Residency

Aldo & Estella Leopold Residency

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

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

2026 Residency

We are now accepting applications for the 2026 Residency season.
Deadline to apply for the 2026 Residency is February 16, 2026 with decisions made late March, 2026.

Announcement + Details

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 .

Available 2026 Residency options are:

July 2026 at Mi Casita in Tres Piedras
July 2026 at Casita del Norte in Galisteo
November 2026 at Mi Casita in Tres Piedras

HOW TO APPLY

Interested applicants are to submit:

A maximum two-page resume.
A maximum 500-word statement of interest. This should describe how your work at the Residency aligns with the Leopold Writing Program's mission and will extend the legacy of Aldo and Estella Leopold. Please also include how you heard about the Residency Program.
Either in a separate document or in the body of your email, list which months/locations you are able to commit to (July or November) in order of preference.

We do not accept writing samples.

Application assessment criteria can be found here.

Questions and application materials can be emailed to Program Director Nina Simon at [email protected].

Announcement + DEtails

NOTE: A processing fee of $20 is required to qualify for review, to be submitted at the time of application either online (button below, payment processed via PayPal) or by check to:

Leopold Writing Program
P.O. Box 40122
Albuquerque, NM 87196
Attn: Residency

SUBMIT FEE

The standard stipend is $1,000 for the month. However, we understand that the nature of this Residency is restrictive for some writers, particularly those who will not be receiving income during their stay. If selected as a 2026 Resident, a resident may provide a letter stating why they have need for a higher stipend. Details shared upon request.

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.

Mi Casita - Photo courtesy of US Forest Service

Thank you to our Partner

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

Read our Residents' El Piñón Newsletter contributions

El Piñón

ANNOUNCING

A NEW BOOK BY
GRETCHEN HENDERSON
2023 Leopold Resident

A NEW NOVEL BY
LAURA PRITCHETT
2018 Leopold Resident
Published in 2024

"The Great Salt Lake is tens of thousands of years old and—we hope—will continue to exist in some form or another in ten thousand years. Humans are not always very good at thinking across such spans of time, and we depend on writers such as Gretchen Henderson to guide us out of concerns in front of us, to see across epochs, cultures, landscapes, continents and atmospheres in order to grasp more fully the current moment."
- Dr. Hollis Robbins, Dean of the College of Humanities, University of Utah

"Newly-widowed Ammalie’s road-trip hijinks are a reader’s delight, but underneath is a journey toward self-discovery as genuine and imperfect as the protagonist herself. Laura Pritchett brings grief and hope together in this hilarious, heartfelt story of one woman’s solo journey through her past, present, and future."
- Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures
Laura Pritchett’s seventh novel is a delightful exploration of the very-serious business of living a full and honest life. Filled with heartbreak and humor, she tackles the unavoidable sorrows and joys coming of age (again) with the zest and vigor it deserves.

PAPERBACK EDITION OF A BOOK BY
PRIYANKA KUMAR
2020 Leopold Resident
A 2023 Firecracker Award Finalist
An Apple “November 2022 Best Books of the Month”

“Birds are my almanac.
They tune me into the seasons, and into myself.”

Tracing her movements across the American West, this stirring collection of essays brings the avian world richly to life .... [F]or Kumar, birds “become a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world.”
At a time when climate change, habitat loss, and the reckless use of pesticides are causing widespread extinction of species, Kumar’s reflections on these messengers from our distant past and harbingers of our future offer luminous evidence of her suggestion that “seeds of transformation lie dormant in all of our hearts. Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us.”

A NEW BOOK BY
BEN GOLDFARB
2017 Leopold Resident
Published in 2023 by W.W. Norton

"Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they’re practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as alien forces of death and disruption. A million animals are killed by American cars each day; creatures from antelope to salmon are losing their ability to migrate; and the noise of traffic deters songbirds from feeding. Yet road ecologists are also seeking to blunt the destruction through innovative solutions. Over many years, I met with the conservationists building bridges for mountain lions and tunnels for toads, the engineers deconstructing the logging roads that web national forests, and the community organizers undoing the havoc highways have wreaked upon American cities. Crossings is the culmination of a decade-long investigation into how humans have altered the natural world—and how we can create a better future for all beings."