Part of the residency may include a 4/4 teaching position at Texas State University if amenable to the writer and if classes are available. The writer-in-residence is chosen from that year’s graduating students in Texas State’s Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing. There are no specific obligations. The residency is designed to offer space and time for significant creative work.
Apply
Application information is sent to eligible students of the Texas State MFA each spring.