In June 2018, the Rose O’Neill Literary House will welcome Lauren to Chestertown for a month-long writer’s retreat. She was selected from this year’s pool of applicants as the winner of the Literary House’s 2018 Cave Canem Summer Residency. 

While most of her time will be spent working on her own writing projects and quietly exploring the town, Lauren will also be a part of the Summer Literary Salon on Tuesday, June 19 at 4:30PM, sharing the stage with writers H.G. Carrillo, David Stuart MacLean, and Lynn Melnick, along with local musicians The Pam Ortiz Band.

Lauren Russell is the author of What’s Hanging on the Hush (Ahsahta, 2017). A Cave Canem graduate fellow, she was the 2014-2015 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the 2016 VIDA Fellow to the Home School, and a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow in poetry. She is a research assistant professor and is assistant director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburgh.

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 Laura Swearingen-Steadwell (2017), Darrel Alejandro Holnes (2016), Kamilah Aisha Moon (2015), Jamaal May (2014), Yona Harvey (2013), Kevin Vaughn (2012), and Arisa White (2011).