Linden Place Writers Residency Literary Walking Tour & Discussion

After spending the month of April working on the grounds of Linden Place, 8 creative writers will present their works-in-progress at a unique, free community reading and moderated discussion on Thursday June 8th from 6:30-8pm.
The audience will meet on the front lawn of the property and then travel around the exterior of the mansion to various pit stops where each writer will read from their works. The last stop will be the ballroom where the audience will sit for a short, moderated discussion with the writers. In lieu of heavy rain, the whole event will take place in the ballroom.
The works being read from include a speculative fiction short story that sees Linden Place as an NFT up for auction in a future reality by Galen Auer; poems about Linden Place’s history from the perspective of the linden trees on the property by Cassandra Bousquet; a set of short stories that put a paranormal spin on Linden Place’s history by Candace Breen; poems based on documented enslaved people connected with the DeWolf family by Gail Burton; speculative nonfiction about Samuel P. Colt’s connection to the firearms industry by Teresa DeFlitch; creative nonfiction that explores viewpoints on holding wedding celebrations at sites of enslavement by Susan Resnick; sestina poems that give voice to Black, queer, enslaved, and other people who have been erased from the museum’s history by Erin Vachon; and an excerpt from a queer, gothic fantasy novel set at the turn of the 20th century in a manor based on Linden Place by Loren Walker.
The writers were chosen by a panel of expert judges - Poet and Pushcart Nominee Jennifer Lighty, writer and Black History scholar Adam McNeil, and award-winning author Padma Venkatraman - after a statewide open call earlier this year. They were judged with a set of criteria that included social impact, creativity, merit of writing, and a statement of intent about how their proposed works would include Linden Place.