The Mailer Colony

Norman Mailer

Doesn't have quite the ring of the McDowell, but the Norman Mailer Writers Colony gets its official launch at a reception in Provincetown June 9. There won't actually be any writers there yet -- the event launches the plan and the campaign to raise money for a $12-14 million endowment for the colony, which will include Mailer's home overlooking the harbor, and eventually other locations around town. The plan envisions residential stays by distinguished writers, as well as readings and other programs.

Between the Mailer Colony and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the little town bids fair to become like Boston in Victorian times, about which the writer Bret Harte once said, "You can't fire off a revolver without hitting the author of a two-volume work."

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