In June 2016, the Rose O’Neill Literary House will welcome Darrel to Chestertown for a writer’s retreat. He was selected from this year’s pool of applicants as the winner of the Literary House’s 2016 Cave Canem Summer Residency. He will spend his time here working on his own writing projects and quietly exploring the town for a few warm, restful weeks.

Darrel Alejandro Holnes’s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Poetry Magazine, Best American Experimental Writing, American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, Callaloo, The Caribbean Writer, Day One, The Puritan Magazine, and elsewhere in print and online. He is the co-author of PRIME: Poetry & Conversations, On Poetics, Identity & Latinidad: CantoMundo Poets Speak Out, and the co-editor of Happiness, The Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry. He teaches at NYU. 

The Cave Canem Summer Residency at The Rose O’Neill Literary House is a partnership with Cave Canem, the nation’s preeminent organization for young African American poets. Cave Canem’s mission is to serve as “a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.” Our Cave Canem Summer Residency is a month-long Chestertown retreat offered annually to one outstanding former Cave Canem Fellow. Previous Summer Residents include poets Kamilah Aisha Moon in 2015, Jamaal May in 2014, Yona Harvey in 2013, Kevin Vaughn in 2012, and Arisa White in 2011. 

The Rose O’Neill Literary House at Washington College serves as one of the cultural centers of campus, bringing together students, faculty, alumni, and local community members from across the disciplines. Our literary programming provides access to a wide variety of genres, including fiction, poetry,  creative nonfiction, scholarly prose, playwriting, and hybrid forms; our letterpress studio and Literary House Press introduce participants both to old and new technologies. We are dedicated to promoting the articulated word and to supporting students through professional, on-the-job training.