Anamot Press and Casa Julfa are collaborating to offer fully-funded residencies for writers and poets.
Casa Julfa, a large seventeenth century town house in the small medieval town of Montmorillon, is a sanctuary for makers and thinkers to reflect, to rest, and find respite from the distractions and demands of contemporary society. Anamot Press is creating bridges across borders and social struggles to connect and amplify diaspora stories. Alongside our publishing programme, through this collaboration, we are developing a unique writers residency, with a focus on wellbeing, without obligations.
Casa Julfa is located in a region with a long history of creative practice from writing to pottery, basket weaving, wood leather, lace and paper work, as well as an ancient history of exquisite natural pigment painting, folk medicine and organic farming, which continues today. The town holds the title of cite de l'ecrit (the writer's city), and for nearly 800 years has been a place where books have been crafted, published and printed. Montmorillon hosts a biennial book fair (upcoming June 2024).
Since its creation Casa Julfa has hosted many exceptional writers (alongside ceramicists and other artists) and long dreamt of creating a dedicated writers residency to support the development of untold or lesser heard stories. Her doors are open to all, but particularly seeks to support those who make work which promotes indigenous ancestral practices and explores diaspora experiences.
“[...] stop spelling ourselves out in the alphabet given to us.”
— Cathy Park Hong
When Corinne of Casa Julfa and Tatevik of Anamot Press had an initial conversation about a writers residency, they felt an insistent connection, trust, and a sense of collective social responsibility. This partnership feels like finding two halves of the same childhood photograph. Casa Julfa and Anamot Press are committed to actively dismantling colonial and capitalist tendencies within the arts and literature. Through the residencies, we seek to share stories across issues often shrouded in shame or silence.
Anamot Press publishes writers of colour and people in marginalised positions who might be living in between places, identities or in countries where their realities and experiences are repeatedly questioned and their stories contorted to appeal to dominant cultures. We support writers who are actively expanding the way that experiences of race, gender, migration, class, disability and so on, should be told and performed.
In recognition that writers and poets who are creating work out of/in defiance of experiences of intersecting oppressions, which can be emotionally and physically exhausting as well as economically restricted, Anamot Press and Casa Julfa believe in providing holistic support.
Starting with the basic and initial barrier: money. Residency spaces will be fully subsidised for writers.
No competition, low intervention: we will start the residency by simply inviting writers into an inspiring, interdisciplinary and welcoming space. During the two weeks of their residency, writers choose how they would like to spend their time. We will experiment with different formats for the residency, ranging from self-supported to supported, as well as collective gatherings.
Two writers will be in residence for two weeks alongside practitioners working with clay and other fields. The residency encourages writers to be in dialogue with each other, either directly through their work or indirectly through the themes and their individual lived experiences.
We also offer writers the opportunity to do a somatic clay workshop, which draws on Casa Julfa’s philosophy, that work, experimentation and play with clay is a creative and healing act in itself which does not depend on any defined outcome or finished product.
The residency will support writers to engage with their natural surroundings and nearby La Roche-Posay region known for its abundant mineral waters.
“Any kind of writing requires care, humility and empathic inquiry.”
— Cathy Park Hong
Two writers have been selected and will be in residence in autumn 2023.
The residency will run for two weeks, starting and ending on a Thursday. Self-catering accommodation is provided and a carefully curated guide with inspirational reading and watching materials will be provided in advance.
The 2023 residency programme is kindly subsidised by Casa Julfa. In 2024, we will offer between 2-4 fully subsidised spaces. We will launch an open call for the autumn 2024 residencies at the end of 2023.
Follow @anamotpress, @casajulfa and subscribe to Casa Julfa’s newsletter to find out more about upcoming opportunities and learn more about the writers in residence this year.
About Casa Julfa
Casa Julfa is a physical and metaphysical place, a sacred shelter for all those that pass through her doors, A point of diffusion between the east and the west, a manifesto for collective growth. The Casa is a place where creative practices meet and cultures diffuse. Located in the picturesque ville d’Art et Histoire of Montmorillon, France. It’s a place where things move slower and life is a little easier to navigate.
Casa Julfa is home to Corinne Aivazian, Diego Flores Manzanedo and their son Ari and for some of the year, Residency Curator Blue Firth. Casa Julfa is run by makers and thinkers who are dedicated to facilitating artistic development and creative growth through earth based and environmentally mindful practices.
For those wishing to work with clay, they support all levels through Ceramics Residencies. For everyone else who is seeking the time and space to work independently, they offer Makers and Thinkers Residencies.
Read more about their ethos and sister organisation Terra Ancestral.