“But in the end it’s only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien

And here we are again. The world faces yet another difficult winter, a time of constraint, perhaps of loss. We feel frustration at this path, which seems to lead again and again to the same place. And yet – this darkness will pass. All darkness does. It may take longer than we care to consider, but there will come a day when we will reflect back on these days and marvel that we made it through. Perhaps the world will be changed when we emerge on the other side, but emerge we shall into a different sort of light.

Kathleen Winter joined us in early October from California to chat and read some of her poetry. She says that the last year has affected her writing quite a lot – for many months she didn’t write anything at all, which is quite unusual for the poet and university teacher. Her third book, Transformer, came out just as the pandemic began in 2020 causing all book events to be cancelled. To hear work from Transformer and more, listen to the complete interview.

Nikolas Ventourakis joined us from Athens, Greece in early October. He reports that in March 2020 he was meant to fly back to London but, as things began to intensify he decided that travel would be unsafe. Instead, he remained in his native Greece for the duration, which he reports has been quite interesting – spending this extended time back home. Staying put gave him time to focus on some of his more archival work. A visual artist, Ventourakis works with photographic images in some unique ways. To hear him discuss his practice and the meanings behind his work, listen to the complete interview.