Wellington Writers’ Colony Is Go: Introducing the Cuba Street Garret

Since I first blogged about Doug Wilkins’ plans to set up a Wellington Writers’ Colony, modelled on the Sanchez Grotto Annex which he set up in San Francisco, Doug has been working determinedly to get over various hurdles and set the venture up. And now he has, which is all the more creditable in the current economic climate. Here’s the press release Doug sent out to mark the occasion. If you’d like to know more, you can contact Doug by emailing dbwilkins@gmail.com or calling 021-138-5050.

Press Release for The Cuba Street Garret

Here comes The Cuba Street Garret, a combination of solitude and community for the toner-stained wretches we know as writers. We have purchased a flat on Cuba Street, and are outfitting it with offices so that writers can move in and get to work. Heat, Internet, and cleaning services will be provided, of course. This workspace will be called The Cuba Street Garret because Cuba Street is where it’s located, and ‘Garret’ since there are few writers who can even afford a garret these days, but this would perhaps make that dream possible for several of them.

Costs are, naturally, a primary concern for everyone, so the rent will be only $80 per week; it could well be less than that once the fourteen (14) offices are filled.

The Cuba Street Garret will be up and running as early as, no fooling, April 1st.

And there will be no lengthy leases. Writers will never be asked to commit to more than one month at a time. The success of The Cuba Street Garret will come from the positive atmosphere therein.

Further Information

Members of The Garret will meet for lunch once a month.

They will have an open house celebration, ‘The Welcome Interruption I,’ from 5.30 until 8.30 on Friday evening, 17th April.

Located in the Watkins Building (corner of Cuba and Vivian Streets).

The Cuba Street Garret has a progenitor of a sort back in San Francisco, The Sanchez Grotto Annex, if anyone wants to see how a writers’ workspace works. Those offices now have a waiting list, and we expect to have the same level of participation in Wellington.

Writers who wish to learn more or visit The Garret should contact Doug Wilkins: dbwilkins@gmail.com and/or 021-138-5050.

In the Writers’ Colony

The headline’s a little premature, because it’s not yet possible to be in the writers’ colony, at least not in Wellington – but it will be if Doug Wilkins has his way. Doug contacted me a few months back and explained that he was planning to set up a writers’ colony in Wellington, modelled on the very successful Sanchez Grotto Annex that he founded in San Francisco four years ago. I took a bit of convincing, but I’ve come round to the view that this is an excellent idea for those writers who need some dedicated writing space and would appreciate the combination of private working space, and social contact with other writers, that a writers’ colony provides. Plus, Doug is a likeable chap who knows what he’s doing and has the track record to show it.

Here’s what Doug has in mind. If you’re a Wellington writer and it sounds like this would suit you, I recommend getting in touch with him.

Doug Wilkins, a writer who recently moved to Wellington from San Francisco, is planning to start a writing community, The Pohutukawa Garret, which would offer over a dozen offices for rent, Internet access, cleaning services, sufficient heat, and a sense of belonging. His current intent is to locate this writers’ community along Cuba Street somewhere. The only thing holding him back, momentarily, is having a quorum of writers; he reckons that it will take six dedicated writers expressing more than passing interest in joining the Garret to convince him to purchase a flat and start building offices.

Rent, since you ask, would be $95 a week, and no lease required. Doug would just as soon that anyone who isn’t delighted with the arrangement should be free to leave after only a month.

Doug can be contacted at dbwilkins@gmail.com or 021-138-5050.