I t all started, as it so often does these days, with a tweet. In a recent interview with the literary magazine PEN America , author Alexander Chee mentioned that trains were his favourite place to write, saying, "I wish Amtrak offered residencies for writers". New York-based writer Jessica Gross agreed, and tweeted as mu ch to the Amtrak Twitter account.
Someone at Amtrak was listening and contacted Gross to see if she’d be interested in participating in a test-run of the idea. Gross agreed and soon after embarked on an Amtrak sponsored 44-hour round-trip to Chicago from New York city.
Train journeys have long been associated with jump-starting the creative process. It was during a four-hour wait on a delayed train from Manchester to London that JK Rowling came up with the idea for a certain bespectacled boy wizard. When she eventually reached her destination, and got her hands on a pen (she was too shy to ask her fellow passengers for one), she began scribbling outlines for the Harry Potter stories that would make her the wealthiest writer on the planet. Not bad for the price of a train ticket.
With the pilot scheme deemed a success by both writer and train company, this week Amtrak officially launched its residency programme for writers on their long-distance routes. Each resident will be given a sleeper cabin, equipped with a bed, a desk and a window, “to watch the American countryside roll by”.
The opportunity to apply for an Amtrak residency is limited to US residents so Irish scribes will have to wait and see if Irish Rail gets on board with the idea. It seems open to the idea, responding positively to tweets, asking for suggestions on how the concept might be applied here.
