This post was authored by Serena Maria Daniels
[Write A House] Looks like Detroit will have one less abandoned house to worry about when a Brooklyn-based poet makes her home in the city's No Ham neighborhood in the coming weeks as the inaugural Write A House resident.
The unusual writers-in-residency organization, which fixes up vacant homes and gives them away to scribes willing to spend at least three years in the city, will welcome Casey Rocheteau to the neighborhood during a reception tonight at Public Pool in Hamtramck, sponsored by the Detroit Free Press. The Freep's Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stephen Henderson will be among the guests, as well as South African author Lauren Beukes, who will launch her new novel, Broken Monsters - set in Detroit.
The residency concept has gotten international attention and attracted hundreds of applicants from all over the country. Write A House judges say Rocheteau uses "straightforward language and clear syntax to address some of the more frightening aspects of racism." She beat out nine other finalists, including Michigan native Valerie Vande Panne, editor-in-chief of the Metro Times. Rocheteau is expected to move into the newly renovated home from Brooklyn in November.
Full disclosure, Curbed Detroit Sarah Cox is the founder of Write A House.
· Detroit's First Free Write A House Goes to Brooklyn Poet [LA Times]
· All No Ham posts [Curbed Detroit]
· Write A House
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