November 1–8, 2001

Belt Loop

Writers come together in the "Genius Belt."

by Judith Norkin

A room for views: The Writers Room in Doylestown.

Ah, the writer’s life. It’s imagined as some kind of nirvana, but the reality is that most of a writer’s time is spent alone, contemplating in front of a computer screen, staring into space and trying to capture some really big idea while simultaneously ignoring the dirty dishes and the laundry.

If there’s no shaking the muse, the best thing a writer can do (besides winning the lottery) is to find a community and bond with other practitioners of this most masochistic art form. Universities, bookstores and galleries have programs that appeal to lonely literati, but they’re often just once-in-a-blue-moon events, and it’s a daunting prospect, especially for beginners, to feel comfortable among sometimes indifferent strangers who all look so confident and poised and, well, so writerly.

Enter The Writers Room of Bucks County, however, and you’ll find a community center for writers where networking is openly encouraged and even the most timid beginners are made to feel welcome. Located in a 1930s-era office building in quaint Doylestown, a tree-lined burg north of Philly with gingerbread Victorians and a sprinkling of bookshops and New Age emporia, The Writers Room is a place where writers of all ages, experience levels and genres can gather. It’s a combination of coffee klatch and cozy cafe, though coffee isn’t sold here. You have to go up the street for that.

What there is, however, is a super-sized selection of literary events. There’s peer critique, workshops, seminars, readings, discussions and social happenings where friendly, noncompetitive networking is de rigueur. There is even a library-like workspace where writers whose creative output is inhibited by domestic disturbances can come and work without interruption.

The Writers Room is the brainchild of Foster Winans — himself a writer and well versed in the challenges of the writing life. Winans, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, moved from Manhattan to Bucks County in 1994 to concentrate on book projects and reconnect with his roots: As a child he’d lived in the house neighboring the inn that Dorothy Parker lived in while her own house was being renovated. Bucks County seemed to have everything. Beauty, proximity to New York and an astonishingly rich literary history. That’s right — though no longer a household phrase, from the 1930s to the 1950s, Bucks County was home to so many widely read and celebrated writers that it was referred to as "The Genius Belt." Pulitzer-prize winning novelist James Michener, a native Doylestown boy, was a year-round resident. Parker, author of A Star Is Born and acclaimed Algonquin Round Table wit, lived nearby with her second husband, actor and writer Alan Campbell. Oscar Hammerstein, writer and lyricist of musicals like Oklahoma!, had a home there, as did George S. Kaufman, who practically invented American musical theater, and Moss Hart. Others with homes in Bucks County were humorist S.J. Perelman, Pearl S. Buck, Margaret Mead and Jean Toomer, a writer of the Harlem renaissance.

At first, moving back to Bucks was a dream come true for Winans, but it turned out to be missing one big thing: people. Cloistered in his office for days at a time, Winans was unable to meet other writers. "Over time I realized my social life was reduced to talking to the checkout clerk at the Kmart," he says.

As it turned out, the problem would be solved through a series of painful but fortuitously timed events. In 1997, Winans’ mother died. She’d owned a successful art gallery on Cape Cod, and the fine arts center there asked Winans to endow an art studio in her memory. He’d set money aside. "I loved the idea and thought the town would appreciate it." But walking in Doylestown one day, he discovered an empty office building for lease. "A bell sort of went off," says Winans. He realized that instead of endowing a studio in a Cape Cod town that already had an active, thriving art community, he could honor his mother’s memory by starting a writing community in a town that had none. From that seed of an idea, The Writers Room grew.

Today, this self-proclaimed, "not-for-profit writers’ colony in the heart of ‘The Genius Belt,’" is a haven for area writers. All events are organized and facilitated by what Winans describes as "a huge corps of volunteers," and workshop leaders come with impressive credentials. In just the next few weeks, for example, Edwin Sanchez, an award-winning playwright and writer for the soap opera The Guiding Light, will be speaking. Toni Lopopolo, a literary agent and former executive editor at St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan, will teach book proposal writing. Sally Cheney, editorin chief of Chelsea House publishers, will discuss short biography opportunities for freelancers. And the new Bucks County poet laureate, Joe Chelius, will hold a poetry salon.

These and other events are announced via weekly e-mails, which Winans writes in a humorous and self-deprecating tone. More than 500 writers receive notices. Winans says everyone on the list has asked to be on it, and many re-broadcast the announcements, which suggests an even wider audience.

Programs are modestly priced and completely writer-friendly. "We offer a smorgasbord of things that people can participate in when it’s convenient. They can choose whatever fits in with their schedule and with what they’re doing," says Winans, who calls this his "take the best and leave the rest" philosophy. Apparently it’s working, because The Writers Room has fast become a popular gathering place. "Almost every day you will find something going on here," says Winans, who believes in the redemptive power of the written word. "It’s important to write. Writing is an act of creating immortality. It’s a way of creating yourself."

	Write on: Writers Room creator Foster Winans and friends.

Now this formerly deadline-driven journalist, who "was probably the one who reminded emerging writers that their chances of making it were something like one in a million," is a mentor, a shift he partly attributes to age. Plus, all the robust activity surrounding him is just so darn inspiring. "People are very, very engaged with the process of writing. It’s an extraordinary thing to me — all these budding novelists coming out of the closet."

But there is a downside. Now that he has created such a congenial and collegial community, Winans is so frequently interrupted that he can hardly get his own writing done. "I’m constantly fielding phone calls and being asked questions." He says that 10 to 20 people a day walk in off the street. "If I didn’t have to make a living, I could spend quite a bit of time there." But he loves it. "My talent is for bringing people together," he says, explaining that it’s a kind of calling and that he feels sort of like a minister. "It’s a very new and bizarre experience. I spent all of my previous life as a journalist or a freelancer working in a home office." Now when Winans really needs to get some work done, he has to stay up all night to do it. "It’s the only quiet time."

The Writers Room, 4 West Oakland St., Doylestown. For a schedule of weekly events, call 215-348-1663 or check www.writersroom.net.