All aboard the Clipperton Project

In five days I will be off to Aberdeen, and then Shetland, to join the Clipperton Project for a month-long residency sailing around Shetland and Orkney. It's going to take me three days to get there, so quite an epic journey, but I'm sure it will be completely worth it, in terms of giving myself space to write and create.

As someone who is a self-confessed social media addict, spending a month on a boat with no guarantee of a signal is both a daunting and exciting thought. I'll be travelling with six other artists and scientists as well as the Clipperton Project crew.

Packing is the challenge I'm putting off for now though. Once you account the wellies, waterproof salopette, sleeping bag and books, there's little room for other essentials (such as my laptop), but I've gotten pretty good at packing over the last three decades so I'm sure it'll be fine...

I wouldn't have been able to make this trip in the first place without the generosity of several individuals, who helped crowdfund the money to cover my board last year. Some of them wish to remain anonymous, but let me thank those who were ok with sharing their names (in no particular order):

Jo Bell

Paul Martin

Tom Claydon

Nat Newman

A.F. Harrold

Claire Sheridan

Michael Symmons Roberts

Ruth Stacey

Kiran

Ian Chung

Rishi Dastidar

Andrea Berryman

Sam Loveless

Steve Nash

Jenna Gregg

Clare Mosley

Lucy Ayrton

James Webster

Martha Greengrass

Robert Harper

Patricia Stoughton

David Hirons

Tania Hershman

Linda Goulden

Adam Horovitz

Thank you to you all!

If you missed the crowdfunding and fancy chipping in, I'm selling copies of the anthology I co-edited, Other Countries: Contemporary Poets Rewiring History, over on ebay. I'll send you a postcard from the boat as a bonus!