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Photo Vincent Guadazno
The house owned by Norris and Norman Mailer may become a non-profit writers colony. |
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Mailer’s house on course for new life as writers colony
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — Among the multi-faceted legacies left behind by the late author Norman Mailer, a proposal to create a writers colony anchored in his house at 627 Commercial St. may be the most ambitious.
Lawrence Schiller, a close friend and collaborator of Mailer’s, said he, Mailer’s wife, Norris Mailer, and Sam Radin, the executor of Mailer’s estate, have announced plans to create “The Norman Mailer Writers Colony,” a non-profit foundation that would use the house as a base for writing classes, lectures and seminars. The trio is currently criss-crossing the country raising money and meeting with college professors and chancellors to set up the foundation and subsequent curriculum.
An advisory board with a well-known roster of writers, including Nobel Prize-winning author Gunter Grass, Joan Didion, William Kennedy and Doris Kearns Goodwin, also has been formed.
Schiller said the purpose of the writers colony will be to pair distinguished writers and scholars in residence from around the world with college-level students to further their writing skills. In addition, established authors will be invited to come to talk with their peers.
“The house will be the center point. As the foundation grows, we may buy other properties, motels and the like, where students can stay,” Schiller said.
The advisory group hopes to launch the colony in 2009 and maintain it as a year-round facility. Classes will range from fiction and non-fiction to screenplay writing and journalism courses.
Mailer’s wife will live in Brooklyn Heights, Schiller added.
“One of the things that inspired me to do this was four weeks before his death, [Mailer] was helping a nurse learn how to write. She wanted to write a novel. He had all these tubes in him and there he was, helping this woman learn how to write,” Schiller said, adding that Mailer was told about the colony idea and approved.
Mailer’s study on the third floor of the Commercial Street home will be preserved just as he left it, perhaps with a few changes made to the narrow staircase leading up to the room so that people can easily visit it. In the meantime, donations to the writers colony foundation are being accepted by the Norman Mailer Society.
“We’re already traveling every week to another university to talk with chancellors on how to organize this,” Schiller said. “It needs institutional support to attract students and lecturers. This is a serious undertaking.”
The foundation also hopes to partner with local non-profit arts organizations such as the Fine Arts Work Center and The Provincetown Theater for events aimed at attracting large groups of people.
“Norman was so varied in all of his writing. We want to open it up to all aspects of creative writing,” Schiller said. “Provincetown is a community of inspiration all year round.”
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The final four
Land use & zoning issues top warrant
School lunch menus
Worship
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Apr 24th, 2008