Oregon, December 2008: I brought all this paper. Crazy. But this residency was such a precious time, I wanted to do it all. When I arrived at the Sitka Center on the Oregon coast, it took me hours to unload and arrange the bushels of writing drafts, reference books, computer equipment, and office detritus I had brought with me for a two-month residency. My plan was to complete my novel, finally-and put together a poetry manuscript-and make progress on a book of essays. I dithered with my stuff. Where to begin?
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I left [my residency] forever changed, forever marked as a person. I left with the certainty that I am a writer, with a commitment to the creative life that I have never since questioned or doubted. I left understanding that separation and seclusion are essential in order to create, but also that life must necessarily surround us at all times, shaping and inspiring and even distracting us.
— Jhumpa Lahiri, author of The Namesake
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