Welcome to Alderworks Alaska Writers and Artists Retreat on the banks of West Creek in beautiful Dyea, Alaska. Our retreat is on the traditional lands of the Lkoot, whom we thank, honor and respect. We provide summer residencies to qualifying writers and artists.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
2025 APPLICATION PERIOD NOW CLOSED – Our review period has begun and we will contact finalists by Feb. 23 to set up interviews the following week. We will have two summer sessions in 2025: 1. Early Summer – Approx. May 24-26 until the last week of June. All 3 cabins are available; and 2. Late Summer – Approx. July 6-8 until mid-August. All 3 cabins are available.
2024 RESIDENCIES CONCLUDE – During our first summer session we hosted New Jersey/Oxford, England writer Travis Schuhardt, Alaska artist Asya Gipson, and New York painter Carol Fabricatore. For our second session, we welcomed writer Sasha Graybosch from New York, and a special trio of musicians, the ‘Bandits on the Run’ from New York City. See links to their public presentations below: August Reading/Workshop & Tiny Concert event with late summer residents Sasha Graybosch and the ‘Bandits on the Run’. Also check out our July event with Carol Fabricatore and our June event with Travis Schuhardt and Asya Gipson.
FOR PROSPECTIVE APPLICANTS & THOSE INTERESTED…
Please Tour Our Site – Read about our Vision for Alderworks, check out the Gallery, and explore our three individual Cabins (includes pricing). The cabins are best suited for writers, painters, acoustic musicians, small craft workers, and fiber artists. If you have any questions, please e-mail us.
Interested in Applying – After exploring the cabins online, read our Residency Guidelines and then proceed to the Apply page. Applications are accepted through Submittable during November 15 to February 15 for the upcoming summer residencies.
How to Get Here & Where We Are – Our retreat is located nine miles out the Dyea Road from historic Skagway and is within the Dyea-Chilkoot Trail unit of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Skagway may be accessed via the Klondike Highway from the north or the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system and flights from Juneau from the south. Dyea (Deiyáa in Lingit) was here at least 8,000 years before becoming a gold rush boom town for a short time in 1897-1898. No longer a city, it has returned to its natural setting at the foot of the historic Chilkoot Trail. Alderworks is on historic Dyea’s northern edge, just across the West Creek bridge. Beyond the property is wilderness. It is quiet, save for the constant summer flow of West Creek and its nearby falls.
Retreat History to Date – Alderworks sits on a five-acre homestead from the late 1950s. The Brady family purchased it in 2011 and embarked on their Vision . Restoration of the three resident cabins – Bea, Margaret and Mary Jane – and a bath house occurred in the summers of 2012-2014 and can be viewed by touring the photo Gallery. During the fall of 2014 and summer of 2015 we invited writer-friends from Alaska-Yukon for test residencies in the finished Alderworks cabins and to give us feedback. Our first full summer in 2016 was very successful. Except for a Covid-19 pause in 2020, we have had residents from near and far every summer since. A studio building was added in 2018 for artists to use and to host events. See a review of each year and and read some of their testimonials on the Testimonials & Past Residencies page.
See more photos from public presentations/workshops on our Facebook page, and check in the summer for announcements about upcoming Alderworks events.
Logo by Josh Downs • Site photos by Elise Giordano, Jeff & Dorothy Brady, Kathy Gates, and Jan Aalt van den Hoorn
Music to overhead video: “Acorn Falls” by Tasha-Yar, courtesy of Ben Teeter (video will play with wifi connection)
