Manager of Residencies & Programs

Organization

Hawthornden Foundation is a U.S. private charitable foundation supporting contemporary writers and the literary arts. Established by Drue Heinz, the noted philanthropist and patron of the arts, the Foundation is named after Hawthornden Castle in Midlothian, Scotland, where an international residential residency program provides month-long retreats for creative writers from all disciplines to work in peaceful surroundings. Hawthornden also supports a residential program at Casa Ecco, on Lake Como in Italy, the site of “Conversazioni”, private conferences attended by many celebrated writers and others in the arts, and a retreat for invited authors to complete a literary work in progress. In 2024, Hawthornden Foundation opened a new non-residential retreat – Hawthornden Brooklyn – in New York. In addition, the Foundation sponsors the annual Hawthornden Prize, one of Britain’s oldest and foremost literary awards, and provides grant support to other literary programs.

Position

Reporting to the Executive Director and the Chief of Staff, the Manager of Residencies & Programs will be based in New York City, and will be responsible for broad administrative oversight of Hawthornden Foundation’s three Residency Locations and associated programming.

The Manager of Residencies will work with the Site Directors on the ground to coordinate travel logistics and dietary restrictions. In addition, the Manager will oversee the entire Residency Program cycle, managing deadlines and key participants throughout. They will act as the conduit or nexus between many individuals, to smoothly manage these complex processes.

Responsibilities:

Residency Programs:

• Update and implement consistent Residency Policies across all three residency sites, including working with the Executive Director and our legal counsel to ensure we adhere to local laws and regulations;
• Coordinate the “universal” nomination, application and jurying timeline, convey these deadlines to all parties involved, and collect deliverables;
• Manage application process for all three sites, including oversight of Submittable application platform, updating dates across hawthornden.org and Submittable platform when needed, maintaining application requirements, reviewing eligibility, pre-reading and jury review processes as they evolve;
• Coordinate the translation of writing samples included with residency applications, where needed;
• Manage the scheduling of each Jury’s meetings, assist in Jury meetings where needed, track terms of Jury members, and coordinate the appointment of new Jury members.
• Facilitate the writers’ visa application process, where needed;
• Coordinate with our external travel consultants for stipend payment and travel arrangements;
• With Site Directors, be responsible for reporting any budgetary changes and otherwise closely adhering to approved budgets;
• Work with the Site Directors & Site Staff as needed to locate, verify the qualifications of, and arrange contract terms of external vendors, including those related to Programs;
• Keep the Executive Director and Chief of Staff regularly apprised of activity at all Residency Sites;

Programs Implementation:

• Handle all logistical details of Conversazioni, including confirming dates, participants, program itinerary, and travel arrangements in partnership with the Chief of Staff;
• Assist with other site-based programming logistics as needed;
• Assist Hawthornden Castle Site Director in the arrangement of annual Hawthornden Prize Ceremony, including close management of guest list.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree required
• Project Management experience strongly preferred
• Prior experience with multi-site international workplace strongly preferred
• Highly focused attention to detail
• High comfort level with technology
• Familiarity with Submittable not required but preferred
• Vendor management preferred
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to not only meet deadlines, but manage deadlines where many others are involved, and obtain deliverables from parties involved
• Energetic self-starter
• Ability to craft complex short and long-term plans, including sequence of steps
• Highly adaptable and able to modify complex plans when unforeseen changes may be necessary
• Experience in or strong interest in the literary world strongly preferred
• Fluency/proficiency in Italian language a plus

Salary Range

$75,000-$90,000, commensurate with prior experience

Application Process

Application deadline is January 5th, 2025. Interested applicants should send a cover letter and resume in a single file to careers@hawthornden.org with the subject line “Manager of Residencies”.