Send Emma to Bread Loaf

Hi lovely friends and family! I am super grateful and proud to have graduated with my Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry from North Carolina State University this month, and am excited to embark on the next life steps. One of the most important of those, career-wise, will be completing my first book-length collection of poems. And part of that process will be exploring fresh ideas, writing new poems, and workshopping old pieces with peers in the field (plus the networking doesn't hurt!).

To that end, I have been applying for and submitting my work to various conferences, fellowships, and contests across the country, and I am honored to have been accepted to attend the prestigious Bread Loaf Environmental Writer's Conference this summer. The conference is a weeklong workshop at the foot of Bread Loaf Mountains  in the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont. I will be spending a week with other poets and writers, sharing and critiquing our work with each other, and drafting new ideas. Part of the conference experience includes meetings with influential visiting editors and publishers who will talk about the publishing world with conference attendees, which will be an invaluable resource as I enter the literary world outside of academia. 

The downside to this remarkable opportunity is that it's rather expensive. The price includes room and board, and tuition, which is wonderful, but the bill is still pretty steep. For the seven days of the conference, the full price is $2,290, plus my airfare and travel expenses to Vermont. I was able to purchase my flight myself, and cover the initial deposit, but cannot afford the remaining $2000 completely on my own. 

If this pursuit of artistic excellence is something you would like to support, I would be immeasurably grateful.  This is my dream summer writing opportunity, and your help would mean so much. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your consideration and your support.


"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination."

- Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese"