There is an application process for our Digital Residency to ensure that participation in our program is not just contingent upon one’s financial resources.

For TSW, “community building” means building community in thoughtful and intentional, inclusive and accessible, equitable and transparent ways. All of our offerings — be it our annual literary magazine or Community Anthologies program — are designed to create safe spaces for those who participate, especially folks from marginalized communities. Given that this program is a cohort-based experience that brings together 12-16 writers and artists from all over the world, our application process ensures that residents are aligned with TSW’s ethos of collaboration.

What information is required to submit in your application?

• General information: This includes things like your name, email, time zone, the cohort/track you are applying for, and a confirmation that you agree to the community principles of this program.
• A statement of interest (in three fields): There will be three primary text fields for you to fill out: about you, your work, and your hopes for this program. This is your opportunity to tell us about you and your work, why you want to participate, and what you are hoping to achieve during the program. We want to get to know you as a human, as well as a writer. Whereas traditional submissions and applications require “formal bios” for writers, this application process seeks the informal: Where are you coming from, and where are you trying to go? Who are your mentors, near or far? Who are you writing for or with? These are the primary fields that our selection committee uses to evaluate applications.
• Sample work/portfolio: You will be required to submit some kind of sample work. This does not have to be a published piece. In fact, we encourage you to submit whatever you are working on these days. Because this program is not a workshop and does not include publication, we highly encourage you to submit something that you feel best illustrates your writing practice. This could be writing that you haven’t shown to anyone before or a previously published piece, so long as you feel that it showcases where you’re at and what you’re working on. We say this because we do not want to deter folks who haven’t been published before from applying, though we do want to get a sense for who is in the room so we can tweak our curriculum accordingly. Please submit no more than 10 pages of sample work.
• Application fee: TSW has a standard $7 application fee, which can always be waived by sending your complete application during the appropriate submission period to submit@seventhwavemag.com. If you are selected, the submission fee will go toward the program cost. This fee honors the time it takes our selection committee to review all work.
• Submittable: When we are open for applications, you will be submitting your application via TSW’s Submittable page.

In 2024, we are offering two intakes: one in the summer and one in the fall.

• Applications open for one intake at a time. 
• Each intake is seven weeks long, with one session per week. 
• For each intake, there are two cohorts/tracks of 12-16 residents. The two cohorts meet on separate days/times for the duration of the program. For example, for our 2024 Summer Digital Residency intake, there will be a Monday evening cohort/track and a Saturday morning cohort/track. We offer two cohorts/tracks per intake so it is accessible to folks with traditional and untraditional schedules, as well as folks in different time zones around the world.
• When applying, you may select the cohort/track that works for you, or indicate no preference, in which case you will be considered for either one. Please note that this is strictly a timing consideration. There is no difference or delineation between the cohorts/tracks. 
• Each cohort will have 12-16 residents, and will be guided by one TSW facilitator. There will often be an additional writer in the room, like a TSW staff member or a past contributor. 

Applications for our 2024 Summer intake opens March 21. 

• Thursday, March 21: applications open via TSW’s Submittable page
• Tuesday, April 30: applications close
• Wednesday, May 8: notification of application status
• Sunday, May 19: deposit required for selected residents to reserve their seat for our June – July cohorts
• For our 2024 Summer intake, there are two cohorts/tracks: Mondays at 5 p.m. PST and Saturdays at 8 a.m. PST.

• June 3, Session 1: Centering Questions
• June 10, Session 2: The Role of Our Archives.
• June 17, Session 3: On Permission
• June 24, Session 4: To Build a World.
• July 1, Session 5: Form Matters.
• July 8, Session 6: Holding Space.
• July 15, Session 7: Narrative Shifts.
• TBD: Bonus Session with Featured Writer.

Saturday Cohort Dates:
This cohort meets from 8-10 a.m. PST on Saturdays between June 8 and July 27 (please note: there is no session on July 6).

• June 8, Session 1: Centering Questions
• June 15, Session 2: The Role of Our Archives.
• June 22, Session 3: On Permission
• June 29, Session 4: To Build a World.
• July 13, Session 5: Form Matters.
• July 20, Session 6: Holding Space.
• July 27, Session 7: Narrative Shifts.
• TBD: Bonus Session with Featured Writer.

• This program costs $895, which is roughly $125 per session, plus the final bonus session (technically an eighth session).
• For each cohort, there will be two fully-funded scholarship seats. See our Submittable page for more information.
• Payment plans are available. 
• Upon being selected, you will have 10 days to secure your spot by signing the contract and making your deposit of $250, which will then go toward the total cost of the program.
• If you do not reserve your seat within 10 days of being selected (by signing the contract and making your deposit), your spot will be awarded to the next in line.
• We will be selecting five finalists per cohort. Finalists who do not end up getting off the waiting list and into the cohort they applied for will be given the opportunity to enroll in the subsequent cohort/intake without re-submitting an application. 

A note on price: TSW conducted extensive research on pricing for a program like ours. We worked closely with our team and advisory board, surveying the industry to ensure that our program and pricing is equitable and accessible. We are also committed to appropriately paying our staff for the time and talent it takes to run this program, and so while we will always do what we can to make our programs available and accessible to the public, we are also committed to ensuring that our nonprofit appropriately values the work that goes into making this program possible to begin with.

• Seven 2-hour sessions over the course of seven weeks, guided and facilitated by TSW.
• An immersive and interactive learning experience, distilling TSW’s nine years of expertise into a writer-friendly crash course on craft, story, and narratives. 
• Throughout these seven sessions, residents will learn concrete tools that relate directly to publication and the writing life, like best practices for cover letters, tips and tricks on the revision process, and how to work with an editor toward publication. Residents will also get access to TSW’s collective list of residencies, and have an opportunity to practice public speaking by performing their work during the seventh session.
• Before each session, residents will receive a one-page “Resource Packet,” which outlines the upcoming session and includes recommended reading that residents are welcome but not required to read prior to the session. 
• After each session, residents will receive a one-page “Continuing Resources” packet, which includes our custom-curated curriculum, providing residents with creative resources related to each topic .
• Each 2-hour session includes three activities: an introductory / grounding exercise, as well as two main activities that dive deep into the topic at hand.
• Each session ends with a 30-minute conversation with a past TSW contributor to bring the session’s topic to life. 
• The seventh session is a celebratory reading foregrounding our residents’ work. This will be an opportunity for our residents to read from their work or share words about their work, which gives them experience with public speaking and performing.
• There will also be a bonus session with a featured writer that each cohort will vote and decide on. See more about this opportunity below.
• Once you participate in any of TSW’s program, you are then eligible to apply for our in-person residencies, which take place throughout the year, and range from four days to two weeks. 

While the curriculum is a seven-session program, each cohort/track will have what we call a “bonus session” that takes place after our seventh session. This capstone conversation brings an established writer into the room for an intimate conversation about creativity and craft, process and publishing. As the goal of this program is to expose folks to different kinds of writers and writing, this bonus session is meant to deepen and refine your approach to narratives and narrativizing.

• Past “Featured Writers” have included Kaveh Akbar, Ruth Ozeki, Taylor Johnson, and Billy-Ray Belcourt, among others.
• In our first session together, residents will have the opportunity to suggest/nominate a writer they would like to be in conversation with during this bonus session. 
• TSW will coordinate logistics for this bonus session. As this session depends upon the featured writer’s schedule, this session is not built into the core curriculum of the program, and is instead viewed as a bonus session. Digital Residents may attend their own bonus session, as well as the bonus session of the other cohort. Anyone who cannot attend this session will get a recording of the conversation and have a chance to submit questions in advance.

All of the information below can be found on this page or on our FAQ page, but for accessibility purposes, we’ve rounded up some commonly asked questions about our Digital Residency program:

• Why is it called a “Digital Residency” and not a class, course, or seminar? We call our program a digital residency because it is a participatory, cohort-based, form- and genre-agnostic, seven-week experience. Our sessions are not lectures or classes in the traditional senses Unlike a traditional class, we invite and expect residents to be active participants in each session: there will be plenty of prompts and free-writing sessions, breakout rooms and opportunities to get to know other residents, as well as roundtable shares where we want residents to speak from their lived experiences and perspectives. There is a curriculum for the entire program, but unlike most traditional classes, courses, or seminars, it is not tied to a specific form or single theme. We bring in poetry, prose, and experimental forms alike. And while we do zero-in on specific forms, the central goal of this program is to provide writers exposure to different types of writing. 
• Is there a workshop aspect to this program? No. There is no formal or traditional workshop session or experience. We assume and expect residents will be working on pieces or manuscripts during their time with us, and we provide many opportunities for residents to bring their writing, questions, and obstacles into each session, but there is no designated “workshop.” The focus of this program is generative.
• Are sessions recorded? No. To preserve the intimacy of our sessions and the privacy of information shared, we do not record any of our sessions. 
• What happens if I can’t attend a session? And, if I know I can’t attend one of the dates, is it still worth it to apply? If you know that you can’t attend more than two sessions in advance, you may want to consider applying to a future cohort. However, if you know in advance that you can’t attend just one session, we still recommend applying, as you will receive the resource packet, continued resources, and activities/prompts from the session, so you can still go through the activities asynchronously. 
• If I can’t make my cohort’s session for one week, can I join the other cohort’s session that week? Each digital resident will get one “Session Transfer.” Meaning, if you can’t attend one of your cohort’s sessions, you have the opportunity to join the other cohort’s session for that week.  
• How often and how many digital residencies do you offer per year? In 2024, we are hosting two intakes — summer and fall — each with two cohorts/tracks.
• How many digital residents do you accept per intake and/or cohort? Within each intake, we offer two cohorts, or “tracks,” as we call them. Each cohort will have 12-16 residents, and each cohort has its own “track,” or meeting date and time. For example, for our 2024 Summer Program, we will be selecting 12-16 people for our Monday cohort and 12-16 people for our Saturday cohort. 
• Are there any differences between the two cohorts/tracks? No. This is simply for scheduling considerations. We offer two cohorts in order to offer two options for meeting days and times, as our Digital Residency is meant to bring writers from all over the world — and therefore timezones — together. 
• Where did the curriculum come from? We commissioned poet and librarian Emilie Menzel, who is also a senior poetry editor for our annual literary magazine, to develop the continuing resources for this program, which includes 42 items — books, podcasts, platforms, published pieces, resource centers and more — to help you continue creating after each session, and most importantly, after the residency is over.