Guest Blog: Rachel Cantor My First Artists' Colony
It was February 1999. I had finished my
creative writing MA at Johns Hopkins nine months earlier, but hadn’t decided
what to do next. I’d been a summer intern at a Jewish retreat center, I’d
stayed on a friend’s couch in her studio apartment in D.C., I’m sure I spent
time visiting my sister and her young family, and I was, by January, staying on
the couch of yet another friend, this time in Philly. I was anything but
settled. Probably I hadn’t written in months. But I was a
writer—I was sure about that, and it wasn’t just my degree that told me so.
Still, I hadn’t published even one short story—publication was all but
unimaginable! But the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, an artists’ colony
located in Amherst, Virginia, didn’t care about that. They invited me for a
five-week residency—five weeks! Five weeks during which time—could
it be?—I was to do nothing but write. I’d have my own room, with a door! I could
unpack a suitcase, finally. Good people would cook me meals. I could …