inland finland

I’m back from my writing residency in Finland now, and still processing the whole fantastic experience of working alongside 11 other people.

I went to Arteles with the intention of deepening my writing practice as a children’s author whose work has a strong connection to the environment. Whilst (and perhaps because) I set myself no actual goals, I’ve come away with a first draft of a YA novel set in Iceland entitled Gap Year, an almost finished draft of another YA novel I’d been working on, and a collection of poems and photographs about my time at Arteles. I challenged myself to meditate and write at least one poem each morning, as preparatory practices before continuing with my novel, and the photographs were taken while out on my daily midday walk around Haukijärvi. At the weekends when I took a break from writing, I made a few small paintings and collages in the studio. Sometimes I also played my flute in the music room. 

It has been an amazingly vital experience to watch autumn turn into winter, to feel the temperature dropping and watch the lake freezing over, to experience a new relationship to twilight and darkness, and to become almost as hibernatory as a forest creature over the course of a month. Accepting and embodying a quietly creative path has become so much easier having been around a dozen other creative introverts, watching their process and getting to know what drives them to make their work.