Last fall, I took part in an unusual residency program in the Arctic Circle. I spent two and a half weeks aboard Antigua, a three-masted sailing ship with 29 artists and writers on an expedition to explore the Svalbard archipelago. It was quite a trip.
I wrote a story about my experience for the current issue of The Journal of Alta California. We hiked on frozen tundra, encountered a polar bear, hunkered down during a howling wind storm, and gazed in awe at the spectral beauty of aurora borealis. My shipmates were artists and writers who’d come from Hong Kong, Berlin, Toronto, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere for an off-the-grid wilderness experience.