CREATIVITY has taken up residence in the heart of Midland, with six talented Western Australian writers involved in the City of Swan’s inaugural Swan Writer-in-Residence program.

Swan Writer-in-Residence has been developed as an extension of the successful Swan Artist-in-Residence initiative.

The city has delivered artist residencies since 2021, giving guest artists free temporary studio space and support for research, development and production.

The residencies are mutually beneficial arrangements which give creatives a platform, while activating community spaces and inspiring residents.

This year, the city aims to support the development of creative works in the Midland area.

In late 2023, the city shortlisted six authors for the Swan Writer-in-Residence program and offered each of them free use of the historic Courtyard Studio in Midland for two months in 2024.

The writers are Bec Bowman (January-February), Bianca Breen (March-April), Nina Dakin (May-June), Lisa Collyer (July-August), Lakshmi Kanchi (September-October) and Rafeif Ismail (November-December).

During their residency, each of the writers will be required to facilitate community programs and produce a creative work inspired by their experience in Midland.

The locally inspired work will be relative to the creative’s field. It could be a song, a short story, a play, a poem or a text-based artwork.

Those commissioned pieces will be combined with documentation of workshops and conversations with the writers before being published in 2025.

Bianca Breen, the writer-in-residence for March-April, is an emerging children’s and young adult author.

The founder of YA in WA, she said she is passionate about promoting and writing stories set in her home state.

Community members are welcome to drop in and see what she is working on during one of six open studio sessions, which started last week.

In addition to the open studio sessions, she will host community workshops – Writing with Magic on April 2 and YA 101 on April 11.

To register for the workshops, visit www.cityofswan.social/library-events