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Photo by Richard Howard (cropped). Westwood resident Lynne Viti, who served as the Town of Westwood's inaugural Poet Laureate in 2025, has been selected for a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Westwood resident Lynne Viti has been awarded a fellowship by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), the organization announced on October 28, and Dr. Viti is scheduled to begin a creative residency in Amherst, Virginia, on February 2, 2027, during which she can focus on her poetry.
Dr. Viti will be among 21 other fellows who will join her at VCCA for a working retreat. Fellows may be writers, visual artists, and composers. Dr. Viti is a poet who served as the Town of Westwood's inaugural Poet Laureate in 2025.
VCCA notes that its fellows are selected by peer review on the basis of professional achievement or promise of achievement in their respective fields. A VCCA fellowship supports creative artists by providing them with time and space to create.
Dr. Viti says she plans to work on a suite of poems about the now-shuttered Westwood Lodge and Medfield State psychiatric hospitals. She started the project several years ago, but set it aside while she focused on a book which by now is nearly completed.
"I’m looking forward to an intensive week of poetry writing in this community of artists. It’s an honor to be accepted for this residency," said Dr. Viti.
All VCCA residencies at Mt. San Angelo include a private studio, a private bedroom with an en-suite bath, and three prepared meals a day. The fellowship will offer Dr. Viti a time free from distractions to create while surrounded by the energy of other fellows who will work on music, literature, or the visual arts. In its more-than-fifty-year history, VCCA has hosted over 6,500 writers, visual artists, and composers. VCCA Fellows have received worldwide attention including MacArthur fellowships, Pulitzer Prizes, Guggenheim fellowships, National Endowment for the Arts awards, the National Book Award, Grammy Awards, and Academy Award nominations.
Founded in 1971, VCCA typically hosts more than 400 artist-fellows annually at Mt. San Angelo in Amherst and 50 annually at Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France. In its history, VCCA says it has hosted thousands of artists who have been recipients of MacArthur fellowships, Pulitzer Prizes, Guggenheim fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts awards, the National Book Award, Grammy Awards and Academy Award nominations.
