DEADLINE: Register by May 1st for the 2025 R(ev)ise and Shine! Residency
With Two More Special Guests...
As the May 1st registration deadline approaches (a week from today), we’re delighted to announce two more special guests for the 2025 R(ev)ise and Shine! Residency: James E. Ransome (as our special guest illustrator) and Alysa Wishingrad (as our special guest author).
James E. Ransome, illustrator and author, was most recently awarded the 2023 Children’s Literature Legacy Award honoring an author or illustrator whose books have made a significant and lasting contribution to literature for children.
He has also been named by The Children’s Book Council as one of seventy-five authors and illustrators everyone should know. Currently a member of the Society of Illustrators, Ransome has received both the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration and the IBBY Honor Award for his book, The Creation. He has also received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award for Illustration for Uncle Jed’s Barbershop which was selected as an ALA Notable Book and is currently being shown as a feature on Reading Rainbow. How Many Stars in the Sky? and Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt were also Reading Rainbow selections. PBS’s Storytime featured his book, The Old Dog. Ransome has exhibited works in group and solo shows throughout the country and received The Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance award for his book, The Wagon. James is also a fine artist and lives in New York’s Hudson River Valley region with his family.
Alysa Wishingrad writes fantastical stories for young readers, tales that ask; is the truth really true? Her favorite stories are those that meld the historical with the fantastic, and that find ways to shine a light on both the things that divide and unite us all.
She is the author of Between Monsters and Marvels, which was a 2024 Golden Kite Finalist, a 2024 Crystal Kite Finalist, and The Verdigris Pawn, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.
Alysa lives in the Hudson Valley with her family, two demanding rescue dogs, and a cat-shaped dog, who are all either monsters or marvels, depending on the day.
Both James and Alysa will be joining us (along with our special guest editor and agent), in person at Potash Hill to interact with students and participate in the residency. We couldn’t be more thrilled!
More info on the R(ev)ise and Shine! Residency 2025:
Following on our hugely successful inaugural residency at the Highlights Foundation in 2024, we are delighted to offer a bigger, longer, more exciting and enriching experience for 2025!
The residency is scheduled for five days and four nights, October 15-19th, in Vermont's beautiful Green Mountains during peak foliage season at Potash Hill.
The cost of this residency is $1995.
This price includes: Private dorm room (with shared, dorm-style bathroom), delicious meals prepared by the Brattleboro Food Co-op, mentor feedback on 20 pages of your manuscript, and a full schedule of programming.
Register now through May 1, 2025 with a $500 non-refundable deposit on our Eventbrite page.
Balance of tuition due by July 1, 2025.
The number of participants for this retreat is limited to 20, providing a low attendee-mentor ratio.
Consider adding an additional day of retreat time to your stay for only $150 all-inclusive!
We are also once again offering a $500 scholarship to a Black or Indigenous writer.
Our website offers loads more details, including a full FAQ and additional information about Potash Hill. We’ll also be posting updates as they become available.
"The R(ev)ise and Shine! Residency provided an inclusive and supportive environment that fostered huge personal growth for me. The sense of community between faculty and students facilitated immense growth professionally and personally."
—Penelope Cypress
Have questions? Let us know in the comments or drop us a line.
Ready to register? Click the image below:
And Don’t Forget:
In Conversation: AN UGLY WORLD FOR BEAUTIFUL BOYS w/ Jennifer Richard Jacobson & Rob Costello
Join Jennifer Richard Jacobson and Rob Costello as they discuss Rob's debut novel, AN UGLY WORLD FOR BEAUTIFUL BOYS. Bring your own questions and join us for a fun & lively conversation!
Click here to find out more and order your copy here!
When: Wednesday, April 30, 2025 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm ET
Where: Online
Cost: FREE
Click the image below to find out more and sign up:
RESCHEDULED: Writing - and Reading - Rural with Nora Shalaway Carpenter
(Or, With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility)
Whether you consider yourself rural or not, chances are you’ll write at least one rural character in your career. While an abundance of media continues to perpetuate rural stereotypes, writers are increasingly aware of the importance of portraying rural characters as nuanced and complex as their real-life counterparts. The how of this, though, continues to trip up even the most well intentioned of writers. This Zoomie offers a practical guide to help you avoid inserting common unconscious biases into your story, whether you are rural or not. To put our topic into context, we’ll begin with a brief overview of what literacy scholar Sara Webb-Sunderhaus calls “tellable” vs “untellable” narratives, focusing on how rural people often code switch depending on their audience and how you can use this knowledge to create fully fleshed out characters. Prompts will help participants construct and/or identify not only their characters’ belief systems, vocabularies, and appearances, but also what those rural characters feel about where they’re from and the people around them. Importantly, we’ll discuss different ways to show (rather than tell) those characteristics. We’ll also address “the dialect dilemma.” Additionally, participants will receive a handout on diverse rural resources and suggested mentor texts. The Zoomie will end with a Q&A.
When: Wednesday, May 28, 2025 from 7:00 to 8:15 pm ET
Where: Online
Cost: $30*
*For those who can’t attend live, a recording of each session will be made available for 30 days after the event for all ticket holders.
Click the image below to find out more and sign up:
Nora Shalaway Carpenter is an award-winning author, writing educator, and audiobook narrator. Her newest novel FAULT LINES won the 2024 Green Earth Book Award for YA, the 2024 Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal for YA, and is a Whippoorwill Book Award long list selection, among other honors. Her books have made numerous prestigious lists, including "Best of the Year" by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, Bank Street Books, the Texas Library Association TAYSHAS state reading list, and the Library of Congress's Discover Great Places Through Reading list. Her works have won accolades including the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, the Whippoorwill Award for authentic rural fiction, and the Nautilus Award championing "better books for a better world." She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and serves as faculty for the Highlights Foundation's Whole Novel Workshop. A neurodivergent author with an invisible disability, she champions busting stereotypes of all kinds. Visit her at noracarpenterwrites.com.