Joya: AiR / poet / Maxine Backus / Switzerland

 'I have built up a body of poems which largely relate to landscape and knew that I needed a new landscape and a new point of cultural reference to anchor some of the themes. I went to the Joya residency hoping to find this. I did find this, and much, much more. The landscape itself, vast and deserted, moved me profoundly. The spaces in the house, the professionalism and warmth of our hosts, the fruitful and fun interactions with the other residents and the interns, the opportunity to be social or not, the motivation of seeing others absorbed in their work, it all fitted. My work started to become sparser and more directed. I am grateful to have had time in this place with these people.'

Maxine Backus

‘Bleak House‘: Charles Dickens

‘We have Always Lived in the Castle‘: Shirley Jackson

`Poem for the Day: One, ed. Wendy Cope; Two, ed. Andrew Motion

‘The Good Companions’: J B Priestley

‘Noon Wine’: Katherine Anne Porter, in Collected Stories