What do I mean by that - the perspective of a writer? Well, firstly, a writer knows no boundaries. We are people that inhabit our imaginations and explore worlds of fiction as often or more so than we do the real world. We question, we cast doubt, we nose into shadows and into the shadowy. We take inference from shades, from glances, we respond to nuance. If there's one thing we know for certain, is that there is no certainty and that reality is only what you make it and never what it seems.
So, from a writer's perspective, where everything is possible, fleeting and elusive, what does "local" mean?
We work with words, and while sometimes we insist on definition, we also understand and use allusion. We use words to create images and illusions and we know more than most, how words can destroy and well as create.
Local means "belonging or relating to a particular area or neighbourhood, typically exclusively so" according to my dictionary.
This means, then, that anyone who belongs to Gibraltar or relates to Gibraltar as a defined neighbourhood, could be classed as a "Gibraltar writer". So far so good - the geographical boundary is defined and the journalist in me is satisfied, and yet the definition is broad enough to encompass a wide variety of writers and writing.
Which leads me to wonder why I don't feel satisfied, why I feel that something is missing. Perhaps it's that in practical application, the word "local" in a Gibraltar context can often mean something far more narrow. When I look for a job and I'm asked if I'm a local, I have to produce my red ID card. I wonder if I lived in La Linea, which to me, used as I am to living in a larger geographical environment, would feel local to Gibraltar, would I be considered a "local". Experience tells me I doubt it. My answer is that even if I lived in Estepona, I would feel local to Gibraltar. For years I lived in Gillingham in Kent, and still think of myself as local to London, forty miles away.
Context, then, is essential when looking at the way that words are interpreted. My concern, however, is how local is literature?
If a writer is born in Gibraltar but writes in New Zealand, is he or she a "local" writer, in the popular perception of the word? If a writer is Canadian but lives in Rosia and writes about the Great Lakes and the Mounties in tense whodunnit thrillers, is he or she a local writer to Gibraltar or would we treat their work as an irrelevance in terms of local literature? Is an American writer based in San Roque and writing educational books for Grade 6 Maths lessons remotely a local writer as far as Gibraltar is concerned? Is a writer based in Sotogrande, writing in Spanish a series of historical novels set in Roman times and dealing with the Roman conquest of Spain, a local writer? Then again, is a historian based in Birmingham writing about 17th century slave merchants and how they used Gibraltar as a base, someone with a local interest and local connection and therefore a "local" writer?
I have to say - yes to all of them. These writers live nearby. They share space, in some cases language, in other cases a shared local experience, in others a mutual historical heritage and in still others useful knowledge that can be shared for the betterment of our community. There would be no need to exclude them.
In Gibraltar, we know from decades and generations of experience that the greater the inclusivity of people of all sorts of ethnicities and backgrounds into our community, the richer our community, the richer our learning, our art, our means of expression and above all our literature. That is why having an annual International Literary Festival is so important. And that is why, to be truly part of international literature, we need to open our arms wide to all writers who in some way or other are "local". We should eradicate boundaries rather than uphold them. Whoever turned down an English writer living in Santa Margarita seeking a stall to sell his books in Gibraltar as not being local enough to warrant permission ought to consider why they would set up a barrier to expanding our "local" experience of literature and the thoughts, creativity and ideas that literature provokes and encourages.
Our small, fledgling writers' group, Gibraltar Writers, embraces locals of all sorts of backgrounds, and all sorts of writing. They may be visitors staying during the lifespan of a short term work contract, or born locally, or immigrants or itinerant travellers. Their first language may not be English, their preferred language for writing may be anything else they want it to be, including Elvish and Klingon. Why? Because by embracing thinking and ways of expression from all over the world, by sharing the experiences of all sorts of people, Gibraltar can truly find its own, unique voice in the world of international literature.
Words can destroy boundaries, so let us not put limitations on our writers and those who write for and about us.
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