Coffee Table - 9/23/2026 - Storyknife

So, Erin Hollowell, you are the executive director of Story Knife.

How long have you been the executive director?

Since 2016 now.

Okay.

So, 10 years.

Well, let's start with how Story Knife came into being.

Story Knife is the brainchild of founder Dana Stabenow.

Dana went to Hedgebrook, which is another women's writing residency, and she thought to herself, I want to duplicate this.

Now...

Flash forward 25 years, she had land, and I came on board, and we raised the funds to build six cabins and one main house.

The writers come from all around the world, six at a time, for two or four weeks.

We feed them.

We have Maura Brennan, amazing chef, up there, and they work on their work, and they are adjudicated by... jury of their peers this year we had 1201 applicants for 50 to 54 spaces

okay so popular popular place to be well so that's that's not a small campus that you're working on there

no

how how did the funding come together to pay for something like that and how do you maintain that

It is funded, the original building was funded primarily through individual donations, but we did have help from the Murdoch Charitable Trust and the Rasmussen Foundation and the Atwood Foundation.

And now we have a mix of grant funding and mostly individual donations and business contributions.

And people can fund a particular fellow.

So they can say, like, I want to pay to have a writer from Maine come.

Patrice Krant funds a fellowship for somebody from Maine.

And that's the way we do it.

And you may hear from me at the end of the year because I still have some money to raise to run it for next year.

Mm-hmm.

Now, what are the goals that you have in place for authors to come and work at your campus?

So, Erin Hollowell, you are the executive director of Story Knife.

How long have you been the executive director?

Since 2016 now.

Okay.

So, 10 years.

Well, let's start with how Story Knife came into being.

Story Knife is the brainchild of founder Dana Stabenow.

Dana went to Hedgebrook, which is another women's writing residency, and she thought to herself, I want to duplicate this.

Now...

Flash forward 25 years, she had land, and I came on board, and we raised the funds to build six cabins and one main house.

The writers come from all around the world, six at a time, for two or four weeks.

We feed them.

We have Maura Brennan, amazing chef, up there, and they work on their work, and they are adjudicated by... jury of their peers this year we had 1201 applicants for 50 to 54 spaces

okay so popular popular place to be well so that's that's not a small campus that you're working on there

no

how how did the funding come together to pay for something like that and how do you maintain that

It is funded, the original building was funded primarily through individual donations, but we did have help from the Murdoch Charitable Trust and the Rasmussen Foundation and the Atwood Foundation.

And now we have a mix of grant funding and mostly individual donations and business contributions.

And people can fund a particular fellow.

So they can say, like, I want to pay to have a writer from Maine come.

Patrice Krant funds a fellowship for somebody from Maine.

And that's the way we do it.

And you may hear from me at the end of the year because I still have some money to raise to run it for next year.

Mm-hmm.

Now, what are the goals that you have in place for authors to come and work at your campus?