{"id":28846,"date":"2026-10-20T15:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leeuwardencityofliterature.nl\/?post_type=project&#038;p=28846"},"modified":"2026-10-31T10:07:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:07:21","slug":"the-flight-of-the-bar-tailed-godwit","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/leeuwardencityofliterature.nl\/en\/project\/the-flight-of-the-bar-tailed-godwit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flight of the Bar-tailed Godwit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">This was a remarkable experiment to be a part of. In the \u2018Flight of the Bar-tailed Godwit\u2019 project, the participants never met \u2018in person\u2019; instead, they connected within a virtual writers\u2019 room\u2014an online space facilitated by poet and playwright Emilie Collyer. Where would this lead us? That was the big question for our team.<br><br>The writers certainly brought their A-game: Tamara Feddema, Sylke Kingma, Myrte Marije Veenbaas, and Elmar Kuiper participated from Leeuwarden-Frysl\u00e2n, while Ruby Mary Gill, Mohammad Taha, Sam Morley, and Jacqui Hodder joined from Melbourne-Victoria.<br><br>At the heart of this writers\u2019 room was the migration of the bar-tailed godwit\u2014known as \u2018reade skries\u2019 or \u2018heawylp\u2019 in Frisian and <em>rosse grutto<\/em> in Dutch\u2014which travels annually between its wintering grounds in the Southern Hemisphere and the Arctic, where it breeds and raises its young. This is precisely why our colleague David Ryding, from CoL Melbourne, saw this long-distance migratory bird as a symbol of connection and perseverance, and conceived this project around it.<br><br>Through this approach\u2014and by imbuing the theme with a profound philosophical resonance, especially relevant in these turbulent times in our global history\u2014a unique series of poems has emerged, spanning two continents. The distance between Melbourne and Leeuwarden has been effortlessly bridged by literature. May it serve as an inspiration to many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Ernst Bruinsma<\/em><br><em>October 2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Would you like to read this publication in another language? Read the poems in English and Frisian<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button taal-fy\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/leeuwardencityofliterature.nl\/en\/project\/the-flight-of-the-bar-tailed-godwit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Frisian<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button taal-nl\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/leeuwardencityofliterature.nl\/en\/project\/the-flight-of-the-bar-tailed-godwit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dutch (bio)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This was a remarkable experiment to be a part of. In the \u2018Flight of the Bar-tailed Godwit\u2019 project, the participants never met \u2018in person\u2019; instead, they connected within a virtual writers\u2019 room\u2014an online space facilitated by poet and playwright Emilie Collyer. Where would this lead us? That was the big question for our team. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28490,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"template":"","project_type":[562,355],"class_list":["post-28846","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_type-magazine","project_type-publicatie"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Flight of the Bar-tailed Godwit - Leeuwarden City of Literature<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leeuwardencityofliterature.nl\/en\/project\/the-flight-of-the-bar-tailed-godwit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Flight of the Bar-tailed Godwit - Leeuwarden City of Literature\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This was a remarkable experiment to be a part of. 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