Belongings is about belonging.
Community, houses, homes and third spaces. This is a project sparked by our attempts to buy a house in London, with all its confusion and potential pitfalls. But it is also about our many years of moving house to house, city to city, country to country and trying to find a place in each that feels like home.
Trying to build a place in each that feels like home.
My name is Owen Schaefer, and I am a full-time writer and editor. I’ve lived in Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and now live in Britain. I have been an arts editor and writer for many years, the author of multiple audio-dramas. But if there’s one thing I know, it’s the experience of moving from place to place and culture to culture.
This newsletter is an attempt to look at what it means to belong.
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