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July was an exciting month for Swedish young writers in general as well as Young Writers Lab in particular with a series of events At The Fringe- International Arts Festival in Tranås.

A strong thread for the development of youth writing has been sewn with the support of Peter Nyberg, Regional Literary Development Officer for Jönköping. Two local young writers were selected through the Tranås Writers Award to be “writers of the place” at Piraten Huset, the former Storgatan home of Fritiof Nilsson Piraten. The idea came from a residency that Welsh poet Natalie Holborow participated in at 5, Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea; the house in Wales that is celebrated as the birthplace and childhood home of Dylan Thomas. Natalie was also a Coracle Europe Literary Resident with Kultivera in 2014.

Ullias Berglund and Joanna Hellström relished the opportunity to respond to Nilsson’s writing and to draw inspiration from the same place in which he had set down his stories 70 years ago. During the residency Ullias and Joanna were mentored by Welsh poet and Director of write4word, Dominic Williams, and Swedish poet, Freke Räihä.

Ullias said of the Piraten Huset residency that: “it meant a lot to my motivation and inspiration. It was great to discuss writing and creativity with such talented people as Joanna, Dominic and Freke, and to have feedback to improve. I worked on a collection of poems about things like summer, anxiety and relationships. I also wrote a story in the same style of Huckleberry Finn, but with two girls as the main characters. I’ll always keep writing, especially spoken word poems, and I already have some gigs booked”

With mentoring from international writers, the inspiration of place, and the knowledge that this kind of impetus helped Natalie Holborow, I am confident that Ullias and Joanna will continue to flourish as writers.

Last Thursday was a very special day for the children of Klass 5-6 in Kulltorpsskolan. They received their books, “Poems from a Forest: Skogspoesi”. The children wrote brief stories and poems based on the snails visiting the forest near their school in Kulltorp, and the book has been published by Kultivera.

The books were given to children in goodie bags at the end of their parents meeting last week, when they were able to tell their parents about the poetry writing project. The pupils and their parents were excited by the books and honoured to be part of the project. At Young Writers Lab we feel honoured to have such an enthusiastic teacher as Marianne (Majsan) Olsson encouraging her pupils to be creative and to enjoy writing so much.

Here is one poem, “Survival” by Hedda Jarlstam

" The rain smattered

against the ceiling.

The child was playing

in the waterpooles.

The clouds above us

were dark.

However, the leaves

are still green

in the darkness."

We hope that some of the children will be able to join us for our Young Writers day at the Fringe International Arts Festival in Tranås next month.

Following my trip to Jönköping Region in April, it's great to hear that new groups for Young Writers Lab have started up. Elisabeth is running a group with members from Jönköping, Nässjö, Vetlanda and Tranås meeting on line. Joke has worked with Kulltorpskolan near Gnosjö and Kultivera has published their book of photographs and poems, "Skogsboken". More on this soon

I've met with my new group in Holavedsgymnasiet, Tranås, who are a group of five aesthetic course students. They are performing a production of Alice in Wonderland this month, and have named their group "Sagolandet". They are interested in responding to nature and we'll work on some poetry and short stories. My recent meeting with them was interesting as I video-called them from a remote Welsh island, and was able to talk to them about the landscape and wildlife there. We began writing short stories based upon treasure seeking in their favourite places.

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