Under the Executive Directorship of Michelle Hannon, The Writers’ Colony has become a thriving, self-
sustaining resource for writers. Our occupancy is up, with reservations stretching out well into May of
2023. We’ve provided an array of programming, including readings, workshops, and events like Poetry
Happy Hour and Meet the Storymaker. And we’ve grown our fellowships and scholarships to enable
more writers to come with far less expense. Michelle’s leadership brought The Writers’ Colony into a
new era.
But because of this success, it’s time for us to make some changes to modernize, streamline, and
automate so we can continue to grow and provide better service to our writers.
Below we’ll discuss some of the changes that will affect our writers the most!
Introducing our Managing Director, Jeanne Glass
If you’ve been here the last year and a half, you’ve probably had the delight of meeting Jeanne
Glass. We’ve found her indispensable as she’s provided the much needed support for our most
essential operations. The Writers’ Colony Board of Directors gave her the more applicable title
of Managing Director, and Jeanne’s now overseeing all of facilities, residencies, and a few other
of our most important functions that keep The Writers’ Colony going.
Online booking
For years we’ve been working within a very colorful spreadsheet for bookings to prevent
overbooking, help us schedule meals and housekeeping, and even provide data for grants. But
it’s all manual and susceptible to human error. After looking at several programs, the Board
approved to partner with innRoad, an online booking system. Through innRoad alumni can
check availability of suites before making their reservations, make their deposit, and even make
full payment upfront. The best part is that InnRoad will allow our Managing Director and
Executive Director to attend to other duties to help make The Writers’ Colony even better.
Deposit and Cancellation policies
Since we are streamlining our booking process, we need to look at how we can ensure the
schedule our alumni see through innRoad is accurate. In August alone we had cancellations of
130+ residency nights (out of 248 possible) with over $11k in lost revenue! The worst part is that
many of these cancellations were made near last minute, so we couldn’t fill them even though
there had been inquiries previously. To help prevent loss in income to keep The Writers’ Colony
going…and to ensure writers get every opportunity to make reservations that best meet their
schedule…we’ve implemented a new deposit and cancellation policy.
In summary, individual reservations must provide a deposit of 25% of the total residency.
Retreats that book the entire 505 and/or 515 facilities require a 50% deposit. If reservations are
canceled at least 60 days before date of arrival, the deposit is fully refunded. However, if you
reservations are canceled within 30-60 days before date of arrival, only 50% of the deposit will
be refunded, and if reservations are canceled within 30 days before date of arrival, the deposit
will not be refunded.
Rates for The Culinary Suite
As you probably know, The Writers’ Colony was founded by culinary writer Crescent
Dragonwagon and her husband Ned Shank. To honor Crescent’s legacy, The Writers’ Colony
worked with Crescent, KitchenAid, and Renovation Style to invest in developing a suite
specifically for culinary writers to test recipes, entertain, and hold workshops. Due to the appeal
of the space, though, we have many writers of other specialties spending their residencies in our
Culinary Suite and it has decreased availability to culinary writers. So to open availability of The
Culinary Suite, we have increased the rate to $125 for alumni and new residents alike.
We know these are a lot of changes all at once, but please know we are focused creating sustainable
practices so we can continue serving our writers. If you have any questions, we would love to hear from
you. Please feel free to email us at director@writerscolony.org.