Following an intensive selection process with over 530 applications (a new record), The New Harmony Project is thrilled to welcome writers and artists to the 2025 Annual Writers’ Residency. Twenty-six writers will be joined by collaborators, staff, and student interns to experience a creative and transformative community where they can work, receive support from dramaturgs and wellness providers, and build the relationships that will bolster their artistic journeys.

“Throughout U.S. history, writers have been critical to the creation of our American identity,” said Jenni Werner, Executive Artistic Director. “This exceptional group of writers are creating transformational stories about the world and our place in it. The town of New Harmony was itself founded on the concept of creating a better world, and I know that these writers and their collaborators will be inspired and rejuvenated by this wellspring of creativity.” 

The Writers

The Collaborators

PRODUCTIONs IN RESIDENCE

This year, there are two Productions in Residence at the Annual Writers’ Residency. Both will have public readings on May 31 at Thrall’s Opera House.

The Waterfall by Phanésia Pharel is a partnership between The New Harmony Project and Thrown Stone Theatre Company.

Tensions brew as Bean returns home to help her brilliantly biting, stubborn Haitian American mother, Emi, after a health scare. Despite succeeding in many of life’s shoulds, Bean is lost, struggling to settle down, and her mother is having none of it. Poetic, personal, and prodigal, The Waterfall explores the complicated bond between mother and daughter, the notion that all women are born to be mothers, and what it means to live your own version of the American Dream.

For My Next Trick… by Michael Shayan

Smoke! Mirrors! Trauma! Join Emmy-nominated writer and Magic Castle illusionist Michael Shayan in a death-defying journey through impossible circumstances. Watch as he attempts to conjure his father’s validation, saw his emotional baggage in half, and pull off the world’s most harrowing escape – from his past! For My Next Trick… is a wickedly funny, wildly theatrical play about illusion, identity, and the nature of the impossible. 

PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS

A special thank you

The 2025 New Harmony Project writers were selected by a panel of paid readers, including: Amanda Dawson, Aurora Real de Asua, Jayne Deely, Reena Dutt, Maddie Easley, Ramón Esquivel, Ambree Feaster, Diana Grisanti, cara hinh, Jihye Kim, Andrew Kramer, Mario Gomez Sloth Levine, Lexy Leuszler, Khalid Long, Tara Moses, Naysan Mojgani, Jay B. Muskett, David Quang Pham, Jordan Ramierez-Puckett, Dominique Rider, ML Roberts, T. Carlis Roberts, Lynde Rosario, Carol Ann Tan, Ashley Thomas, christina michelle watkins, and Pirronne Yousefzadeh.