"Detroit Is Affordable and Fascinating"

"But what if someone offered you a free house? In a contemporary, literary twist on old homesteading incentives, a new nonprofit organization called Write a House is refurbishing three two-bedroom houses in Detroit and accepting applications this spring for writers to move in, rent free. Poets, journalists, novelists, and anyone who falls somewhere in between are encouraged to apply. If the writers stay for the required two years and fulfill other obligations, such as engaging with the city’s literary community and contributing to the program’s blog, they’ll even get the deed to the place. As the group’s mission puts it, 'It’s like a writer-in-residence program, only in this case we’re actually giving the writer the residence, forever.'"


Ian Crouch at The New Yorker discusses a new effort to lure writers to Detroit.