Writing Away From Home: A Year of Writer Residencies
American Writer Rebecca Clay Haynes in Europe
Why go away to write?
If one is a writer, staying in one place should be just as conducive to creativity as rolling along like that stone that gathers no moss.
Right?
Well, yes and no.
For many of us, there is a time to stay still and a time to move. I am now in moving mode, which means traveling from one artist/writer residency to another for a year and perhaps even longer.
This lifestyle means shaking up my world, giving up huge gobs of control, leaving behind all that is familiar and then trusting I’ll be able to create on the fly.
Read Rebecca Clay Hayne's blog for an exquisitely descriptive post about Neopoli: A Terrace in Neopoli (June 2, 2011)
As of this day in early June 2011, I’m just five days into the process, living in the very south of Italy, in a hilltop village called Noepoli, in an old palace looking down over a valley dotted with olive orchards and wild fennel.
Already, I can feel my work begin to change.
Slowly – better not to rush – but my sense is that the effects of running away from home will accelerate over the coming weeks and months and become increasingly powerful and profound.
On a year of writer residencies around the world, Rebecca taking a break with some T'ai Ch'i at Palazzo Rinaldi
Old mental and emotional barriers seem to be melting away, and I feel the birth of a fresh ability to express myself and my ideas in print.
For more information on artist/writer residencies, check out resartis.org. They list more than a hundred residencies around the world, including deadlines and guidelines for application.
Some are free, others cost little. At ones in Turkey and Portugal, it will be less expensive to spend time at a residency than to live at home.
So far, the biggest challenge may be living out of a suitcase, sharing a bathroom and wearing the same old funky dress.
Interested in pursuing a similar adventure, or just attending one residency? Please feel free to contact me, Rebecca Clay Haynes, through Facebook or my blog, Rebecca Clay Haynes.
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Follow Rebecca through her blog or request “friend” status on Facebook. On Twitter at @RCHaynes
Category: Contemporary Women Writers
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That sounds so interesting! I am definitely going to look into it. 🙂