A $1-a-year lease and a 1920s bungalow: how Fairhope houses the world’s writers
Tucked behind the Fairhope public library on North School Street sits a modest 1920s bungalow with an outsized literary reputation. The Wolff Cottage has hosted writers-in-residence since 2004, offering each one a free month in Fairhope to write, finish a manuscript and get ready for publication — all thanks to an idea conceived two decades earlier and a lease that costs its nonprofit caretakers a single dollar a year.
The idea came from Sonny Brewer, the local writer, editor and publisher whose novel “The Poet of Tolstoy Park” made his name beyond the Eastern Shore. In 2001, citing Fairhope’s remarkable literary history and its tradition of being home to many writers, Brewer applied to the city to lease the then-dilapidated cottage behind the library. Remodeling and decorating followed, and the house was named for Betty Joe Wolff, who fostered the town’s writing culture as the founder of Page and Palette Bookstore.
Rick Bragg was the cottage’s first resident. More than 30 writers have followed since — several of whom liked Fairhope enough to stay for good.
A month to write, a bay to explore
Residencies run a month at a time, long enough for visiting writers to step away from everyday obligations and push a project toward the finish line. During their stays, residents meet community members and take part in local events with the program’s sponsors, making each residency a two-way exchange between the writer and the town.
The program’s December 2022 resident, Jane Kubke of Calgary, Alberta, arrived from minus-9-degree weather into a Fairhope January, marveling at the live oaks and the huge magnolia in the cottage’s front yard. Kubke, working on her third novel, kept a disciplined schedule — writing from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily — then explored the Eastern Shore by bicycle, riding the trail from Mullet Point to Spanish Fort. She has lived all over the world and has never owned a car. Her verdict on Fairhope: one of the most incredible places she has visited, with the friendliness of the people as the highlight.
November’s resident, Marietta Leis of Santa Fe, New Mexico, put the cottage’s appeal more compactly: “It feels like the house is giving you a hug.”
Keeping the door open
The Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, the 501(c)(3) behind the residency, is led by president Skip Jones with a strong board of directors. The program runs on donations from local individuals, book clubs and businesses — a funding model that has kept the cottage free for its residents for two decades.
Each new year brings another slate of writers-in-residence to North School Street, each leaving with pages drafted in a town that has, for more than a century, drawn people who like words. The cottage’s founders set out to honor Fairhope’s literary tradition. Twenty years on, the tradition is being written one month-long residency at a time.