Residency

Aldo & Estella Leopold Residency

Aldo & Estella Leopold at "Mi Casita" in Tres Piedras, New Mexico, 1912. Photo courtesy of the Aldo Leopold Foundation.

Meet Our 2026 Residents

MICHELLE OTERO
July at Casita del Norte in Galisteo
Click here for Michelle's Lecture flyer

SARAH HINES
July at Mi Casita in Tres Piedras
Click here for Sarah's Lecture flyer

ALEX ARZT
November at Mi Casita in Tres Piedras

RSVP for michelle otero's July 16th talk

LEOPOLD RESIDENCY

The Aldo and Estella Leopold Residency provides a space for writers and respected thinkers to reflect and write about the relevance of Aldo Leopold’s ideas to 21st century cultural and environmental issues. Two of our summer Residencies are based at historic "Mi Casita," Aldo and Estella's first home in Tres Piedras, New Mexico, and a third July Residency is located at a small casita on the Galisteo Basin. The Residency is for writers who are committed to reshaping the cultural story about the relationship between humans and Nature. In 2026, the Leopold Writing Program celebrates the 14th anniversary of this influential residency.

Residents:

Stay for one month during the months of July or November.
Receive a stipend to help defray travel and living expenses.

Give a public presentation in Taos or Santa Fe.
Provide a short contribution to our newsletter at the conclusion of their stay.

The Aldo & Estella Leopold Residency is for emerging and professional writers from around the country and abroad interested in exploring connections in our communities and cultures, and in our lives and landscapes. Three residents per year are selected from a field of candidates who complete the application process. Applicants should note that the Residencies are remote and the Tres Piedras location does not have WiFi. Additional details about the locations can be found here.

The application period for the 2027 Residency season will open in November, 2026.

Please scroll down for photos and more information about past Residents.

Just as the Aldo Leopold Writing Contest builds a network of students who, because of their writing talent, have the potential to become the next generation’s environmental leaders, the Aldo & Estella Leopold Residency makes that network intergenerational by extending it beyond mid- to high-schoolers to emerging and mid-career professional writers. The two programs dovetail to deepen their combined cultural impact.

Kristina Flanagan

Thank you to our Partners

The trick, I suppose, is to contradict those who say vigilance is not necessary, while at the same time being careful not to declare any particular person or thing the enemy—that religion, this or that political party, a certain constituency, capitalism, this or that head of state. It would be to dismantle the stage upon which any tyrant, any self-anointed claimant to power, performed. It would be to direct the attention of his audience to a place where that tyrant has no authority, no influence.

Barry Lopez, Resistance