QWIP Archive

June 2007

William T. Vandegrift, Jr.
Ewing, NJ
Fiction/Non-fiction
Residency: Spring 2007

In mid-February, I arrived at Casa Libre with three hundred pages of scenes and fragments to piece together into chapters.  This kind of work is difficult for me to do while at home because there are many distractions that keep me from being able to fully focus on my work. 

The privacy and solitude that Case Libre offers allowed me the much-needed opportunity to completely immerse myself into my novel. I worked mostly at odd hours, usually late at night or early in the morning with an afternoon break to explore Tucson and its environs. In about three weeks, I managed to accomplish what would’ve taken me months, if not a year.

Walter Mosely said in the March/April 2007 issue of Poets and Writers, one must write every day.  According to Mosely:  “If you skip a day or more between your writing sessions, your mind will drift away from these deep moments of your story.  You will find that you’ll have to slog back to a place that would have been easily attained if you only wrote every day.”

Writing every day is a challenge for most because the demands of every-day life unfortunately take precedent over writing.  But at Casa Libre, in my being able to write every day and regularly, I realized the importance of Mosely’s words. I returned home determined to maintain this momentum—even if it is just grabbing a half hour of writing in the morning before going to work or staying up a bit later at night to jot down some new ideas or to tinker with a passage or two of prose.

Casa Libre is the ideal place to do a writing retreat because not only are you provided with beautiful suites that offer privacy and whatever you might desire at hand. I’ve done other writing residencies and some had obligations attached, dinner at a set time, readings, teaching, but at Casa Libre there are not expectations of you. You are left to your own devices.

Whenever you need a break from the writing, there’s never a dull moment to be found in Tucson. The bohemian world of Fourth Avenue lies just outside Casa Libre’s front gates.  I spent hours browsing through thrift stores and shops. I relaxed with lattes and iced teas at various coffee houses, walked for hours around the city of Tucson and the campus of University of Arizona. I sat by the pool and took a few late night soaks in the hot tub. I took in shows at Centennial Hall and ate out and drank at many of the restaurants and bars. One evening I even got three piercings at a tattoo parlor.

Tucsonans are very welcoming people, as are Ann and Kristen and the staff at Casa Libre (as well as Jonah the cat!) In all, not only did I get so much work done during my residency, I returned home with recharged batteries and renewed focus and even more importantly, a strong sense of satisfaction with all the work that I accomplished during my residency. Now all I have to do is keep Mosely’s words in mind and continue to write every day.

William's Bio:

William T. Vandegrift, Jr., a graduate of Bennington College with an MFA in Literature and Creative Writing, is a freelance writer, restaurant reviewer, author interviewer and a fiction reviewer. He has been published in numerous anthologies, magazines and literary journals including Quarterly West, The Kelsey Review, OUT in Jersey, Agni (online), Poetry Daily, Eyes of Desire: A Deaf GLBT Reader and The Writer’s Chronicle.

William's Links:
William's Blog
Interview in Agni with Virgil Suarez
Flickr site w/pics of Casa and Arizona
Writer's Chronicle Archived Interview with Toi Derricotte

 

QWIP Archive

Last updated February 14, 2007
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