Chatham University to Hold First-Ever Writing Residency
On June 16-20, 2025, Chatham University and Fallingwater will partner to launch the inaugural Fallingwater Residency in Nature and Place-Based Writing, a new one-of-a-kind course offering for Chatham’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFACW).
Developed by Sheila Squillante, director of the MFACW program, the residency is the first of its kind to ever be held at Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural masterpiece, Fallingwater, a house and museum that is recognized as a National Historic Landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“This partnership is groundbreaking,” says Squillante, who notes that while Fallingwater has hosted other educational retreats in the past, the iconic location has never hosted a residency for writers.
The inaugural residency will include nine MFACW students and six Chatham community members, with the possibility of expanding the program to Chatham alumni in the future.
Immersive study during the residency will include:
Access to studio space for individual writing and group lectures
Official tour of the legendary Fallingwater house and grounds
Nature walks and silent hikes
Daily writing sessions in nature
Prompted writing
Reflective journaling
Fireside readings and feedback
“Touring Fallingwater for the first time, I was overwhelmed by the intentionality of the house in the natural world, intersecting with the needs of its inhabitants,” says Squillante. ”This residency is focused on nature and place-based writing. It’s important to recognize that all writing happens in a place, and its impact is reciprocal — we have an effect on the space as we observe it, understand it, and complicate it, and in turn our relationship with the space influences our writing.”
Among numerous place-based creative prompts, participating writers might explore practical exercises such as developing descriptions for “historic plaques” celebrating objects on the property in their natural surroundings, as well as fictional endeavors that require imaginative storytelling incorporating a single object such as the glass, concrete or stone that create Fallingwater’s iconic presence in nature.
As an author, painter, and poet, Squillante’s work has appeared in The Rumpus, Indiana Review, Glamour Magazine, and many more. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Essays, Dzanc’s Best of the Web, and Sundress Publications’ Best of the Net anthologies. She is also the executive editor of The Fourth River, an annual journal of nature and place-based writing published by Chatham University.
Media interviews with Squillante and the residency participants are possible prior to the residency or on-site from June 16-20 at Fallingwater or at High Meadow Lodge, where residents will be staying.