I am delighted to announce that I’ve been selected for a month-long writer’s residency on Hrísey Island in Iceland. Next May, I’ll be packing my bags and moving to the island! I’m very grateful to Gamli Skóli, a non-profit organisation supporting artists, photographers and writers, who are providing accommodation and working space. I’m hoping to get a grant to cover travel expenses. The residency will be focused on a narrative nonfiction project which I submitted as a part of my application and at the end of the month, there will be an exhibition on the island (I have no idea how I’m going to do this).
They’ve sent me the initial paperwork which points out three times that it is not possible to buy alcohol on Hrísey. However, the island does have forty species of nesting birds, a supermarket, two museums, a restaurant, a hundred and fifty plastic puffin decoys, and a resident ghost. There are also regular ferries to the mainland with a bus to Akureyri, a city with several breweries, shops and a thriving restaurant scene, so I don’t expect to be suffering overmuch.
Duolingo does not offer Icelandic, which means it is now 0 for 3 of the languages I have asked it for (Welsh*, Estonian, Icelandic)!
This was my second application to the residency. I was worried it would a tough sell, as an older woman working on narrative nonfiction. So I’m immensely happy that I get to have this opportunity!
*(to be fair, they added Welsh but not until after I’d left Swansea).