The Boise City Department of Arts and History, in partnership with the Boise Public Library and The Cabin, named Heidi Kraay and Natalie Disney as the inaugural Boise City 2023-2024 Writers-in-Residence. Both alums of Boise State University, Kraay and Disney also currently teach in the Theatre Arts and Creative Writing Program respectively. Selected through a competitive application process, Kraay and Disney will serve as Residents for six months. They will each receive a $5,000 stipend to support their creative work and to develop free public programs for the community at all Boise Library branches and the Erma Hayman House in downtown Boise. “We are incredibly proud of Heidi and Natalie, two wonderful teachers, artists and members of our community,” said Raquel Davis, Chair of the Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing. “Having their talents recognized is a joy.”
An alum of the Boise State Theatre Arts Program, Kraay currently teaches in the Theatre Arts program at the University. Kraay’s play “Wolf/Girl” will premiere this February at the Danny Peterson Theatre in the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts. “I feel deeply humbled, honored, grateful, excited and amazed (in other words, pretty great!) to be granted this residency,” Kraay said. “It is wonderful to share this opportunity with my fantastic colleagues in the Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing, and fellow Teaching Writer at The Cabin, Natalie Disney.”
An alum of the Boise State Creative Writing MFA Program, Disney currently teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University. “The residency supports the continuation of the residents’ writing and gives them the chance to teach public workshops at Boise libraries,” Disney said. “In this way, it has two pillars: writing and teaching. And the BSU MFA program taught me how to do both. It’s really that simple, and that significant.” As for Kraay, this Residency means much to Disney. “I think creation and community feed each other,” Disney said. “This residency is the kind of opportunity that reminds us why we continue to invest in both.”
About the Boise City Writer-in-Residence Program
A collaborative program between the Boise City Department of Arts & History, Boise Public Library, and The Cabin, the Boise City Writer-in-Residence Program offers local writers dedicated time and stipends to support their creative practice. Additionally, the program connects Residents to the community through free monthly literary public programs and events. The Boise City Writer-in-Residence call for applications opens annually in the summer.
About Natalie Disney, Writer-in-Residence October 2023 – March 2024
Natalie Disney earned her MFA in creative writing from Boise State University, where she served as Associate Editor of The Idaho Review. Her work appears in The Florida Review and The Mississippi Review. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the PEN America Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, Disney received the 2017 Balch Award for fiction. Natalie teaches creative writing at Boise State University and The Cabin Center for Readers and Writers. She lives near the Boise foothills with her wife, where she works on her first novel.
About Heidi Kraay, Writer-in-Residence April 2024 – September 2024
A playwright and writer across disciplines, Kraay writes work that collides myth, metaphor, and monsters to discover connections across differences. Kraay’s projects in other disciplines include 12 Lifetimes: A Century Cycle, a memoir-adjacent book of essays in the ancient century form, forthcoming through Modern Mythographer; and Drown to Resurface, an album of poem-songs in collaboration with musician Thomas Paul. She holds an MFA in Creative Inquiry, Interdisciplinary Arts from the California Institute of Integral Studies. A proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Kraay begins the Dramatists Guild Institute’s Certificate Program this fall. Learn more: heidikraay.com
Learn more about the Boise City Department of Arts & History on their website here.
Learn more about the Boise Public Library on their website here.
Learn more about The Cabin on their website here.