ICORN Writing Workshop at Biskops Arnö
Biskops Arnö Nordens Folkhögskola, the celebrated folk high school on the island of Biskops Arnö in Sweden, opened its doors to fourteen current and former ICORN writers for a four-day writing workshop.
For third year in a row, Nordic-based ICORN resident writers of fiction participated in the workshop, a collaboration between Biskops Arnö’s distinguished writing school and ICORN. The programme ran for four days between August 2nd- 5th, 2022 and engaged writers in comprehensive writing and reading activities, as well as spending time and sharing experiences with other ICORN writers, away from their host cities. The ICORN writers who attended the workshop included Marjan Poursharifi, Murshida Zaman, Babak Zalimzadeh, Dareen Tatour, Mahdieh Golroo, Xebat Rasouli, Tsegabrha Goitom, and Suzanne Ibrahim amongst others.
This year’s ICORN- Biskops Arnö workshop welcomed 11 ICORN residents from Sweden, two from Norway, and one from Denmark. It was organised and run by ICORN’s National Coordinator for Sweden Karin Hansson, together with Biskops Arnö’s Principal Mats Lundborg and Kajsa Sundin. The participants were able to develop their writing skills as well as make new professional connections and friends based on the idea that that conversation is a collective creation of knowledge.
Karin Hansson, ICORN’s National Coordinator for Sweden, shared her impressions from the Biskops Arnö workshop by saying:
‘Time at Biskops Arnö went very quickly, and it was wonderful to see so many new and old faces at the workshop during the summer when engagements are not as frequent. It was great to see writers working both individually and in groups, and the social element of the workshop was very refreshing.’
The programme of the workshop consisted of talks, lectures, and readings and gave the participants the opportunity to share their own writing, listen to each other, exchange experiences and tips. It also allowed the ICORN residents to explore similarities and differences in their approaches to creative work, fostering possible future literary collaborations.
Starting with professional presentations on the first day, the rest of the workshop saw guest speakers and organisations give more insight into the professional sides of writing in Sweden. This included existing partnerships with ICORN writers, such as Mahdieh Golroo and Namdar Nasser’s work on translation and editing, as well as Dareen Tatour and Malin Nord’s cooperation on the play ‘My Threatening Poem’ based on Tatour’s life and persecution story.
To learn more about Biskops Arnö folk high school, visit its official website here.
