Mairi Macleod

During my time at Saari, I will be working on short fiction as part of the Nordic Alliance of Artists’ Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA)’s exchange programme. In particular, I will work on fiction that weaves the critical exploration of environmental issues with intersectional feminist themes. At the centre of this work will be embodiment, belonging, and human-animal relations. Writing in my native language of Scottish Gaelic, I will also explore how the survival of minority languages intersects with the survival of “wild” spaces and landscapes. One of the short stories I will write is entitled Cur Na Mara (Seasickness) and will reimagine the story of the selkie wife (a well-known folk tale in Celtic and Nordic folklore) in the contemporary context of changing coastal and marine environments.

My time at Saari will be an opportunity to encounter a new environment, develop my creative voice, and consider my place in the ever-changing world we are living in. Above all, though, it will be a chance to exchange ideas with creatives from different disciplines and backgrounds, and learn about the lived experiences of others.

Mairi Macleod (b.1996) is a writer from Glasgow, Scotland. A graduate of the University of Glasgow, she completed an undergraduate degree in Geography and a master’s degree in Earth Futures. Her creative work echoes her academic interests, critically engaging with humanity’s relationships with space, place, and the complex thing we call ‘nature’. As a young woman writing in a minority language, she wants to contribute not just to the survival of her language, but to its blossoming and evolution in different spaces. Her work has been featured in Gaelic literary magazine Steall, and she was awarded the Young Gaelic Writer Residency at Cove Park in Scotland with whom Saari are collaborating on the NAARCA project.