Dani's Writing Residency in Senegal

Greetings everyone!

My name is Danielle Buckingham, and I am a writer from and living in Mississippi. I was recently granted an amazing opportunity to attend the Sojourn of Return Writing Residency in Dakar and La Petite Cote, Senegal.

But I need your help to get there!

I cannot think, let alone write when I'm overworked and stressed, and that has been my constant state of existence for the past few years. Being in school and work and more work has made it hard to focus on any of my creative projects.

Since celebrating my 30th year around the sun a few months ago, I've been reflecting a lot on all the things I’ve wanted to do but didn’t have the resources or courage to do. Devoting time to my memoir and traveling. I grew up in Mississippi and I still live here as an adult. I have also never been out of the country.

I love home, but it’s hard to write about something truthfully when you’re so close to it. I need to see home from a new perspective, and in general, I just wanna experience the world beyond this place.

During this residency, I intend to work on a memoir-in-essays. This was a project I started without knowing back in 2017, and I’ve been writing bits and pieces of it since then. Now, I’m at a point where the vision has become clearer. And I need the time, space, and inspiration to fully bring it to life.

A little bit more about me. I attended Millsaps College for my undergraduate degree. And I received a Master of Arts from the University of Mississippi in both Sociology and Southern Studies, respectively. About six months after finishing graduate school, I began working full-time as a journalist.

My work has been published in Raising Mothers, MadameNoir, Black Femme Collective, and elsewhere. I am also an alum of Lambda Literary (2021), the Hurston Wright Foundation Writer’s Week (2020), and VONA (2017). You can read my work here.

Breakdown of residency + costs:

Dates: February 2, 2024 - February 16, 2024 (My birthday is Feb. 9th!)

Deposit (due April 28th): $844.00

Full residency cost: $4,444.00

Tuition covers: 15 days split between writing, being in community with other writers, and cultural immersion as well as housing and daily meals.

The cost of a round-trip flight to Dakar, Senegal from where I currently live falls anywhere from $1,700 to $2,000.

Crowdfunding is super hard and stressful, but I really don’t want to pass up this opportunity. It literally is a dream for me! So, I'm asking my extended community for help. If you're able to give, no amount is too small. I appreciate your support in advance. <3