Christine Higdon reflects on being the 2025 Hideout writer-in-residence

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We were honoured to have celebrated author Christine Higdon join as at The Hideout in the fall of 2025 as our second Hideout writer-in-residence. We caught up with Christine recently to learn more about her time at The Hideout, her current wriing projects, and advice for other creatives looking to be inspired with some time away.

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What did it mean to you to be selected as the 2025 Hideout writer-in-residence?

I can’t tell you how incredibly honoured I was to be selected as the 2025 writer-in-residence at The Hideout. It is always such a pleasure to hear that someone loves your writing. And to know that Trevor and Joshua—The Hideout’s generous hosts—had enjoyed my writing and decided to invite me to PEI, was doubly delightful. I am so grateful for that honour.

What were some of the highlights of your time at The Hideout and on PEI?

From beginning to end, my trip to The Hideout was stellar. It began with a beautiful drive from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to North Tryon, PEI. It was late September so the fall leaves were at their red and gold peak. The skies were blue. And the temperature was perfect. Trevor and Joshua had set me up in The Cottage, one of two accommodations they offer at The Hideout. Private, quiet, extremely well-provisioned, and with a beautiful view, it was a perfect spot for contemplation, reading, and writing. And the stargazing at night was spectacular.

The hideout is adjacent to lords pond, with its quiet walking trail

The first thing I did when I got there was to wander from bookshelf to bookshelf in the cottage—and there are many!—picking out a stack of about twenty books by Canadian authors that I’d like to read or read again. (Actually, in truth, the first thing I did was to crack open the tasty bar of chocolate that had been left on the kitchen table for me; it paired well with my book choices.) In the late afternoon, I wandered down a path toward the woods and discovered a long pond. There was a mown path around it, so I walked, breathing in the fresh air and letting everything go.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to be able to focus on nothing but my own work (and that pile of books).

Most days I went out for a walk along country roads past barns and cows and bales of hay. A couple days I didn’t even get out of my PJs. I reread my latest manuscript (working title What Use Is the Truth to Us Now?) and found that in the literal and figurative silence, new words or ideas came to me. I took a morning and afternoon off from writing and met an old friend in Charlottetown, and had lunch with two writer friends. I drove down to the nearby historic fishing village, Victoria-by-the-Sea and, later, crossed the island—it took half an hour—and walked the beaches at Cavendish and Rustico on the north coast.

The Laneway to the Hideout and the view from the Cottage window

Why are residencies and retreats important for writers and creatives?

I credit my peaceful time at The Hideout with my novel now being almost ready to send to my agent.

I have been finding that focus can be fleeting in these chaotic times. Information is so readily available at our fingertips that it is easy to constantly leap away from our work to check the news, comment on someone’s post, see what new hells have been unleashed. I believe we will all inevitably be part of the change we hope for in the world, so knowing what is going on is vital. But taking a break from that ceaseless cycle of hard news is sometimes equally vital. Artists and writers, musicians and dancers—everyone, really—must be given the time and space to do the work we want to do and to create the gifts we have to offer.

one of the Island’s gorgeous north shore beaches

What projects are you working on now, Christine?

Now that my manuscript is virtually finished, ideas for another book have begun waking me up in the middle of the night! And while I love that my subconscious is churning away even as I sleep, I slightly resent having to wake myself up to write down my thoughts because they won’t be there in the morning if I don’t! I have a book of short stories that has been sitting on a back burner for a while. I may turn up the heat on that collection. I’ve spent a few months on the South Shore of Nova Scotia this year and will be heading back to Ontario for the winter. There’s a new little baby in my life as well, reminding me that we have lots to work for and that writing can be a powerful tool for change.

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Christine Higdon’s latest novel, Gin, Turpentine, Pennyroyal, Rue, has been wonderfully reviewed. It is one of ten nominees for the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading 2025 Evergreen Award. The audiobook won the 2024 Society of Voice Arts and Sciences Award for Outstanding Audiobook Narration – Fiction. Her first novel, The Very Marrow of Our Bones, won the Foreword Reviews Editor’s Choice Fiction Prize. Her short fiction has won a National Magazine Award and been published in literary journals. She has been shortlisted and longlisted for CBC non-fiction and fiction prizes and currently lives near Lake Ontario in Mimico.

All photos appear courtesy of Christine Higdon.