The Writer-In-Residence (WIR) program is an initiative founded by ArtRoot, supported by the Racine Literacy Council and funded by the Osborne and Scekic Family Foundation. Through this program, ArtRoot seeks to spotlight Racine and Kenosha’s dynamic literary community while encouraging, supporting, and advocating on behalf of writers at all stages of their careers.

Writers are in residence for 6 month terms and receive a stipend of $1,500. During their residency, each writer generates a weekly blog post on a variety of topics. The post is published on the WIR site at:

https://racinewir.com/

If you would like to receive email notifications about new blog posts from the Writer in Residence, please go to any post and click on the Subscribe button in the lower right corner that shows up if you scroll up anywhere in the post.

The current WIR is Emma Widmar, a writer, artist, and tireless volunteer.  Her Professional Communications degree from Gateway Technical College earned her a journalism internship at Racine County Eye, then a full-time reporting position.  She’s also worked as co-anchor of TMJ4 News’ Racine Roundup. 

Emma believes that storytelling serves as a bridge to help promote empathy.  By generously sharing her own story as a disabled person, she’s become an advocate for acceptance and understanding in our community. During her tenure as ArtRoot’s Writer-in-Residence, you can find her writing at The Inclusive Bean.

Applications for the WIR are accepted every 6 months. Application information can be found at https://racinewir.com/applications/.