Residencies

The house, which was Katherine Anne Porter’s childhood home and is now a National Literary Landmark, sits on Center Street in Kyle, Texas and serves as a literary center. The program has existed since 2000, and has been sponsored by the Burdine Johnson Foundation, the Board of Preservation Associates, and Texas State University.
 

The one-year residency begins July 1 and includes an annual salary. The resident will be expected to help the Director of the Visiting Writers Series coordinate public readings by visiting authors.
 

Tours are 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.
 

There are no other specific obligations. The residency is designed to offer space and time for significant creative work.
 

The house is furnished and well maintained by Texas State University. The accommodations are spartan but comfortable.

The L.D. Clark and LaVerne Harrell Clark Literary Endowment provides a quiet and comfortable writers’ 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.

Currently, writers-in-residence are chosen from among students in Texas State’s Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing. The endowment’s proceeds will also be used to award the annual L.D. and Laverne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize, which will be among the most prestigious fiction prizes in the country. Award winners will receive their honor and give a public reading at Texas State and will also visit the Clark House in Smithville. The inaugural prize will be awarded in February.

The Department of English and MFA program in creative writing in Texas State’s College of Liberal Arts sponsor the writers-in-residence program.

Application information is sent to eligible students of the Texas State MFA each spring.