Collective residencies / HUMANITIES III / Olot
ALLAN CAMERON
From Sunday, 29 January 2017 to Thursday, 9 February 2017
Bio
Allan Cameron has written two novels, The Golden Menagerie and The Berlusconi Bonus, and one non-fiction book, In Praise of the Garrulous. Also, he has written two collections of short stories, Can the Gods Cry? and On the Heroism of Mortals. On the other hand, he has translated 24 books from Italian, and his two collections of poetry, Presbyopia and A Barrel of Dried Leaves.
In 2008 he set up a new publishing house called Vagabond Voices. One of the reasons for the new publishing house was to increase the number of translated literary works in English.
Project
At Faber I will try to link up with Catalan publishers and writers: Vagabond Voices is a publisher based in Glasgow (Scotland) and publishes translated novels, novels originally written in English, political polemics, poetry and plays. Apart from the translated novels, most of the authors are resident in Scotland, and we are therefore very much involved in the debate around independence and the maintenance of our languages. This is one of the reasons for seeking links with Catalan publishers and writers, and more widely with Catalan culture.
On the other hand, I would like to work on my novel, Cinico. Travels with a Good Professor at the time of the Scottish Referendum.
My experience in Faber Residency
The residencies run by Faber in Olot are uniquely informal and generous. The hotel staff are friendly and helpful, and the whole atmosphere is conducive to creating the best possible environment for writers to get on with their work. Those fortunate enough to be invited to one of these residencies will find that their fellow residents are agreeably cosmopolitan and their conversation fascinating – or at least this was my experience. Breakfast and a four-course dinner are provided at the hotel that hosts the residency, while the area reserved for the residency has cooking and washing facilities. The director, Francesc Serés, organises trips in the surrounding area as well as talks. This residency gave me the opportunity to finish my novel on Europe and Scottish independence narrated by a cynical and narcissistic Italian journalist: Cinico. Travels with a Good Professor at the Time of the Scottish Referendum. In other words, it did exactly what a residency should do.