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Casa Libre en la Solana
By Ann Fine
Casa Libre en la Solana is the first year-round writer’s residencycenter in the Southwest. Located in the downtown arts district inTucson, Arizona, Casa Libre serves writers from across the country andaround the world. Casa Libre is a non-profit organization supported bygrants and donations that features 5 fully furnished writing suites, alibrary conference room and facilities for readings, book releasereceptions and classes, and several private courtyards. The buildingsare over 100 year old adobe structures with all the style and characterof a traditional Mexican compound. Along with hosting writersresidencies, Casa Libre hosts several readings series, workshops forwriters, and group residencies. Several local non-profits utilize Casa’slibrary for their board meetings on a regular basis, and Casa regularlyhosts many visiting writers for local literary groups such as TheUniversity of Arizona Poetry Center, POG, Chax Press, Kore Press, andthe Tucson Poetry Festival. Casa’s web site, www.casalibre.org, provides information about our facilities and programs.
CasaLibre was founded in 2003 by Kristen Nelson and Ann Fine, two youngwriters who got the idea when they met in undergraduate school at theUniversity of Tampa in Florida. When they graduated in 2000, the twowere still kicking the idea around, but it wasn’t until after 9/11, whenthey lived and worked in New York, that they decided to get serious andbegin searching for a building in Tucson. In 2003 they relocated toTucson and found the building on 4th Avenue, in the heart of the artsdistrict downtown. That year they incorporated as a non-profit and foundan umbrella organization to operate under while they worked to fulfillthe requirements of the IRS to earn their non-profit status. In 2004they moved into the property and began extensive restorations andplanning. They worked hard for the first year before they startedoffering the suites to writers. With the help of many many volunteersand the support of the community, Ann and Kristen were able to presentCasa Libre as a writing center in May of 2005.
In the summer of2006 Casa Libre finally earned its non-profit status from the IRS andwas finally able to begin awarding self-directed residencies toindividual writers who applied and were “qualified” for a residency. ForAnn and Kristen and the board of directors of Casa Libre, “qualified”means—a writer who will productively use the writing suite to write, isserious about their work, and whose past experience and writing sampledisplays evidence of this. It has been important to the staff and boardfrom the beginning that Casa Libre’s residencies are made available to awide range of writers at every level of career development. We host MFAstudents, academics who are working on dissertations or scholarlypapers, poets, fiction writers, non-fiction writers, self-publishedwriters, free-lance writers, or talented writers who have never beenpublished.
In 1912, Harriet Monroe, the founder of PoetryMagazine, famously wrote: “The Open Door will be the policy of thismagazine&3151;may the great poet we are looking for never find it shut, orhalf-shut, against his ample genius! To this end the editors hope tokeep free from entangling alliances with any single class or school.They desire to print the best English verse which is being writtentoday, regardless of where, by whom, or under what theory of art it iswritten.” We can’t stay whether or not this policy still holds true atPoetry Magazine; but for the founders of Casa Libre, this policy willhold true for our residency applicants. Casa Libre en la Solana roughlytranslates from the Spanish: “Free house in the sun(room)”. We have no otheragenda than to support the serious work of writers and local writing groups by giving them the free room to create.
Theatmosphere at Casa Libre is kitschy, homey, casual, and down to earth.Since each suite is outfitted with high-speed Wi-fi, and the same forthe entire property, writers can bring their laptops and work anywhereon the property. Our residents are here to write and connect with otherwriters as they choose. That’s why there is not a schedule of classes orevents and we call it a self-directed residency. There are plenty ofstimulating reading series and other activities for writers in Tucson tofeed our residents’ hunger for camaraderie; all one has to do is askKristen or Ann, and they’ll give you times, directions and informationyou need. The directors are 24/7 hands on caretakers, and makethemselves available to residents as proper hosts, and always respect the residents’ right to privacy. Some residents hole upand never surface the entire duration of their residency, and some liketo emerge in the evening to sit out in the courtyards and sharecocktails and visit. Often residents slip out and roam the neighborhoodgalleries, cafes, bars, restaurants, and museums which are in convenientwalking distance from Casa’s front door. Just outside the city there issome of the most beautiful desert landscape in the world, which manyresidents take days off from writing to explore.
We encourageeveryone, “famous” or not, to apply for a residency. We are not ageist,sexist, worried about your religious preferences, how well-known or wellpublished you are, or whether or not you move on wheels or foot. Whilewe do care about craft and seriousness, we are not here to judge youraesthetic. We will welcome and treat each visiting writer with respect.All we hope for are folks who desire to have private space to get thework they dream of doing done.
For application deadlines andopen enrollment schedules, please visit www.casalibre.org for moreinformation.
