“Tartu Revisited” – Walks with Former Writers-in-Residence

The writer-in-residence programs in Tartu UNESCO City of Literature began in 2017, and since then, more than 15 writers from various cultural backgrounds have spent extended stays here through different residency programs. Living and writing temporarily in a new place can bring fresh inspiration to one’s work. Likewise, new creators and fresh perspectives can expand and redefine the way a place is perceived and understood.

As this year’s theme focuses on the relationship between books and place, we have invited some of our former resident writers back to Tartu. We asked them to take us on a walk through their Tartu, introducing the places that inspired them and sharing thoughts and texts connected in one way or another to their time here.

English poet Andy Willoughby is a frequent guest in Tartu and was the writer-in-residence here in 2019. This time, together with the Tartu poet Joanna Ellmann, he will lead participants on a psychogeographical journey along the banks of the Emajõgi. Lithuanian writer Kristina Sadauskienė was in Tartu in 2023 as part of a special project supported by the North and Baltic Countries Cultural Mobility Program, which brought together five writers from Lithuania and Iceland over two years. Sadauskienė, who is also an experienced guide, has inspired the entire walking tour project with her ideas. Her walk will take participants from Kassitoome through the city center. Manchester writer David Hartley was in Tartu as a participant in the project “Bring Your Own Utopia”, which was prepared for last year’s festival. As part of this, he collaborated with Henri Hütt on the storytelling event “The Forest of Ink and Skin”. Alongside this, David took the time to explore many different places and spaces in Tartu and now invites participants to join him on a pilgrimage to the Hedgehog. Also from Manchester is Quigley Cryan Brockbank (Quigley CB), who was a writer-in-residence in Tartu last autumn. She will lead a walk titled “An Alternative Guide to Local Saints.” Through tales of homemade miracles and martyrdom, she will explore the overlapping space between sainthood and folklore through a series of homemade miracles and martyrdoms.

All walks will be conducted primarily in English, but the experience of space speaks a universal language.