To all who were inspired and moved by the poetry and humanity of Charles Coe (1952-2025), the Manship Artists Residency and the Friends of Charles Coe invite you to join us in remembering him with a lasting tribute. This special residency will embrace Charles’s spirit, poetic voice, and his deeply held values about the importance of community.

Your contributions will support the creation of a named Charles Coe Poet-in-Residence program that is being established by the Manship Artists Residency on Cape Ann. For the first $10,000 raised through this campaign–Manship will match your gift.

Ways to Donate

1. DONATE through this GoFundMe portal.

2. Send a check to Manship Artists Residency, PO Box 7071, Gloucester MA 01930. Please write "Charles Coe Residency" on the memo line.

3. Share our legal name (Manship Artist Residence and Studios, Inc.) and FEIN# 47-5404477 with your Donor Advised Fund Agent.

4. Contact David Frielach through our website about donating annuities, stocks, or making a bequest in Charles's name.

NOTE: All donations will be posted on this GoFundMe campaign site as we track the progress toward our goal. Please let us know if you wish to remain anonymous.

This poet residency will honor the life and legacy of Charles Coe as a beloved and extraordinary poet, teacher, mentor, activist, musician, cultural worker, and cherished friend..

Coe was committed to craft, justice, teaching, and to generosity. He was an award-winning poet and writer and a recipient of numerous fellowships. He wrote and published five books of poetry, the most recent entitled, “Charles Coe: New and Selected Works,” as well as a novella, "Spin Cycles.” Coe was working on a family memoir, “Room at the Table,” inspired by his food-centered childhood, at the time of his passing.

Each poet awarded the Charles Coe Residency will spend one to three weeks at the historic summer residence and studio of the Art Deco sculptor Paul Manship. Best known for his 18-foot-tall sculpture, The Prometheus Fountain, at NYC’s Rockefeller Center, Manship created this retreat for himself and his family of artists in 1945. Located in Lanesville, a village of Gloucester, MA, the Manship property is a stunning site with two water-filled quarries, just a short walk from the ocean. It was a landscape and community that Charles loved and found profoundly inspiring and sustaining.

Charles Coe was one of the first artist residents invited to help create the Manship Artists Residency program in 2019. Charles became a frequent, returning visitor and soon became deeply immersed in the local community. The Coe Residency will be rooted in Manship’s mission to provide artists with the rare gift of time, space, and community in an historically rich and inspiring setting surrounded by nature.

Your memorial contributions to this GoFundMe will help to amplify the literary voice and legacy of Charles Coe in perpetuity. Manship will announce the call for the first Charles Coe residency at a poetry gathering on Sunday, September 20, 2026. The goal is that initial funds will support residencies across multiple years. Manship Artists Residency aspires to establish an endowment through additional institutional fundraising. Each residency will come with a stipend, accommodations, studio/workspace, and a public engagement in Charles’ name.

The Charles Coe Poet-in Residence Program will honor Charles’s warmth and enduring connection to so many in his wide orbit—and how he created community wherever he went. Charles had a way of making people feel seen and valued. He was generous with his time and his students loved him for it. This Manship residency will carry on Charles’s commitment to mentorship by supporting the creative expression of other poets.

Charles Coe believed poetry was meant to be lived—taught, shared, and grounded in community. This residency will be a living memorial that advances Manship’s mission while honoring a poet who shaped countless writers and readers. It will ensure that Coe’s legacy continues not only in memory, but in practice.

All contributions will go directly to the Manship Artists Residency as a gift to support the Charles Coe Poet-in-Residence Program. This GoFundMe represents a partnership between Manship Artists Residency and a close group of Charles’s friends, the Friends of Charles Coe. Through this campaign, it is our goal that, together, we can make a substantial gift to support this residency named for our cherished friend.

Everyone who donates $1000 or more will become a Prometheus Circle donor, entitled to special benefits conferred by the Manship Artists Residency, such as advance notice of programs and invitations to private events. To learn more about the Prometheus Circle, click HERE.

Visit the Manship Artists Residency website to learn more about the Charles Coe poet residency.

*Manship Artists Residence and Studios, Inc. is a 501c3 tax-exempt organization, registered with the federal government with the FEIN # 47-5404477. Your donation is deductible for income tax purposes to the full extent of the law.