Writer in Residence on The Furor Scribendi a floating short story library - The most wonderful and exciting place to read, write, think, float, dream...

This week I am writer in residence on this incredible vessel.

This is Furor Scribendi. She is a floating library of short fiction. 

 

She was commissioned and funded by Super Slow Way, The Canal and River Trust, Lancashire libraries, Coventry City of Culture and British Council. For more on how this immensely exciting project came about, see this podcast from the brilliant Heather and Robin at Lancashire library Services interviewing creator artist Heather Morison.

This vessel is a piece of art; a sculpture created and brought to life by Studio Morison artists Heather Peake Morison and Ivan Morison. They have imagined and realised every aspect from the outer paint aesthetic and internal carpentry to the tiniest details on the boat. Everything about this boat is considered - it is exquisite art, yet it is all entirely functional. The attention to detail is overwhelming. I spent the first two days of my residency taking it all in. 

These are the incredibly beautiful ceramic tableware and light fittings, made from casts of detritus found in and around the canal. And painted canvas panels by Heather Morison. More on this in a future post.

Furor Scribendi will travel up and down the Leeds Liverpool canal as a library for the community. You will be able to hop on, dip into the outstanding short story collection, meet and chat with librarians, fellow community members, readers and writers, and possibly even the artists who created this gorgeous research vessel. Furor Scribendi will travel down to Coventry at the end of June for the Coventry City of Culture and return to Lancashire in the Autumn. When things start to open up a little (Please Please!), there will be a programme of events for the local community - opportunities to relax, share ideas, read and float away. 

It is an immense privilege to be the very first writer in residence on Furor Scribendi. I'm enjoying exploring the stunning and diverse short fiction on board - I am reacquainting myself with old favourites, finding new writers to love and reading writers I know I should have read by now but haven't. More on this in a later post. They have almost as many short story collections as I have at home. 

I am writing something. But I'll say a bit more about that in a separate post. 

If you'd like to see some more, we had a little feature on ITV Granada Tonight, see it here.

The launch was also covered by BBC Lancashire. See more here.

I am having a ball. I feel like the actual luckiest writer in the world.