Write the World 2025: Residencies and Retreats: How and Why to Apply

In this session, we’ll chat with translators from prose, poetry, and drama about their experiences as both residents and selection committee members, as well as working directly with an author at a residency. What criteria should you consider when deciding where to apply? What makes a strong application? And once you’re accepted, how can you best set your intentions so as to have a fulfilling experience at your residency?

Moderator: Allison Charette

Panelists: Sarah Audsley, Mara Faye Lethem, Pedro Chamale

Allison M. Charette translates literature from French into English, with a current focus on Malagasy authors. She founded ELTNA.org, a networking and support group for early-career translators. Her next novel is Return by Raharimanana (Seagull Books, July 2025). Find her online at charettetranslations.com.

Sarah Audsley is the author of Landlock X (Texas Review Press, 2023). A Korean American adoptee, a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and a member of The Starlings Collective, Audsley lives and works in northern Vermont. She serves as the Writing Program Director at Vermont Studio Center.

Mara Faye Lethem is a writer, researcher, and literary translator from Catalan and Spanish. Winner of the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award and the Lewis Galantière Award, she is currently a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellow. Her novel, A Person’s A Person, No Matter How Small, has been translated into two languages.

Pedro Chamale (he/him) was born and raised on Treaty 8 territory, unceded, ancestral and traditional territories of the Treaty 8 Nations. He was a 2014 artistic resident at Neworld Theatre and a member of the 2019 Banff Centre Playwrights Lab. He is artistic director of rice & beans theatre.

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