Stowe Story Labs Celebrates 10th Year; Expands Program Offerings

Entering its 10th year, Stowe Story Labs is accepting applications to its labs and retreats. It has extended its regular deadline to February 8th, 2022, because it has added new fellowships and programs to its lineup. Stowe offers labs, retreats, long-form writing programs, and ongoing mentoring to top emerging screenwriters, filmmakers, and creative producers from around the world. 

Collectively, Stowe Story Labs has served over 400 emerging artists, 70% of whom are women. To date, Participants have come from 41 states and 21 countries. In the last two years, 26% of participants have been BIPOC/Latinx, and 40% are 40 years old or older. Nearly 50% of participants receive need-based financial support.

One of the programs they’ve added this year is a new Writers’ Retreat in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. Stowe has also created new fellowship programs which cover the program fees for artists. Two new fellowships are the Law Firm of Stacey A. Davis Fellowship for women over 40 and the previously announced NYXFellowship for emerging female horror writers age 40 and over. Stowe awards more than fifteen fellowships annually as well as partial scholarships. Learn more about Stowe’s new programs and its fellowship opportunities on their website.

“Given the expanded program, it made sense to extend our application deadline to give interested artists more time to apply without an application fee increase. In all of our work, our intent is to find wonderful people with good stories worth telling and to help propel them to the next level,” said David Rocchio. “Over the years, we have been fortunate to work with fantastic emerging talent and forge deep relationships with wonderful fellowship partners and mentors such as Darrien Michele Gipson, Executive Director of SAGindie; Jenny Halper, tremendous emerging screenwriter in her own right and the EVP, Development and Production with Maven Screen Media; and Kristen Overn, the Executive Director of the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards,” he added.

In 2022, Stowe is offering an expanded list of programs, which include:

• Stowe Narrative Lab (Stowe, VT): June 4 – 7
• Sidewalk Narrative Lab (Birmingham, AL): August 24 – 27; in partnership with The Sidewalk Film Festival
• Stowe Writers’ Retreat (Stowe, VT): September 9 – 13
• Remote Writers’ Retreat: July 8 – 12
• Connemara Writers’ Retreat (Renvyle, County Galway, Ireland): October 10 – 14; in partnership with Galway Film Fleadh
• Palm Springs Writers’ Retreat (Palm Springs, CA): November 11 – 15
• The Feature Campus, an online 16-week feature writing program
• The Writers Room, an online television writing program
• An online producers lab
• Stowe Launch, an advanced development program

Participants gather for a 4-day lab to learn more about story, pitching and packaging, the development process, production, publicity, finance and distribution. Writer’s Retreats are intensive, 5-day long dives into story. They provide a rare opportunity for participants to invest in both their writing and professional development. Each writer receives three 1-on-1, hour-long story meetings with three different mentors, as well as programming designed to advance work on the page. 

One of Stowe’s longstanding fellowship partners is the nonprofit SAGindie, which breaks down barriers for filmmakers hoping to work with SAG talent on independent films, regardless of budget. “SAGindie is excited to partner once again with Stowe Story Labs for a fellowship that will bring unique career opportunities to a filmmaker of color. Years into our partnership with Stowe, we are continually wowed by the creativity and original stories that come out of the lab, and we’re sure this year will be no different,” shared Gipson.

Those interested can apply here.