Vanessa Onwuemezi
In May 2023, we welcomed Vanessa Onwuemezi as the inaugural writer in residence to our Roberts Institute of Art Residency.
Vanessa used her time in residence to begin working on her second book following the 2021 publication of her debut story collection Dark Neighbourhood.
Developing a book based on a fictional island, Vanessa’s research centred on translation and language, and how the use and transmission of words across cultures and places can reveal people’s histories and connections to the land. She took the opportunity to explore the local Scottish landscape and meet with poets, writers and scholars who are interested in the relationship between land and language, belonging and translation, perception and description both in Gaelic storytelling and beyond.
Another area of research during her residency was around how the weather has been translated in writing as well as accounts of UFO sightings in Scotland to explore what they reveal about perception and ideas of home and belonging.
To celebrate her time in residence, Vanessa Onwuemezi was in conversation with Glasgow-based poet, Colin Herd at Cortachy Castle. For this event, Vanessa read a selection of her own writing developed while in residence and explored in conversation with Colin ideas of home, their shared interest in the relationship between visual artworks and poetry, and how to create a sense of atmosphere in writing. Watch the conversation here.
Following Vanessa and Colin’s discussion at Cortachy Castle in May, the writer and poet continued their conversation through writing. Their extended dialogue was published in Granta Magazine. Read the piece here.
Vanessa also shared readings from her time in residence in a special co-publication with Cooper Gallery’s What I am Reading Now…, an online publication which invites Black practitioners and practitioners of colour to share, with a preface, a selection of five readings that are shaping their current thinking, research and practice. Read more here.
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