Orlando, Fla. ? This city in a region of mouse ears and outlet malls was once home to Jack Kerouac, and it may be incubating a successor.

Five decades ago, the Beat Generation author wrote “The Dharma Bums” in 11 days in a small, tin-roofed house near downtown Orlando and received the first glowing reviews of “On The Road.”

Now his old digs house the Jack Kerouac Writer in Residence Project, which brings emerging authors to live and work in the home for three-month stints – not to create Kerouac clones, but to give them the opportunity to develop their own style.

“It’s the idea of not only celebrating Kerouac’s history in Florida, but also creating a living legacy to him,” said local TV reporter Bob Kealing, who helped start the program after learning of the house’s history in 1996.

He and other local residents established a nonprofit corporation, purchased and restored the home and then began selecting writers. Most recently, organizers said, about 80 writers applied for the program, which includes a stipend.

Many writers said they set out not to work as Kerouac did, but rather to draw inspiration from his space.

“I feel like that would really screw me up if I was trying to work as he did,” former writer-in-residence Justin Quarry said. “I’m going to be my own writer anyway, in my own voice. So I would rather be writing beside his spirit than in his shadow.”

Kerouac Project writers said the time they are given to work in the cozy 90-year-old house is more than what is offered in other residencies, such as New York’s Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. The house also provides a rare isolation that allows for focus.

“I had been given this gift of time and the availability, and the inspiration of Jack Kerouac living here,” said Darlyn Finch, an Orlando poet who lived in the house from December 2006 to February 2007. “You don’t want to blow that. You want to make the most of it, so I made the determination that I was going to write a poem a day. And I did. They weren’t all good ones, but I did write a poem every day I was here.”

Liza Monroy, who worked in the house during the summer of 2007, used her time to edit her debut novel, “Mexican High.” For Monroy – who said she preferred to work in Kerouac’s cramped bedroom – being picked for the project helped validate her work.

“The fact that I got in is what really pushed me to finish the novel and see it as something other people besides me would be interested in reading,” Monroy said.