We should probably keep this to ourselves, at least until we finish filling out the application, but two publications—Atlanta-based BurnAway and New Orleans’s Pelican Bomb—have teamed up and are looking for worthy applicants for a for two-week, $2,500 “critic-in-residence” gig. Here’s the full announcement:

BURNAWAY + PELICAN BOMB
CRITIC-IN-RESIDENCE /// 2014/15 APPLICATION

BURNAWAY and Pelican Bomb are now accepting applications to their inaugural critic-in-residence program. The residency program connects leading writers in the visual arts from throughout the country with local artist communities in Atlanta and New Orleans.

The organizations will select three applicants to participate in individual two-week dual-city residencies taking place between September 2014 and June 2015 in both New Orleans and Atlanta.

The residency is free to selected applicants and includes round-trip airfare to and from New Orleans and Atlanta, room and board, ground transportation, some meals, and a $2500 stipend.

According to the application, chosen critics will be expected to do studio visits, tours of local art institutions, and “some arranged dinners and meetings”—all things that you’d probably want to do anyway if you were a critic visiting New Orleans or Atlanta, so it seems like a pretty good deal.

The residency hopes to field candidates from all over. Aside from general excellence, “[d]emonstrated interest in issues related to the participating cities, the role of regionalism, and/or writing and community engagement is a plus but not required.”

For those who don’t know it, BurnAway was founded in 2008, and functions as a non-profit publishing operation covering Atlanta and the southeast. It is currently edited by Stephanie Cash (formerly of Art in America). Pelican Bomb was launched in 2011, and is a complex mix of publication, “buy-it-local” art-collecting program, and curatorial platform. For critics from outside the region, the chance to get to know these kinds of publishing models might be in-and-of-itself a compelling reason to apply.

To be clear: the two weeks in Atlanta and New Orleans don’t have to be consecutive, but do have to take place sometime between October 2014 and June 2015. The deadline for the first round of applications is July 15, 2014.