I love Amtrak, and I love writing, but I don’t think I am ever going to do an Amtrak Artist Residency, so I am passing along the info so you can apply. It sounds like fun. Just glimpsing the exposed backs of houses along the tracks with their hints of the private lives lived in them is inspiration for a ream of stories.
William Grimes writes for the NY Times blog ArtBeat, “The wheels have begun moving on Amtrak’s plan to offer writers a rolling residency aboard their trains. … Up to 24 writers, chosen from a pool of applicants, will be given a round-trip ticket on a long-distance train, including a private sleeper-car room with a bed, a desk, and electrical outlets. …
“The idea was born in December when the novelist Alexander Chee, in an interview with the magazine PEN America, casually mentioned his love for writing on trains, and added, jokingly, ‘I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers.’
“When Jessica Gross, a writer in New York, echoed the sentiment on Twitter, Amtrak arranged for her to do a trial residency on the Lake Shore Limited from New York to Chicago. She agreed.
“Her account of the trip, ‘Writing the Lake Shore Limited,’ published by The Paris Review in February, grabbed the attention of The Wire, The New Yorker and The Huffington Post. Soon after, Amtrak decided to turn the trial run into a full-fledged program.” More on when and how to apply.
Even before that series of events, there was the Whistlestop Arts Train, you know. I blogged about the rolling public art project by Doug Aitken last July, here.
Trains for dreaming. Holiday model train layout at Amtrak’s South Station, Boston.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
What a great opportunity! Thanks for the info!
I hope you win a chance to do this. And if you do, will you let me know? You can reach me at suzannesmom@lunaandstella.com.
Unfortunately, even though Amtrak runs through Canada, Canadians cannot apply.
Well, I just got off an Amtrak train that was 2 hrs late, so perhaps you’re not missing much.
Oh, how cool. I doubt I could take my three kids… 🙂
Be sure to read commenter Will E Dare on the other drawbacks.
I did, and you’re right. I’m not ready to sign away so much privacy. And I’m not on twitter. Still the issue of having three kids… 🙂
The kids might be a deal breaker for Amtrak.
I JUST had reviewed the entire application process before I read your post. One has to have a Twitter and a Facebook account to apply — and they’d also like to applicants to have an Instagram account although that doesn’t appear to be mandatory. By applying, one gives them the right to use one’s name, one’s application essay, one’s likeness, etc. It appears that they also consider the cost of one’s train ticket (if one is chosen) to be income, because they issue a 1099 and the participant is liable to pay appropriate taxes for the value of the journey. Applications are judged on the merit of the writing in one’s application, the writing sample one is asked to include, and the size/quality of one’s social media connections. Since so many great songs mention trains (and were written or partly written on trains) during the first half of the 20th century, I continue to be intrigued by this opportunity. But it comes with not-insignificant strings…
Thanks for this valuable info. StoryCorps apparently makes you sign away your life, too, as one reader commented when I blogged about StoryCorps a while back. The last laugh would be to buy your own train ticket, create your own art, and have it become renowned without involving Amtrak’s marketers and lawyers. Come to think it, that is something I could realistically aspire to.