Grant #490
St. Nell’s Humor Writing Residency for Ladies
February 28, 2022
Have You Heard the One About the Inclusive Writing Retreat?
Because we live in the era of comedians like Quinta Brunson, Hannah Gadsby, Samantha Bee, Kate McKinnon, Ali Wong, Leslie Jones, and countless more, we sometimes forget that women dominating stand-up stages is a recent (and welcome!) development.
Not so long ago, it wasn’t uncommon for a writers’ room to be all white and male. At open mic nights, women appeared most often as punchlines. With time and a lot of hard work, that has started to change, but progress is fragile and the people upending the status quo sometimes need a break.
St. Nell’s is here to provide that. It’s a writing residency designed to give women and nonbinary people the opportunity to work on any humor-based discipline in a supportive environment. Participants are not required to produce finished pieces while at the house; just to develop their work in beautiful Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Our grant will help founder Emily Flake cover expenses at St. Nell’s Humor Writing Residency for Ladies. Flake is an accomplished cartoonist and performer in her own right, whose work is often featured in the New Yorker, but St. Nell’s is about the collective. It’s a writing space and a respite for 51% of the population. Sexism is no joke, but when it comes to the ladies of St. Nell’s? Laughter guaranteed.
