Saturday, December 12, 2009

A writer retreats


It is April and I am on an Amtrak train speeding along the east bank of the Hudson River towards the town of Hudson, Columbia County, in New York state about two hours north of New York City.

Four hundred years before me, in 1609, the British explorer Henry Hudson became the first European to sail up the 500km river on a quest for the Dutch East India Company. Even though he failed to return to Holland with the spices he sought, his name has forever been associated with the wide river, the city and the beautiful valley that contains it. It is something of a shock, so close to the big city, to sway past wetlands dotted with ibis and the romantic ruin of a fairytale castle on an island just off shore.

Thanks to a grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council, I am headed for a residency at Ledig House, a writers' colony set on 121ha of park and woodland about a 20-minute drive from Hudson. I am to be given free bed and board and perfect peace to work on my latest novel, thanks to the non-profit organisation that runs the colony... read more about my adventures at Ledig House here.