As of January, 2017: A dedicated writers' co-office/community space with readings, workshops, shut-up-and-write nights, etc., in Kingston, NY. It will be modeled after The Writers Room and Paragraph and other similar writers' co-offices in the city. Writing is a lonely endeavor, and it's especially lonely for city transplants to the area who find themselves suddenly alone all day in rural settings
. Many of us, myself included, get our best work done when we are in the company of others who are also focusing and concentrating on their writing. I can answer emails and maybe edit certain kinds of work for clients. But I can't generate real writing. Kingston Writers' Studio would be a quiet alternative to coffee shops, for serious writing. Hopefully it will be very near the most popular laptop-friendly coffee shops, so that they can serve as our "break rooms." I am looking at spaces in Uptown. The other problem with relying on coffee shops in Kingston as makeshift offices is that they all close so early. There's a crucial gap between 5 and 7 or so when writers from rural towns like Phoenicia and Kerhonkson have nowhere to go to keep working before maybe getting dinner in town. We all see each other on Wall Street, walking like zombies who still have their heads in their work, but have nowhere to continue doing it. In the winter I conducted an online survey of local writers, and 35 said they'd either want to rent desks in such a co-office, full-time or part-time. While I'm doing creative visualization...maybe Kingston Writers' Studio will even house a kiosk of one of the local independent book stores. And, heck, maybe we'll even become a small press someday. I want Kingston Writers' Studio to become the center of a growing writers' community in Kingston, which would make it more appealing for writers in the city and elsewhere to move here. The events and classes would add to the cultural scene in Kingston, where most evenings there's just music and dining to occupy oneself with.
