Storyboard Residency
Where beautiful, truthful work gets written
Founded by writers working at the intersection of art, research and reporting, Storyboard emerges from the belief that ambitious projects rooted in fact—be they memoirs, historical novels, reportage, biographies, documentary poems, or anything in between—are vital to the public good and the literary landscape. And we know that writers cannot undertake these important projects in isolation.
That’s why we’re convening a small cohort of writers working on these sorts of projects for a six-day residency at Saint Mary’s College of California. Our goal is to provide a supportive week of mentorship, inspiration and co-conspiracy for writers working on fact-based creative projects in any genre—an experience that will fuel their projects long after the residency has ended.
What is Storyboard?
The Storyboard Residency is an immersive week of generative workshops, craft seminars and literary events organized to give writers new ideas, proven research methods and fresh ways of approaching their fact-based creative projects. Whether you’re an experienced writer or someone just conceptualizing their first project, Storyboard provides the time and space necessary to develop, plan, revise and reflect upon your idea, your craft, and the path to publication.
This residential intensive promises deeper connections with fellow writers working at the intersection of research, reporting and imagination—and editors who help those projects find an audience. Your days and nights at the residency will include:
- Four, two-hour generative workshops geared toward revision and generating new work
- Daily craft talks and presentations that shed light on new ways of approaching research, reporting, storytelling, ethics and language
- A manuscript consultation (up to 3,000 words) with a leading writer or editor
- Panels with writers and editors to demystify the publication and editorial processes, understand how to plan and fund our research, and build stamina for a long-haul creative endeavor
- Conversations with writers, filmmakers and visual artists on their work, how it was made, and its reverberations in the world
- Ample time for writing, reading, reflecting and connecting with faculty and your fellow participants
Why Storyboard?
Writing a creative work rooted in facts is a long-term project that requires a blend of inspiration and discipline, spontaneity and process, isolation and co-conspiracy.
The goal is for this six-day period to catalyze the next steps in your research, writing and creation.
This residency is for:
- Experienced journalists looking to expand their work into an artful, book-length project
- Creative writers (fiction writers, memoirists, poets, etc) looking to infuse their art with reporting or research methods
- Academics looking to broader their writing to a more general audience
- Writers knee-deep in an ambitious, long-form writing project looking for community, guidance and inspiration
- Writers at the early stages of a project who need support figuring out how to chart a path forward
- Writers who didn’t attend an MFA or journalism program and who are looking for structure and support for their project
- Anyone working in isolation on an ambitious, fact-based writing project who is seeking community and connection
Who We Are
Storyboard is led by award winning authors, journalists and editors committed to urgent, beautiful, fact-based writing and the ability for such work to make a meaningful impact in the world.
The heart of your Storyboard experience will be four, two-hour generative workshops geared toward revision and generating new work, led by acclaimed writers and teachers Rachel Monroe, Nayomi Munaweera and Mychal Denzel Smith.
Rachel Monroe
Rachel Monroe is a contributing writer for the New Yorker whose work has appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, the Guardian, Bookforum, Texas Monthly, and many others. Her book, Savage Appetites: True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession (Scribner 2019) was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and named a best book of the year by Esquire, the Chicago Tribune, and Jezebel.
Nayomi Munaweera
Nayomi Munaweera’s debut novel, Island of a Thousand Mirrors, won the Commonwealth Book Prize for the Asian Region and was short-listed for the DSC Prize and Man Asia Prizes. It was chosen as a Target Book Club book. Her second novel What Lies Between Us, won the Sri Lankan National Book Award and was short-listed for the Northern California Book Prize.
Mychal Denzel Smith
Mychal Denzel Smith is the author of the New York Times bestseller Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching (2016) and Stakes Is High (2020), winner of the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction.His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Harper's, Oxford American, New Republic, GQ, TIME, Esquire, ESPN, New York Magazine, The Nation, The Atlantic, Pitchfork, Bookforum, and Men’s Health.
Six Days of Inspiration and Insights
Our days and nights at Storyboard will also include a number of dynamic craft seminars, lectures, panels and presentation from leading writers and editors.
Guest Writers and Editors
Craft Seminars
Kirstin Chen on how we write about the past. Ingrid Rojas Contreras on looking for fact through erasure. R.O. Kwon on desire as an organizing principal. And more!
Guest Lectures and Presentations
Chris Feliciano Arnold on navigating the prison-industrial complex. Will Brewer on meditation and mindfulness in the writing process. Jay Caspian Kang presents his ESPN 30 for 30 documentary American Son. Lauren Markham on the ethics of representation.
Editing and Publishing Talks
Kira Brunner Don of Stranger's Guide. Adam Levy and Ashley Nelson Levy of Transit Books. Oscar Villalon of Zyzzyva. Blaise Zerega of Alta Journal.
Where and When
Storyboard is a six-day residential experience on the campus of Saint Mary’s College of California in the San Francisco Bay Area from Monday, June 9th through Sunday, June 15th, 2025.
Costs
Storyboard tuition is $2,500. The experience includes on-campus accommodations and meals, participation in a four-day workshop, access to all panels, craft seminars and events, a manuscript consultation with one of our faculty, seminar leaders or expert panelists, and social gatherings throughout the week.
Accommodations
Participants will stay on campus in ADA accessible townhouse-style accommodations with single bedrooms and shared bathroom and kitchen spaces. Breakfast, lunch and dinner on campus will be included—and the campus café, pub and bookstore will be open for informal gatherings throughout the week.
Storyboard 2025
Priority Deadline: February 1, 2025
Final Deadline: March 15, 2025
Admissions Decisions: April 1, 2025
Questions? Contact Lauren Markham