Elvia Wilk (US, 1990)
Residency period: January-March 2024
At La Becque, I finished a revision of a new novel. The book, A Diagnosis, is speculative fiction that explores the way political and ecological change is registered by the body. It is set in a slightly alternate reality in an urban lockdown scenario, where the characters’ perceptions of time become increasingly estranged from solar and lunar cycles. The story deals with the limits of the medical system to describe somatic experience, suggests that human health is integrally reliant on natural ecosystems, and explores the creative ways that people push against confinement.
While in residence, I had the great privilege of working on my own time, according to my own rhythms, and in tune with the changing seasons. The focused time, the connection with the lake and surroundings, the support of the staff and other residents, and the access to natural light and complete darkness were all incredibly conducive to finishing a huge revision of a book about solar cycles. I became increasingly ambitious with my rewrite and feel like I left with a different project than I started with: I was able to take greater creative risks. It’s leaner, stronger, and stranger now. — Elvia Wilk
Born in 1989, Elvia Wilk is an American writer who lives in New York. Her work focuses on ecology, feminism, and the politics of art in an age of climate catastrophe. After numerous collaborations with other artists and researchers, she published her first dystopian fiction novel Oval (2019, Soft Skull Press, shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize), which imagines a pill capable of increasing generosity. Her second book Death by Landscape (2022, Soft Skull Press) features a series of critical and personal essays on the role of literature in the age of extinction.
Elvia Wilk, La Becque, 2024, photo Matthieu Croizier
Elvia Wilk, La Becque, 2024, photo Elvia Wilk