Parul Kapur Hinzen

“Time and silence are so necessary to creative thinking, and so difficult to find in our daily lives at home with the many claims on our attention. At Hambidge I became closer to my novel than I have been in months or maybe even a couple of years. I needed to figure my way through a complicated chapter, which took me 10 days to rewrite and demanded all my concentration. At home it may have taken me a month or two to do the same work, or it may have taken longer. Silence and calm is freeing, it brought me closer to my intuitive self, and the long walks I took in the woods were the perfect vehicle for playing through scenes in my mind. I loved being a monk for a few weeks at Hambidge, because of the devoted attention I could bring to my book. The corollary to that is the benefit of being an artist in the company of other artists. You become inspired, even a sentence or a word someone says can be meaningful to you in your work. The experiments and innovations of visual artists make you think of your craft in a slightly different light, and I definitely felt more encouraged toward experimentation in narrative after coming to Hambidge. My time at Hambidge was a true gift. Thank you so much for all you do for artists.”

– Parul Kapur Hinzen, Georgia, Fiction Writing