The Low-Residency Format

Twice a year, in January and June, Writing Seminars students and faculty gather on the Bennington campus for residencies. Both students and faculty stay in houses on campus and take meals together in the College Dining Hall. What follows—10 intensive days of readings, lectures, workshops, events, seminars, and other activities—is a striking contrast to the six months of solitary work between residencies, and is meant to be.

Visiting writers also come by residencies to give readings, discussions of their work, and lectures. Those who have given readings in recent years include Frank Bidart, Robert Bly, Jamaica Kincaid, Mary Gaitskill, Vivian Gornick, Galway Kinnell, Susanna Kaysen, Francine Prose, David Shields, Thomas Lynch, Valerie Martin, Jean Valentine, Jane Hirshfield, Michael Krüger, and Yusef Komunyakaa.

Musical performers have included Loudon Wainwright III, David Broza, Celtic Thunder, Syd Straw, Diane Scanlon, Wesley Stace, and Marshall Chapman.

 Visiting actors include Monique Fowler, who performed a play about Elizabeth Bishop’s years in Brazil, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.