Writer-in-Residence Program
2025/2026 Writer-in-Residence Kim Cross
Kim Cross is a New York Times best-selling author, journalist, and historian known for cinematic scenes, page-turning narratives, and character-driven stories that guide readers through some complex, nuanced issue. Her first book, What Stands in a Storm, was one of Amazon’s Best Books of 2015 and a finalist in the GoodReads Choice Awards. Her most recent book, In Light of All Darkness, was an Edgar Award finalist and winner of the Truman Capote Prize for Distinguished Work of Non-Fiction. Cross teaches feature writing for Harvard Extension School’s graduate program in journalism, the Larry McMurtry Literary Center in Archer City, Texas, and the Sawtooth Writing Retreat in Idaho. Find her at kimhcross.com, @kimhcross, or writing at Oldspeak in Garden City.
Though attendees are encouraged to attend the entire series, there’s value to attending any of the workshops as single events. No registration is required, but space is limited. The workshops are geared toward writers of all levels and genres. As mature content may be discussed, parental discretion is advised for participants under 18. Please bring writing materials, such as a notebook and pen. The schedule is as follows:
- October 25 | Gathering Thread and Finding Stories
- November 13 | Writing Cinematic Scenes
- December 4 | Bringing Characters to Life
- January 24 | Dialogue
- February 28 | Story Structure
- March 12 | Pitching and Getting Published
Gathering Thread and Finding Stories: A Writing Workshop with Boise City Writer-in-Residence Kim Cross
October 25, 12-2 p.m., Library! at Collister, 4724 W State St.
Gathering Thread and Finding Stories is an interactive writing workshop designed to help writers sharpen their eye and ear for the raw materials of storytelling.
Guided by Kim, participants will be introduced to the literary tradition of keeping a Commonplace Book and the concept of an EDC (Every Day Carry) writer’s notebook. Through practice and discussion, participants will learn how to collect and organize ideas, writing fragments, and overheard moments that can later become building blocks for scenes, stories, or poems.
Writing Cinematic Scenes: A Writing Workshop with Boise City Writer-in-Residence Kim Cross
November 13, 6-7:30 p.m., Erma Hayman House, 617 Ash. St.
Writing Cinematic Scenes is an interactive writing workshop focused on bringing stories to life on the page as vividly as they appear in the mind.
Guided by Kim, participants will learn how to use the “Ladder of Abstraction” to select dynamic verbs and concrete, specific nouns to create dynamic scenes that play out in the reader’s mind like a movie. Participants will practice crafting cinematic moments that immerse and engage, whether in fiction or literary nonfiction. Returning workshop attendees will be invited to develop a scene using some of the “thread” they gathered, while new participants may choose to write from memoir or imagined material.
Bringing Characters to Life: A Writing Workshop with Boise City Writer-in-Residence Kim Cross
December 4, 6-7:30 p.m., Library! at Bown Crossing, 2153 E. Riverwalk Dr.
Bringing Characters to Life is an interactive writing workshop centered on the art of developing memorable, multidimensional characters.
Guided by Kim, participants will practice writing a character sketch of someone they know, using prompts to “show, not tell” through dialogue, actions, and interactions with others. Participants will also explore how environments, such as homes, workplaces, or other “natural habitats,” shape and reveal character.
Dialogue: A Writing Workshop with Boise City Writer-in-Residence Kim Cross
January 24, 12-2 p.m., Library! at Hillcrest, 5246 W. Overland Rd.
Dialogue is an interactive writing workshop exploring how lifelike conversation can bring scenes to life in both fiction and literary nonfiction.
Guided by Kim, participants will practice tuning in for authentic dialogue and learn how to weave it seamlessly into a scene alongside stage direction and action, including useful techniques for capturing speech that reveals character, advances plot, and immerses the reader in a moment.
Story Structure: A Writing Workshop with Boise City Writer-in-Residence Kim Cross
February 28, 12-2 p.m., Library! at Cole and Ustick, 7557 W. Ustick Rd.
Story Structure is an interactive writing workshop that explores how the deliberate sequence of revelation—what writers reveal to the reader, and when—shapes a story’s impact.
Guided by Kim, participants will learn to see the architecture of a story and design a blueprint for one of their own. Together, the group will dissect a published story to identify the components of scene, summary, exposition, and reflection. Using the standard narrative arc as a starting point, Kim will also introduce alternative story structures and tools to experiment with sequencing to discover new possibilities for their stories.
Pitching and Getting Published: A Writing Workshop with Boise City Writer-in-Residence Kim Cross
March 12, 6-7:30 p.m., Library! at Hillcrest, 5246 W. Overland Rd.
Pitching and Getting Published offers a peak into the business side of writing and how to share your work with editors and publications.
Guided by Kim, participants will learn strategies for identifying the right outlets for their work, crafting strong query letters and pitches, and navigating the submission process for both articles and books. The workshop will also cover how to tailor pitches to different audiences, the etiquette of working with editors, and tips for building resilience in the face of rejection. Writers will leave with practical tools and insights for turning polished pieces into published work.
2025/2026 Writers-in-Residence
Don Zancanella is the author of three novels: Concord, A Storm in the Stars, and Animals of the Alpine Front. He received the John S. Simmons/Iowa Short Fiction Award for his book Western Electric and has won an O.Henry Prize. Zancanella was born in Laramie, Wyoming, and has lived in Virginia, Colorado, Missouri, and New Mexico, where he taught at the University of New Mexico for nearly three decades. He lives in southeast Boise with his wife and their dogs.
Don's residence will begin spring 2026 and a more detailed schedule of his workshops will be published at that time.
2024/2025 Writers-in-Residence
Alan Heathcock, award-winning author of VOLT and 40, shares "The Five Tenets of Literary Potency", a workshop series that distills everything Heathcock has learned during 30 years of writing/editing/publishing/teaching. Over the years, Heathcock studied ways in which he could qualitatively evaluate his own work and the work of the writers he mentored. Through trial and error, inflation and conflation, he arrived at five conceptual truths that apply to all genres and styles of writing and can be used by any writer to evaluate and optimize their work. In this workshop, Heathcock will teach the five tenets he believes are absolutes in powerful storytelling. He’ll deliver his findings in a series of interactive workshops open to writers of all levels and genres.
Though attendees are encouraged to attend the entire series, there’s value to attending any of the workshops as single events. The schedule is as follows:
Tenet #1: Empathy
- Saturday, April 19th, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. — Downtown Library, Marion Bingham Room
Tenet #2: Authenticity
- Saturday, May 31st, 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. — Library! at Cole & Ustick, Sagebrush Room
Tenet #3: Urgency
- Saturday, June 21st, 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. — Library! at Hillcrest, Butte Room
Tenet #4: Meaning
- Saturday, July 19th, 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. — Library! at Collister, Sycamore Room
Tenet #5: Originality
- Saturday, August 16th, 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. — Library! at Bown Crossing, Martie Brennan Room
Culminating Event: A Community Reading and Celebration of the Written Word
- Saturday, September 20th, 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. — Erma Hayman House
Susan Bruns is an Idaho-based writer whose essays and stories have appeared in The Sun, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, LitHub, Under the Gum Tree, The Clackamas Literary Review, and elsewhere.
She is the recipient of grants from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, the Alexa Rose Foundation, and the City of Boise for her writing. In 2020, she was a Surel’s Place Artist in Residence, and she was named a 2021 finalist for the Richard J. Margolis nonfiction writing award for her essay about a sibling’s struggle with mental illness and addiction.
She has an MFA in creative writing from Boise State University and degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of Idaho. She has taught dozens of writing workshops to students of all ages and enjoys teaching the craft of writing and encouraging others to write their stories.
Susan grew up on a farm next to the Snake River Canyon on Idaho’s high desert and writes about how her family battled the harsh conditions, beginning with her grandparents who were homesteaders. She is the mother of two adult children and works for Fahlgren Mortine, an integrated communications agency with offices in Boise.
Susan Bruns Writer-in-Residence schedule 2024-2025
October 30th, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. — Erma Hayman House
November 9th, 12 p.m.-1:30 p.m. — Library! at Hillcrest, Canyon Room
December 11th, 6 p.m.-7:45 p.m. — Library! at Bown Crossing, Martie Brennan Room
January 22nd, 6 p.m.-7:45 p.m. — Library! at Collister, Sycamore Room
February 12th, 6 p.m.-7:45p.m. — Downtown Library, Marion Bingham Room
March 19th, 6 p.m.-7:45 p.m. — Library! at Cole & Ustick, Sagebrush Room (Culminating Event)
2023/2024 Writers-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 has been published in The Florida Review and The Mississippi Review and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the PEN America Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She is a recipient of 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 is at work on her first novel.
April - September 2024
Heidi Kraay is a playwright and writer across disciplines whose work collides myth, metaphor, and monsters to discover connections across differences. Her work has been presented locally, regionally, and internationally, including full-lengths, co-devised projects, one-acts, plays for young audiences, and shorts. Projects in other disciplines include 2 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 and Interdisciplinary Arts from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America through which she is beginning the Dramatists Guild Institute’s Certificate Program. Learn more at heidikraay.com
The Cabin, the Boise Public Library, and the Boise City Department of Arts & History invites emerging and mid-career writers to apply for a six-month residency in Boise.
This program is designed to connect local writers to the community of Boise through literary public programming events hosted monthly at Boise Public Library branches and the Erma Hayman House.
The selected Residents are responsible for developing and facilitating a series of public programs and will receive a $5000 stipend to support their creative work, and to develop these programs. The public programs may included themed or open writing workshops, reading series, writing explorations or other literary experiences.
The goal of this Residency is to:
- Support local emerging and mid-career writers in their creative practice.
- Provide free and accessible literary programs to the community.
- Raise awareness of the services and programs of the Cabin, the Boise Public Library and the Boise City Department of Arts and History.