Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Write & Create program / NOVEMBER 2022
Sarah Holding
UK
www.sarah-holding.com
About
Formerly an architect and an academic (publishing books
and articles as Sarah Chaplin), I am now a full-time author
based in south-west London.
I mostly write in the emerging genre of cli-fi or climate fiction,
having published ‘SeaBEAN, the trilogy’ in 2013-2014,
‘Chameleon’ in 2020, and ‘How to Write a Poem’ in 2021.
This is my first writing residency and I am looking forward to
this precious month at Arteles away from my busy family life,
when I shall be working on a new collection of poems, possibly
some short stories inspired by my Finnish surroundings,
and finding the focus to complete the first draft of a new YA
novel. I enjoy going for walks in nature, meditating, cooking,
practising yoga, and trying to learn Japanese. As someone
who also loves meeting new people, drawing and playing
jazz, I also hope to learn something from the other residents
working on the music and art side!
inland finland
I came to Arteles with the intention of deepening my
writing practice as a children’s author whose work has a
strong connection to the environment. Whilst (and perhaps
because) I set myself no actual goals, I’ve come away with
a first draft of a YA novel set in Iceland entitled Gap Year, an
almost finished draft of another YA novel I’d been working on,
and a collection of poems and photographs about my time
at Arteles. I challenged myself to meditate and write at least
one poem each morning, as preparatory practices before
continuing with my novel, and the photographs were taken
while out on my daily midday walk around Haukijärvi. At the
weekends when I took a break from writing, I made a few
small paintings and collages in the studio. Sometimes I also
played my flute in the music room.
It has been an amazingly vital experience to watch autumn
turn into winter, to feel the temperature dropping and watch
the lake freezing over, to experience a new relationship to
twilight and darkness, and to become almost as hibernatory
as a forest creature over the course of a month. Accepting
and embodying a quietly creative path has become so much
easier having been around a dozen other creative introverts,
watching their process and getting to know what drives them
to make their work.