Writer Pia Prezelj from Slovenia lived and worked for almost a month in April and May 2025 at the invitation of Leeuwarden City of Literature. During her residency, she worked on a new novel set on Schiermonnikoog. We are pleased to share the first chapter of this novel.
Pia first visited Leeuwarden in November 2023 for the Meet me at the Lighthouse festival on Schiermonnikoog. The island, with its dunes, birds and a slowly vanishing language, made a deep impression on her. From that visit grew the idea for a novel set on Schiermonnikoog.
During her residency from 26 April to 18 May, she returned to the island, this time on foot – walking across the mudflats through shells, mud and jellyfish, beneath a sky stretching wider than on the mainland. She met residents and collected stories. ‘I lay on the sand and listened to the geese and gulls and terns all flying overhead and thought about how curious the writing life can be – how all the doubt and dread before the next blank page can be outweighed by the song of a single willow warbler.’
About Pia Prezelj
Pia Prezelj (Slovenia, 1995) is a writer, translator and journalist for Delo, Slovenia’s largest daily newspaper. In 2022, she received the Watchdog Award for Young Journalist of the Year from the Slovenian Association of Journalists.
Her debut novel Težka voda (‘Heavy Water’, Goga 2023) tells the story of an elderly woman’s life in a remote rural village, and won the prize for best debut of the year. The book was also shortlisted for the Cankar Prize, the Kresnik Prize for best novel of the year, and the Zeef Prize from critics. Težka voda is currently being translated into Italian, Danish and Croatian.
Writer residencies
Each year, Leeuwarden UNESCO City of Literature invites writers from abroad for a residency in the city, while writers from Fryslân go on residency to other cities. We coordinate and facilitate these exchanges and connect writers with local writers, knowledge, heritage and residents.
Read the first chapter of Pia’s new novel here.
Foto: Lana Špiler.
