If you’re a writer, what better location to work on your next article, novel or blog post than on board a train, traveling across the country. What started as an off-handed comment by author Alexander Chee in an interview (Where is your favorite place to write? I still like a train best for this kind of thing. I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers.), may actually become a full-fledged program in which Amtrack would offer free rides to writers. During the first “writers’ residency”, magazine writer Jessica Gross got a ride from New York to Chicago and back, where she wrote about train travel for a piece in The Paris Review. In exchange, she agreed to also tweet about the experience. Gross told The Wire, that train travel provided for a “unique environment for creative thought.” Though a lot of the details are still up in the air, Amtrak told The Wire that they may set a up an application process so that other writers can experience the unique residency …
