Q) What is a writer in residence?
Well, usually a writer-in-residence is someone who travels to a location to live for a while, to integrate in the culture and work with local organisations, and to use the new environment as a springboard for their writing. This residency was a little bit different – it was a virtual residency, so I did a version of everything you’d do in an in-person residency, but online. We had weekly meetings with some fabulous Australian writers, I got to grill some local historians about holes in local buildings caused by bullets fired by Ned Kelly’s gang, and I led creative workshops, all without leaving my desk.
It was a great advert for Melbourne! And it was perfect for me – I’d have found it impossible to travel to the other side of the world while finishing my course at uni, and some of the other writers had physical disabilities or were full time carers, so the virtual framing made it more widely accessible. I loved it.
Q) How did you find out about the opportunity and what made you decide to do it?
A) I have you guys – Nottingham City of Literature – to thank for hearing about the opportunity, actually. To apply you needed to turn in three project pitches you wanted to run.
So I thought, why not. I dropped out of uni a few years ago, and now I’m really focussed on doing well, in part to ‘pay back’ the people who kept some faith in me when I was dossing around. I’ve made a commitment recently to put more energy into applying to things – I’ve worked in coffee shops and in retail before, all sorts, and I just think, ‘if I can put an eight hour shift into that, I should spend the same effort on things which I’m really passionate about’. As someone who’s very early in my career, it seemed a bit preposterous that I’d be accepted. But there’s nothing lost from trying, and I put a weekend of graft into writing what I felt was an interesting plan. And Melbourne City of Lit were gracious enough to let me try it!
Q) What did you do during the residency?
A) Throughout the residency, I was partnered with City of Boroondara services – a group of six libraries. I ran an online workshop for people in Melbourne which asked people to create their own imaginary library, after learning about some of the strangest that have ever existed – like the 18th century one in Coimbra, Portugal which houses a colony of bats who come out at night to eat the pests who would otherwise chew the books!
We also had weekly meet-ups with the other writers in residence, where writers from Melbourne spoke about their careers and projects each week. One was Nathan Curnow, who slept overnight in the ten supposedly most haunted locations in Australia and wrote poems about what they took from bunking there.
My main project was my favourite – I wrote a series about Robin Hood meeting the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly – he’s iconic, but divisive. I wrote and performed a theme tune, interviewed Robin Hood scholar Dr. Stephen Knight, and filmed in an underground cave with Ezekiel Bone, Nottingham’s premier Robin Hood. Altogether I had some lovely feedback, and it stretched my brain a bit, which you need to do once in a while.
Q) Were there any more challenging aspects of the residency that you faced?
A) I try to take ‘challenging’ in a positive sense, in which case…it all was! I think leading my first creative writing workshop – a two hour thing run online at the crack of dawn to a group of strangers from the other side of the world…well if my nerves weren’t jangling a bit before that, my body wouldn’t be doing its job. Because the whole programme was my own pitch, I was questioning whether I was doing enough of x or y, but once I’d settled into the groove, I had a great time – it was just a fascinating experience overall, and I really feel a connection to the Australian creative scene now. Oh, one challenge was getting up before half 5 in the morning. I’d be a terrible farmer.
Q) What did you gain from the experience?
A) On a personal level, it’s the first reasonably well-paid writing gig that I’ve been involved with, so the first time that I’ve been able to consider myself a professional writer rather than an aspiring writer or a hobbyist. I think when we give people press at Leftlion, or give out a prize at the Young Creative Awards, who I’ve worked with for a while, we have a similar sort of goal – to give people a rubber stamp from outside themselves. Or maybe to give them an exoskeleton of confidence, resilience – I can do this. Confidence is so important. There’s more talent out there than there is confidence.
Q) Would you recommend it?
A) Yes, definitely. I’d also love to do an in-person residency as well and compare the two. To other Nottingham writers, I’d say keep your eyes and ears out. There are so many opportunities out there that it can be overwhelming. Make a plan and keep putting yourself out there. We’ve got so many fabulous writers, they just need shoving out into the world!
Andrew Tucker Leavis is a Nottingham writer, a board member at Bromley House library and literature editor at Leftlion.
Photo by Lloyd Williams on Unsplash.
Benjamin Bailey is a Nottingham Trent University student and intern at Nottingham City of Literature.