The R(ev)ise and Shine! Residency 2025
October 15 - 19, 2025 @ Potash Hill
Following on our hugely successful inaugural residency at the Highlights Foundation in 2024, we are delighted to offer a bigger, longer, more exciting and enriching experience for 2025!
The residency is scheduled for five days and four nights, October 15-19th, in Vermont's beautiful Green Mountains during peak foliage season at Potash Hill.
Potash Hill was founded in 2021 on the gorgeous campus of the former Marlboro College. What better place for a residency than a real New England college campus in October? Enjoy crisp nights, sparkling days, and mountainsides stitched in blazing fall colors!
This residency is open to everyone. We welcome all writers to join us, from picture book to adult fiction, brand new visitors to the R(ev)ise and Shine! community and old friends alike. Whether you have published before or are just starting out, we will tailor your experience to meet you where you are in your writing journey.
You will be assigned two mentors who will work closely with you to determine your unique strengths and needs as a writer, as well as what’s working and what isn’t (yet!) in your current draft. Together we will help you design a plan of action for your next revision or for getting out of a stuck place. Come prepared to leap over hurdles that have been getting in your way.
Special Guests:
In addition, this year we are delighted to welcome Eileen Robinson (guest editor), Stephen Barbara (guest agent), James E. Ransome (guest illustrator) and Alysa Wishingrad (guest author) to Potash Hill!
All four will be joining us in person to interact with students and participate in the residency. In addition, Eileen and Stephen have each graciously agreed to offer one-on-one feedback on manuscript pages with interested students (for a modest additional fee—more details coming soon).
The R(ev)ise and Shine! Residency Ethos:
We value your time and your resources, and we know that it sometimes takes a big push, a concerted effort, to get a project well-launched or over the finish line.
This won’t be your spa retreat. Your write-between-sight-seeing retreat. Your hang-with-friends retreat—although our location has some of the tastiest food, loveliest hikes, and best opportunities to build community during meals and fun-filled evening activities.
This will be your “I want to roll-up-my-sleeves and write the best book I possibly can” retreat.
Cost: $1995.00*
Registration closes May 1, 2025 or when full.
Only 20 places available!
$500* non-refundable deposit required to reserve your spot.
Balance of tuition of $1495.00* due by July 1, 2025 and payable via a private Eventbrite link that will be sent to you after May 1, 2025.
Additional day's stay: $150.00
*All applicable Eventbrite fees and sales tax will be added at checkout.
Price includes: Private dorm room (with shared, dorm-style bathroom), delicious meals prepared by the Brattleboro Food Co-op, and a full schedule of programming.
Please be aware that accommodations at Potash Hill are what you might expect from a college campus: Single-occupancy dorm rooms (linens will be provided); shared, dorm-style bathrooms (assigned by gender); and limited handicap accessibility.
If you identify as non-binary and would like more information about the bathroom setup, please let us know.
The $500 registration fee is non-refundable (unless we cancel the residency). However, the balance of $1495.00 (plus add ons, including an extra day's stay or one-on-one consultations with our special guests) will be refundable up to 30 days prior to the event.
Please Note: Eventbrite fees are nonrefundable.
When registering please let us know about any dietary restrictions or food allergies you have so that we may let our caterers know.
If you have any questions, please reach out!
To Register
Register now through May 1, 2025 (or until full) with a $500 non-refundable deposit on our Eventbrite page.
Balance of tuition due by July 1, 2025.
The number of participants for this retreat is limited, providing a low attendee-mentor ratio.
Consider adding an additional day of retreat time to your stay for only $150 all-inclusive.
Before the Residency
Send us 20 pages of your project (or your entire picture book) plus a full-synopsis (for novels) by September 1, 2025.
For an additional fee, sign-up for optional one-on-one meetings with our special guests (more information coming soon).
In September (date to be determined) we will host a live Zoom event to give you a preview of the residency and answer all your questions.
The Residency
Take advantage of a full schedule of lectures, targeted writing exercises, one-on-one meetings with mentors, face time with an agent and/or editor, and other group activities.
More details about the residency will be posted here in the months ahead. In the meantime, if you’d like to get a sense of the lectures and programming we plan to offer, please visit the website of our 2024 Residency.
Or, if you prefer to focus on your writing, pick and choose among the events you'd like to join, and spend the rest of your time working in your room or any of the common areas available on campus!
We are offering one $500 scholarship to a Black or Indigenous writer.*
*Scholarship will be awarded as a tuition reimbursement of $500 after the July 1st registration deadline. When registering you will be asked to indicate whether you wish to be considered for this scholarship. Have a question? Don’t hesitate to ask!
What Former Students Had to Say…
Meet Your Hosts
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Lesa Cline-Ransome
Mentor
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Rob Costello
Mentor
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Jo Knowles
Mentor
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Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Mentor
Some of Our Books
Potash Hill: An Idyllic Hilltop Campus
Potash Hill is located in the southern Vermont town of Marlboro, between Brattleboro and Wilmington, off Route 9. It is a lovely 560-acre property with early 19th century farm houses, arts and academic buildings, expansive views, fields, private roads, and undeveloped forests with extensive hiking trails. Hartford’s Bradley Airport is about 90 minutes away, and Boston’s Logan Airport is 2.5 hours by car. There is also daily train service to Brattleboro from east coast cities.
This expansive rural property is spread out primarily over a beautiful, rocky hilltop in the southern part of Marlboro, extending over the border to Halifax, Vermont, to the south. The total combined property consists of 59 buildings with approximately 150,000 square feet. Much of the land is forested, with smaller portions cleared for the central campus, roads, parking areas, fields, and off-campus houses.
Most of the cleared areas and buildings on the central campus are contained within approximately 65 acres. The campus buildings range from original farm structures to the recently completed Jerome and Celia Bertin Reich building. Designed by the Minneapolis-based firm, HGA architects, the Reich building opened in June 2021. It contains three spacious music rehearsal studios, the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation Library—a library for Marlboro’s extensive collection of some 8,500 chamber music scores—administrative offices, and social spaces.
The rest of the campus is primarily undeveloped forests. We are committed to preserving this land, which is home to wildlife and contains hiking and cross-country ski trails that are popular with our community and town residents.
Check out this video about the former Marlboro College to get a sense of the campus:
Getting to Potash Hill:
Driving:
The campus address for GPS is Potash Hill, 2582 South Road, Marlboro, VT 05344.
The easiest approach is via Route 9 and South Road.
Sometimes, however, GPS thinks otherwise. In inclement weather, do not follow GPS routing if it tells you to take Town Hill Road, Ames Hill Road, or Moss Hollow Road. Those are all dirt roads, and while they are each well-maintained, it’s better to stick to the pavement if you aren’t familiar with them, especially in bad weather. Stick with the major roads: take Route 9 from Brattleboro or Wilmington, turn onto South Rd, and proceed 3 miles to the campus.
Flying:
The nearest major airport is Bradley International Airport, which serves the Hartford, Connecticut area, about an hour-and-a-half drive away. Boston’s Logan International Airport is about two-and-a-half hours away by car. If you are flying in, Potash Hill recommends making arrangements to get to campus from the airport through Thomas Transportation.
Train/Bus:
Amtrak and major bus companies offer service to Brattleboro, VT. For transportation to campus from town, Potash Hill recommends making arrangements through Thomas Transportation.
FAQs
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Each participant will be assigned two mentors. The first mentor will read your twenty pages and respond with a written critique emphasizing what’s working and offering suggestions for improvement. You will receive the response ahead of the residency and will have the opportunity to discuss the feedback there.
The second mentor will act as a writing resource or coach. This mentor is there to help you in any way you deem useful. You can discuss revision approaches, brainstorm story possibilities, puzzle out sticky story problems, air concerns, or ask industry questions.
You will be meeting one-on-one with each of your two assigned mentors. However, throughout the residency you will have many opportunities to interact with all of the mentors and special guests during meals and group activities.
Both mentors will take their lead from you, by supporting you on your particular journey.
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Our goal is that you will leave the residency with a clearer sense of both where your project shines and where it could still use some work. We’ll help you develop an individualized plan for revision, providing resources and guidance to follow as you approach your next draft.
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One-on-one consultations with our special guest agent and editor are available for an additional fee (more information coming soon), though you will have the opportunity to interact with them during meals and group activities. We ask, however, that you limit any questions for each regarding your own career & specific projects to the one-on-one consultations.
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Not to worry! Sometimes the very thing keeping you from putting an idea into words is that the idea hasn’t been fully formed or brainstormed yet. During our one-on-one meetings we’ll ask probing questions to help you take that all-important next step: figuring out where your story starts! We’ll also help with outlining, plotting, goals, etc., to help you feel like you have a good plan to go home with and start writing.
When applying, simply note that you are coming to residency with an idea you'd like help with, rather than feedback on pages. If you'd like to share your idea and what's been keeping you from starting thus far, please do!
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No! Absolutely not. While we encourage everyone to attend as much of the programming as they like, the only sessions we ask attendees to make sure not to miss are their one-on-one meetings with their mentors. Everything else is optional.
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We are excited to partner with the Brattleboro Food Co-op for our catering needs this year. The Brattleboro Food Co-op's catering services offer a delectable array of culinary delights that are as wholesome as they are delicious. With a commitment to sourcing locally grown, organic ingredients, their menu boasts an enticing selection of dishes that cater to various dietary preferences and needs, from vegan to gluten-free options. Just be sure to let us know when you register about any dietary restrictions or food allergies you may have.
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Because Potash Hill exists on the former campus of Marlboro College, our residential accommodations are converted dorms. All rooms will be single-occupancy, featuring a bed (with linens provided, including two towels—but no washcloths), dresser, and a writing desk. Each floor shares a bathroom with multiple toilets and shower stalls. We will be sure to assign rooms so that bathrooms are single-gender use. Unfortunately, the dorm facilities are NOT currently ADA/compliant nor wheelchair accessible. Click here to find out more about the amenities in the dorms we have reserved for this retreat.
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Yes! There will be time built in to the schedule to write.
Plus, if you’d like more time to write, we are also offering an extra day for a small additional fee of $150.00 all-inclusive.
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Yes. Our special guests will be open to queries from all attendees of the residency (for a limited time).
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You can! All the members of the R(ev)ise and Shine! team are available to work one-on-one with residency participants. To find out more about what we offer, please visit our Manuscript Critiques page or reach out to us at our Contact Page.
All attendees to the R(ev)ise and Shine! Residency will receive a 10% discount on their next critique or coaching service.
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