In the summer of 2011, CBC host Shelagh Rogers and five well-known Canadian writers went to Torngat Mountain National Park in remote northern Labrador for a weeklong stay captured on camera.

The authors — Alissa York, Noah Richler, Rabindranath Maharaj, Joseph Boyden and Sarah Leavitt — were each asked to generate a piece of writing that channeled their experience of Canada’s newest national park.

Northwords, a new documentary on the process made by FilmCAN NPP Films Inc. — which also produced the acclaimed National Parks Project — captures the creative process as the writers, most of them city-dwellers, react to the unexpected richness of the landscape.

House of Anansi Press has published the writing in e-book form and they told their story on The Next Chapter, Rogers' book show on CBC Radio.

The documentary Northwords airs on CBC’s Documentary channel Thursday evening.

Its director, Geoff Morrison, talks to CBC’s Alice Hopton about seeking inspiration from the wilderness and how the writers responded to the people of the North.