#21 Vasiliki Albedo, poet
'I find that I can access something slightly different when writing by hand, hard to say what'
Vasiliki Albedo is the author of ‘Arcadia’, winner of Poetry International’s summer 2021 tiny chapbook competition, and ‘Fire in the Oubliette’, joint winner of Live Canon’s pamphlet competition 2020. She won The Poetry Society’s 2022 Stanza competition and has been commended in the National Poetry competition, the Hippocrates Prize, and the Ambit competition. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Poetry Review, AGNI, Poetry London, Oxford Poetry, Wasafiri, Poetry Wales, The Rialto, and Magma among others. She lives in Greece and consults international development organisations combating poverty and climate change.
Where do you write?
I write on the sofa and my daybed at home, sometimes on a treehouse I have discovered on the mountain where I walk daily.
Morning writer or late-night words?
Anytime! I do not like routine, schedules, or discipline, so I listen to my instinct. I work mostly from home, so I can write more or less whenever I want. Having said that, I find I usually write before lunch, in the afternoon and evenings.
Coffee, tea, or any other drinks?
Coffee and more coffee until my adrenals crash.
Handwritten notes or phone files?
Both. I type phone notes when I’m out, but mostly write first drafts on paper when I’m at home. I find that I can access something slightly different when writing by hand, hard to say what—perhaps I feel I am going places I may not have gone had I written straight onto the computer. I feel my logical brain taking the reins on the computer, whereas I'm allowing myself to be more oblique when writing by hand. Perhaps because I don’t delete things on paper, or perhaps because it looks messy and sparks something anarchic.
Something to nibble while you write?
Not usually while I write. If I take a break, then I might have some chocolate.
What's your most tempting distraction?
Looking things up online and getting lost down some rabbit hole.
Any desk essentials?
Coffee, notebooks, pens, favourite poetry collections. The cats always join me too.
What's on the speakers?
Silence. I can’t listen to music without being carried out of my writing and into the song.
Writer uniform?
Comfortable clothes like sweatpants and t-shirts or pajamas. That’s partly because I usually write cross-legged.
What are your pre-writing rituals?
I don’t have any specific rituals except making coffee (if it’s before 4pm). I write whenever I’m inspired, but equally, if I sit down to write, I will. If I can’t get anything out, then I read my favourite poets. That always sparks something in me.
Perfect bookshop to hide on a rainy day?
Libraries! The Onassis Library, where you can borrow a book and walk to the Acropolis. The National Library of Greece at the Niarchos Cultural Centre. Read a book with the view of the sea, or take it to the beach and read under an umbrella.
What's your most treasured book?
The enormous recipe notebook my grandmother passed down to my mother and my mother added to then passed it down to me. I'm a terrible cook, but it gives me hope that one day I’ll make something worthy of this inheritance.
The best word in the English language?
I really don’t know, but for me, it could be a word that has the most meanings attached to it, and this, according to Google is ’set’, which has 430 senses listed in the second edition of the OED. I love that one (three-letter) word can carry so much meaning. Though maybe that’s a bit utilitarian.
A word I have always found amusing is ‘palaver’. Sensorily, I like a lot of L words like loll and lull and lava and lucid and labdanum. I love how people say lush. ‘Love’ is a word I use a lot and it gets the oxytocin going. But also m words like musk and mulch and multure. Limerence! Or words with a Greek root like medullary. Anyway, I’ll stop there.
Three writers (dead or alive) to have dinner with:
Oh no! As you can probably tell from my answers, I am quite indecisive.
So: Maggie Nelson, Anne Carson, Kaveh Akbar, Anthony Vānī Calpideo, Denise Riley, Noam Chomsky. That’s six, but it would be a really good dinner. I would be taking everything down! I know Anthony shares my interest in food and recipes, so maybe we could cook from my grandmother’s cookbook. These writers have incredibly brilliant minds and original styles, and some of them I know also have a wonderful sense of humour, so it would be good if the dinner lasted several days or hours.
