Argondezzi Chosen for Prestigious Quarry Farm Writing Residency

Talia Argondezzi, Ph.D, has been named as a 2025 Quarry Farm Fellow by the Center for Mark Twain Studies. As a Quarry Farm Fellow, Argondezzi, who is the director of the Ursinus Center for Writing and Speaking, will spend two weeks this fall in Elmira, N.Y.

She will stay in residence at the Quarry Farm, a property formerly owned by Mark Twain’s family where he would regularly write and find inspiration. The farm was eventually donated to Elmira College. It is described as “the quietest of all quiet places” and used as a place of work for Mark Twain scholars and creative writers.

“It’s essentially a gift of time, because we’re so busy with our jobs and our families, this is just time away for writing, thinking, and creating,” said Argondezzi. “Writing residencies are some of the main times that I get to write, so I’m very grateful for it.”

While there, Argondezzi will complete her forthcoming humor book, Bedtime Stories for Academics: Funny Fairy Tales to Help Faculty, Staff, and Grad Students Survive the Semester. She describes the work as a collection which “imagines familiar stories from literature, Mother Goose, mythology, and folklore, transforming them into irreverent satire of the issues that keep higher education workers up at night.” The book also includes a chapter inspired by Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Argondezzi says she was thrilled to learn her application was accepted for the program. “I could not believe it because I knew they had relatively few spaces for creative writers,” she said. “I squealed, I was really happy.”

This will be Argondezzi’s second writing residency. She says the opportunities help not only her as a writer, but her students as well.

“Something that I always knew about student writers… is that they also need the right conditions to write, and they need to trust themselves and be trusted by their professors,” she explained. “The writing residency is really just the gift of time and space and so I try to give that to students too.”

Beyond teaching classes, Argondezzi also supports student work as director of the Center for Writing and Speaking. It’s another role where she can draw on her writing residency experiences.

“Dr. Argondezzi coordinates support for writing and speaking, available to all students. This program provides extensive training to writing fellows, who can use these skills as future mentors in their professional careers,” added Johannes Karreth, Ph.D., assistant dean in the Office of Academic Affairs. “Dr. Argondezzi has also supported a large number of students applying to, and winning, external fellowships, foremost the Watson fellowship.”

You can learn more about Argondezzi and the other members of the 2025 Class of Quarry Farm Fellows on the Center for Mark Twain Studies website.