Individual Residencies
2022 | Patricia O’Donnell
Travel shakes up preconceptions and forces us to re-see and re-think what we know. The travel I enjoy most is that which gives time and space to translate new ways of seeing the world into words. Something about travel, the very lack of comfort and ease we have become accustomed to in familiar settings, jars the mind and emotions in ways that can bring energy to the work. When that discomfort is relieved by the quiet and comfort available at The Museum of Loss and Renewal residency, writing becomes necessary.
My fiction is deeply rooted in character, but I believe that place is instrumental in shaping character. Stories I have written in the past were inspired by travels in Scotland, South Africa, Ireland, and Italy. While revising a new completed novel, I wrote more short fictions using the sense of place and culture I experience in Collemacchia.