For all of its flaws, the internet has become a wonderful tool of cross-country collaboration, allowing the movement of ideas between far-flung time zones and territories. Last year, in a month-long virtual City of Literature residency, LeftLion Literature Editor Andrew Tucker Leavis took a virtual trip down under to explore the imagined meeting of outlaws Robin Hood and Ned Kelly. Here he recounts his experience and talks to fellow Notts writer Alison Moore about what they got up to.
‘It’s always happy hour somewhere’, says the sign in my local pub. Whatever the time of day, in some far corner of the world there’s a madcap creative workshop going on, too. Ever since I’ve started writing, the word ‘residency’ has sounded enticing - jet off across the planet, drink in the culture shock, write about the Kabuki theatre, say, or the Yellowstone geysers first-hand. It’s never seemed very likely: for one, I’ve been studying at university in Notts, chained to a desk in the Hallward library.
Last year, though, I got a mission from our own fantastic City of Literature organisation. The equivalent team in Melbourne, Australia, were on the lookout for virtual writers in residence. The idea was simple - eight writers, living in every time zone you could think of, would all strap on unattractive bluetooth headsets and immerse themselves in Melbourne, the distant land of Narrm, through the magic of the internet. We’d all meet up once a week, speak to local writers, academics and historians, run our own workshops for Aussies to attend, take over social media accounts, and generally cause controlled havoc from a safe distance. Almost as spectacularly, the money that would have gone on flights and accommodation would be wired straight to our bank accounts.
At half three in the morning I was woken by the flash of an email which let me know that I’d been picked as one of these writers. After the first response (panic), I had ideas - the main one being a multimedia story of Robin Hood’s gang meeting the outlaw Ned Kelly - but where to begin? My confidence was soon bolstered when I found out that I wasn’t the only representative from Nottingham. Alison Moore is a superb wordsmith - her short stories have been included in several ‘Best of British’ collections and broadcast on BBC Radio, and her first novel was nominated for a Booker Prize in 2012. She’s also a complete pleasure to talk to - so, when our residencies wrapped up, that’s exactly what I did.
The idea was simple - eight writers, living in every time zone you could think of, would all strap on unattractive bluetooth headsets and immerse themselves in Melbourne, the distant land of Narrm, through the magic of the internet.
Alison - what were your thoughts about applying for the residency - did you choose to work with your library group for a reason? I had several fingers crossed when I applied, as I’ve not got a large body of work yet, so it seemed like a big step.
This was my first residency and everything about it seemed so perfect - I love libraries of course, I always have, and Moorabool Libraries wanted 'a writer who is passionate about short stories', and short stories are my enduring love as a writer and as a reader. They also wanted someone to work with writers of all ages, and having written for both children and adults, and as someone who does workshops/author events for both children and adults, it was all very exciting! I was so thrilled to be chosen and to get to do this, I loved every bit of it.
What did you think of the ‘virtual’ set up? I’m not sure my body clock loved getting up before 6am - I’d be a terrible farmer.
I loved the virtual aspect - with a school-age child there's no way I could do it in person, so that's another thing that made the opportunity so appealing. The time difference actually worked out really well. With Melbourne City of Literature very kindly arranging the social meet-ups to take place at 9am UK time, that was perfect for me. And then we arranged my school workshops for 10am AEST which was 11pm for me, so I had these really lovely sessions right before going to bed! I did have a 1am session with my writing group because they meet at noon, but again it was just such a friendly, enjoyable session, plus it was the weekend anyway.
We were absorbing some of Melbourne’s contemporary culture - I loved hearing about Nathan Curnow’s ‘Ghost Project’, for example - he’d got funding to sleep over in ten apparently haunted locations, from a hearse to a gaol cell, and to distil that experience into poetry. Do you think that some of that will stick with you - and did you feel any compulsion to project some Nottingham culture over there as well?
Yes, Nathan's Ghost Poetry Project caught my fancy too - I mentioned it to my writing group because we were doing a workshop on writing from prompts and that seemed like a very good example! Nathan and I exchanged a few emails afterwards, and he mentioned the Bacchus Marsh Cherry Festival which had just taken place, which I then included in the story I was writing as part of the residency - so it was a very 'fruitful' cultural exchange. And yes, I remember during the social sessions we were talking about Nottingham as well, including singing David Belbin's praises!
I had the good fortune to meet so many talented people like Alison in the process of this online residency, and this surreal project will live in the memory for some time. I led my first writing workshop, with teens, retirees and everyone in-between, and I got to film Ezekial Bone warming up his gritty Robin-Hood-voice in an underground cavern. If you tell people you’re a writer, they tend to think you’re terminally unemployed. But this was my first paid gig, and I feel like a pro now at last - or virtually, at least.
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