Travel Writers Online

Destination Plymouth The whole story of the Millbay Residency and the UNESCO Cities of Literature writing commission celebrating Plymouth’s climate action is now available. The interview on YouTube explores how a place-making story, 'Millbay and Mill Bay' evolved from The Millbay Writer's Residency in Plymouth, Devon UK.  More background to the creation of the narrative is here on the magazine blog, Travel Writers Online. Simply clock on the Millbay & Mill Bay wave icons to read more below 

Millbay, Saturday 3 August 2024 Samedi. A decade has passed since Sam Ferguson published his question* on the innovative story by André Gide, called, Paludes . In English that book title could be rendered as Swamps, or, Sourpool, perhaps. Plymouth's Sourpool is recorded in 1439 when the town's boundary was fixed during its incorporation as a Devon borough. The record reads ‘between the hill called Windy Ridge – by the bank of the Sourpool – against the north all the way to the great dyke otherwise called the great ditch’.  Damp, mossy, ferny, even swampy boundaries blurred the edges of the space we call Millbay today. Paludes occupies a critical point of experimentation in the trajectory of published diary-writing […] exploring the possible relationship of the diary with the literary œuvre, and its capacity for addressing philosophical and aesthetic questions. The pertinence of this experimentation to the modern field of life-writing makes this a suitable moment for anothe...

West Hoe Road This week we completed more fieldwork on the Millbay Residency down on the quays in Plymouth. It was an opportunity to try the new single document format for Dialogue Journaling in Google Docs and Google Drive for the first time. Some inspiring imagery from Mark and the chance to map out more of the route with Clarisse took us to the eastern-most edge of our territory so far. It was the fork where West Hoe Road becomes Redford Road, and Mayflower College stands in the upturned letter Y where the Great Western Road begins its journey south. Cawfee near the Octagon But back to the beginning of the day, for a moment. The team arrived early on Tuesday 25th April, so we had to find a plateau to sit, write and plan. Cawfee at 104 Union St, Stonehouse, Plymouth PL1 3HL was open, and only a short step from the Octagon and the entrance to the EU-funded flood defence system called Millbay Boulevard. The marshlands of Bath Street were regenerated just below the surface here and new ...