An Exchange of Riches:
The Lannan Residency Program in Marfa
By Sasha Watson
“The Lannan Residency… provided
solitude in the best sense of the word, the
West Texas sky painted fresh each day,
and the Chihuahuan Desert, a landscape
that changes every time you blink.”
~ Monique Truong
“The breathtaking, expansive desert
landscape cleared my brain of excess
baggage; and the gift of time gave me
the freedom to not only write but to
reassess my life.”
~ Marilyn Chin
“Marfa is a remarkable place for any
number of reasons, but I will always
remember it as the green garden on the
horizon that I pedaled towards on an old
blue bike while my head rang with
sentences and paragraphs I had yet to
write down.”
~ Benjamin Anastas
T
hese are just some of the things that residents
have said about the Lannan Foundation’s
Residency Program, which offers uninterrupt-
ed working time to writers, as well as the occasional
visual artist. If writers tend to gush about the abun-
dance of gifts they receive from the program, most
Marfa residents would agree that the town also bene-
fits from the quiet presence of these short-term resi-
dents.
Since its inception in 1998, the Lannan
Foundation’s residency program has brought well over
one hundred writers to Marfa. Some residents’ names
are well-known, like those of Robert Creeley, Rick
Moody, Lorrie Moore, Adrienne Rich, Melanie Rae
Thon and David Foster Wallace; all add to the diversi-
ty and richness of today’s literary culture.
Writers, who generally spend between one and
three months as residents in Marfa, are offered a
monthly stipend, a Toyota Prius to drive and a house
to live and work in.
The foundation currently owns five houses in a
quiet neighborhood to the northwest of town, four of
which are home to writers during their stays. With
24 Hour ATM
Loans
their hardwood floors, spare décor and large windows,
the houses give writers room to breathe, think and
work. The fifth house is used for receptions, notably
those following readings given by residents at the
Marfa Book Company, which are free and open to the
public. The receptions provide an opportunity for
writers and members of the Marfa community to
share dinner, conversation and the beauty of a desert
sunset.
This generosity is unusual for most writers.
Journalist and author Dahr Jamail spent time as a res-
ident in the fall of 2008, while working on his book,
Military Resisters: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and
Afghanistan, which was published by Haymarket books
in June. “The Lannan residency has been one of the
highlights of my writing career,” says Jamail. “I’ve
never experienced that kind of support from any other
organization.”
It’s precisely because of its rarity that the Lannan
Foundation has made the support of writers one of its
central aims. “Truth be known,” says Patrick Lannan,
president of the foundation, “there’s very little money
available for literature. There’s a lot for the visual arts,
which may have something to do with the fact that you
can collect art and hang it on your wall, but there’s not
much at all for literature.” The Lannan Foundation is
one of the foremost supporters of the literary arts in
the United States today.
The Lannan Foundation was established in 1960 by
Patrick Lannan Sr., a self-educated businessman with
a love of the arts. An avid collector of visual art,
Historic
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