Rose Nash

 Rose Nash, from nearby Wolcott, Vermont, is the first recipient of the annual Rona Jaffe Foundation / Vermont Studio Center Fellowship.  Sponsored by The Rona Jaffe Foundation, this award supports a talented emergent woman writer with a month-long residency at VSC as a well as a stipend to offset the costs (i.e. lost wages, childcare, travel) of accepting the residency. 

 “I really enjoy the rich range of artistic disciplines at the Vermont Studio Center and the continuous exchange of ideas between and among writers and visual artists. There’s a vibrant sense of community, and the environment is conducive to great productivity. I truly appreciate having this space and time to work on my first novel.”

“Here is an excerpt from my novel-in-progress, currently titled Shadtown, which is also the name of the rural fictional Vermont town where the novel takes place. The protagonist, Flame, is a seventeen-year-old high school girl, who lives alone after her widowed father moves in with his fiancé. In that liminal space between adolescence and adulthood, Flame struggles with the loss of her mother, her father’s recent engagement, and her long-time boyfriend’s first year away at college. In this opening scene, Flame meets Beyle, who is new to Shadtown, a place where ideologies and socioeconomic backgrounds collide, coexist, and sometimes collaborate.”

View writing sample from Rose >>

Photo courtesy of Howard Romero