The Joshua Tree Residency for Artists & Writers was founded by Nedjelko Spaich in 2026.

Nedjelko Spaich

Nedjelko Spaich is a writer based in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, California. His short fiction has been published in Jellyfish Review, Maudlin House, storySouth, and elsewhere. His non-fiction appears in LAist, LA Weekly, and Los Angeles Review of Books. He is a lead reader for Okay Donkey Magazine, a graduate of Bennington College, and currently at work on his first novel.

JTRAW’s Advisory Board includes:

Lena Valencia

Lena Valencia is the author of the short story collection Mystery Lights (Tin House Books / Dead Ink Books), which was longlisted for the Story Prize, named a Best Short Story Collection of 2024 by Electric Literature, and a Best Horror Book of 2024 by Esquire. Her fiction has appeared in BOMB, The Baffler, Electric Literature, Ninth Letter, Epiphany, the anthology Tiny Nightmares, and elsewhere. Her writing has been supported by the Elizabeth George Foundation and the Convent Arts Fellowship. She holds an MFA in fiction from The New School and is the director of educational programming at One Story. ​She lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

Wendy Garrett

Wendy Garrett is a researcher, photographer, and writer based in the American West. She is the author of two photo books, Renaissance of Wonder and Stranger Passing By, and writes Alternate Routes, a newsletter focused on travel philosophy, landscape, and cultural observation. Her work is rooted in attention to place, moving between personal narrative, historical inquiry, anthropology, and field-based documentation. She is currently completing a collection of essays tracing intersecting stories across family history, ecological timelines, and quantum theory.

Ryan Linkof

Ryan Linkof is a curator, educator, and writer. He is currently Curator at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

A man in sunglasses wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants standing in front of an outdoor structure made of wooden logs and woven material, with a clear blue sky in the background.
Close-up of a woman with shoulder-length brown hair and light makeup, smiling gently against a plain gray background.
A young woman with shoulder-length brown hair and fair skin standing in a desert landscape with mountains, cacti, and sparse vegetation in the background on a cloudy day.