The Story of a House: Berton House Writers' Residency

Writers need spaces to work. Occasionally, they need new spaces away from regular responsibilities and routine sights to make sustained creativity possible. A change of scenery to a local café or library is nice, but not enough. A week away is great, but an insufficient runway for settling into a major project.
Writers’ Trust is committed to supporting this deeper literary work. As a national organization, we also want to build bridges between peoples and regions. Thanks to the generosity and vision of one of our co-founders, the late Pierre Berton, we own and operate a residency in his childhood home in Dawson City, Yukon. Since 2008, we’ve been sending four authors per year there to write and to live for extended periods. We pay for their transport and provide a monthly stipend. We encourage them to connect with the communities in the Yukon, be part of the scene, and - ideally - make new and lasting friendships.
Report after report confirms it: for the authors selected for the residency, Berton House has been transformative.
This is a short video about the residency, and what we’ve done since the pandemic to ensure its future. After a period of forced dormancy, Berton House is open once again with a substantive retrofit and revised mission aimed at increased inclusivity.
We’re looking for sponsors for this unique program, one of the few of its kind in the country and a proven driver of connections and understandings between North and South.
Curious to learn more? Interested in helping? Contact Leslie Belzak: [e-mail]

[@jds1722]

Incorrect information: Pierre Berton was not born in that house. He was born in Whitehorse and his family moved to Dawson when he was about two years old.

[@reed6520]

"promo sm"

[@djcybercorgi]

Writer's Trust of Canada is not cool at all.