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writethemap

The website "Write the Map" is a creative project that explores the intersections of writing and place through the practice of walking. It documents how literary texts and geographic locations influence one another, highlighting the spatial dimensions of narrative and authorship. The site features essays, maps, and visual materials that examine the relationship between landscapes, urban environments, and the act of writing, situating literary production within specific cultural and geographical contexts.

The project also engages with themes of cultural geography by considering how walking serves as both a method of inquiry and a form of artistic expression. It brings attention to how movement through space can shape literary imagination and create new modes of storytelling. Through various contributions and archival materials, "Write the Map" offers insights into how physical journeys and textual narratives reciprocally inform each other, framing walking as a durational and spatially aware creative practice.

Most recent articles

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Walking the Gallery

Words at The Black Swan, Peter Hayes Exhibition. The opening of each new exhibition at Frome’s Black Swan Arts Centre is followed by Words in the Gallery, bringing writers together to explore the work and respond in writing. This month’s workshop was  inspired by Clare Hind and Clare Qualmann’s Ways to Wander the Gallery, a project hosted […]

write the map
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Austerlitz & Beyond

  John Payne in W.G Sebald’s Footsteps…. There is no doubt in my mind that Austerlitz Station in Paris is the key to this rather enigmatic novel which draws a personal and emotional and rather misleading map of Europe, said John, misleading in that the novel appears to be meandering nowhere and the story and […]

write the map
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The Trouble with Maps…

‘A map can tell me how to find a place I have not seen, but have often imagined. When I get there, following the map faithfully, the place is not the place of my imagination. Maps, growing ever more real, are much less true.’ Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry A map constitutes relationships and connections, […]

write the map
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Beginnings, Middles & Endings

Q: You walk out of your door. You do not know how far you will go, how long it will take, if or when, you will return?… Read more "Beginnings, Middles & Endings"

write the map
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An invitation to walk creatively…

  We walk for many reasons – utility, leisure, relaxation. Sometimes alone, sometimes with others. Walking is an act of connecting, with ourselves, our thoughts, with the… Read more "An invitation to walk creatively…"

write the map
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Hefted

by Josie Melia If I’d been a sheep in the North, I could have been hefted. Traditionally, ewes heft their lambs from an early age, teaching them… Read more "Hefted"

write the map
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What Does Walking Mean To Me?

  Maggie Peake describes her relationship with walking as ambiguous. One wet September morning, walking the South Downs, Maggie decided to ponder on the reasons for this,… Read more "What Does Walking Mean To Me?"

write the map
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Walking, Writing, Connecting

Walking, Connecting and Creating Writing the Map has been exploring the dynamic relationship between place, walking and identity through a series of events and walkshops, focusing on… Read more "Walking, Writing, Connecting"

write the map
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Walking Forwards & Backwards

by Rosamund Cran What does it mean to document a walk and what can arise from this process? To make a record, to record, to remember, to… Read more "Walking Forwards & Backwards"

write the map
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Walking Explorations (natural and unnatural)

  ‘Feelings are bound up in place, and in art, from time to time, place undoubtedly works upon genius.’  Eudora Welty The two Walkshops in Brighton and… Read more "Walking Explorations (natural and unnatural)"

write the map
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Protocol 6 – Instinct, False Starts and Vacancies

When does instinct kick in? The moment you head out of the door, impulsive, intuitively ready for the drift, or before that, lying in bed, considering places… Read more "Protocol 6 – Instinct, False Starts and Vacancies"

write the map
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Protocol 5 – The View from the Map

    Baudrillard famously said ‘hence, the map precedes the territory,’ suggesting maps can conceptualise terrains and construct solid topologies, without needing to set a foot on… Read more "Protocol 5 – The View from the Map"

write the map
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Protocol 4 Mindful Walking

How to pay attention to the walk, to one’s feet, one’s breath, the swish of a jacket against skin, the smell of diesel or elderflower blossom; if… Read more "Protocol 4 Mindful Walking"

write the map
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Protocol 3: DRIFT App (a tool for getting lost in familiar places)

A phone app created for the 21st century deriver – requiring no imagination or forethought, all you have to do is show up with your phone, calibrate… Read more "Protocol 3: DRIFT App (a tool for getting lost in familiar places)"

write the map
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Protocol 2 Walking the circle

A favourite Letterist trick to promote random and playful ways of walking was to place a glass down on a map and draw around it and walk… Read more "Protocol 2 Walking the circle"

write the map
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Protocol 1 – Identity, Herzog & The Examined Walk

  I walked with a friend from Falmer to Lewes. I wore new Berghaus boots. She carried a sketch pad and a bag of almonds. ‘Identity is… Read more "Protocol 1 – Identity, Herzog & The Examined Walk"

write the map
Sub-collection

essays

Sub-collection · 6 items

literary

Collection · 5 items
Sub-collection

maps

Sub-collection · 26 items

movement

Collection · 39 items

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apostlahästar

Swedish word for feet. Translated it means “horses of the apostles” referring to the apostles traveling on foot.

Added by juanma
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