Violet Hour: PEI

With Christopher DiRaddo, Hayden Little, Vanessa Bradley, LJ Lawlor, Debbie Langston, and Julie Bull

Join The Hideout’s inaugural writer-in-residence, Christopher DiRaddo on Thursday, October 10 for a fabulous evening of writing, community, and celebration in support of the Queer Youth Writing Club. The event will be held from 7:00-8:30 PM at the Gallery Coffee Shop and Bistro.

The Hideout Residency program welcomes writers, artists, and self-care practitioners from across Canada and internationally to PEI’s south shore each spring and fall. A new writer-in-residence component of the program was recently launched to mark the fifth year anniversary of the Hideout residencies.

Christopher DiRaddo is based in Montreal. He’s the author of the novels The Family Way (2021), shortlisted for the F.G Bressani Literary Prize, and The Geography of Pluto (2014). His essays and short stories have appeared in First Person Queer: Who We Are (So Far), Here & Now: An Anthology of Queer Italian-Canadian Writing and The Globe and Mail. He has also written for several publications, including Elle Canada, Xtra magazine and enRoute magazine, for which he won a National Magazine Award. In 2014, he created the Violet Hour Reading Series & Book Club, which has provided a platform for more than 250 LGBTQ writers in Canada. We’re so pleased to welcome Chris for his first Violet Hour event in PEI!

Joining Chris at Violet Hour: PEI will be Island writers and recent Susan Buchanan Hideout scholarship winners Vanessa Bradley, Debbie Langston, LJ Lawlor, and Julie Bull, as well as local author Hayden Little. Winner of multiple Island literary awards, as well as a PEI Book Award, Susan Buchanan was a well-loved and deeply admired Island writer and disability rights activist. One Hideout residency scholarship in Susan’s name is awarded each year to a deserving writer or wellness practitioner from the Maritimes.  

The evening will feature short readings, a Q + A session with Chris, and the opportunity to connect with Chris and local writers. Light refreshments will be served. This is a free event and everyone is welcome to attend. Donations to the Queer Youth Writing Club will be gratefully accepted and books will be on sale.

The Queer Writing Club was created as a collaboration between the PEIWG and PEERS Alliance as a way to provide an intentional comfortable, safe space for 2SLGBTQ+ youth aged 12 - 18 to learn and grow in their writing. In 2023, the Club produced an anthology of writing called Are We Friends Now? which won a PEI Arts Award.

Violet Hour: PEI is a proud partnership between The Hideout, Violet Hour, PEERS Alliance, and the Prince Edward Island Writers Guild (PEIWG).

Maritime writers awarded Susan Buchanan Hideout scholarships

Hideout residencies designed for writers, wellness practitioners

PEI writer Julie Bull and Nova Scotia-based writer Storme Arden have been named 2024 Susan Buchanan Hideout scholarship winners. The scholarships will provide each writer the opportunity to attend a one-week self-directed residency at The Hideout.

“We received a record number of scholarship applications for this year’s Hideout residencies,” says Hideout co-owner Joshua Lewis. “The residency program has been flourishing and we’re so excited to support Julie and Storme and their exceptional projects.”

The Hideout residencies provide a low-cost opportunity for writers, wellness practitioners, and other artists to remove themselves from responsibilities and dedicate themselves fully to their creative and personal practice. The scholarships were renamed in 2024 to mark the five-year anniversary of the residency program.

Winner of multiple Island literary awards, as well as a PEI Book Award, Susan Buchanan was a well-loved and deeply admired Island writer and disability rights activist who ran a bed and breakfast called Evening Primrose at The Hideout property in North Tryon with her life partner Jeanne Sullivan.

Lewis says it was important to acknowledge the spirit, passion, and creative legacy of Susan through the Hideout scholarship program. “Although we never had the privilege to meet her, we know Susan was a fierce fighter and such a bright creative spark. We can think of no more deserving recipients of the inaugural Susan Buchanan scholarships than Julie and Storme.”

Julie Bull (they/them) is a recovering academic turned artist. They earned their PhD in 2019 and promptly ran away from academia to pursue their creative curiosities. Julie is a poly-disciplinary artist, poet, writer, spoken-word enthusiast, painter, maker, researcher, ethicist, and educator who stirs things up with some unlikely integrations, influences, and imagination. Since 2020, they have published three books of poetry, exhibited two solo and several group art exhibitions, and have created, curated, and performed at dozens of events across Epekwitk. Julie’s journey from the head to the he(art) has been a process and practice of healing through unraveling and re-weaving. As a queer, non-binary Inuk artist from NunatuKavut, Julie’s art is filled with playful and purposeful practices that explore the complexities and contradictions of the liminal space.

Storme Arden is a visual artist and writer working on a memoir entitled Stormy Weather: Getting Happy the Hard Way. She chronicles the ups and downs of living with refractory celiac disease, multiple myeloma and severe osteoporosis. Cancer treatment, including a stem cell transplant, landed her in the ICU. She woke fully paralyzed, hallucinating, intubated and on life support due to the rare virus, Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Needing a serious change of scenery, she and her partner left the cozy fishing village of St. Martins, NB in 2020 at the height of the pandemic to return to NS where they’d met as art students 30 years before. Despite suffering from PTSD, Arden found facing her mortality had resolved her lifelong struggle with depression.

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About The Hideout Residency Program

Located on PEI’s South Shore, The Hideout is a vacation and retreat property co-founded by author Trevor Corkum and therapist Joshua Lewis. The Hideout residency program provides low-cost opportunities for writers, artists, and wellness practitioners from across Canada and the world to spend a week focused on their practice. Each year, up to two full Susan Buchanan Hideout scholarships are awarded. Hideout scholars join a line-up of invited artists, a national writer-in-residence, and writers and practitioners chosen through a general application process.