Dana advised us when we arrived (I quote from imperfect memory): “Don’t be too hard on yourselves. You’re all workaholics, otherwise you wouldn’t be here; so permit yourself some freedom.” In the weeks to come I was grateful for this advice, for I think it’s...
The most valuable aspect of my stay here at Civitella was uninterrupted time. It meant that I could start writing whenever I wanted in the morning. I could break for tea when I needed to. I could go for a walk and come back with a brilliant breakthrough to a...
I keep scheduling some relief, as best I can, from my own preponderance, a geographical valve, if you want, from the preoccupation that South Africans have with themselves and the shock of their tentative release from their own undoing. Italy, Civitella, prefigured as...
