A faery portal to logging off

The fantasy of Katherine Kapodistria

The Champion Series

Guest Author:

Silvia de Negrobosco

Since I don’t have a lot of time right now to spend reading and scrolling, I knew that my author choice would be based on impulse, on reading a story and thinking this is it.

Enter

Katharine Kapodistria

, author of “Notes from the Edge”.

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And now the Champion series:

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Katharine Kapodistria

writes fantasy, my favorite type of fantasy, which I would call modern fairytales (not necessarily implying a modern setting). Her stories are infused with myth, folklore and often a strong sense of ambience, of the transforming influence of our immediate surroundings. In my favorite short story of hers, “Skellig”, which describes the spiritual journey of a medieval Christian monk at the edge of the world and deservedly won a Lunar Award here on Substack, the natural world as a teacher becomes a literal character:

“She is earth, slate, grass and sea - and that is why he can’t escape from her. No matter how much he works, no matter how much he prays, he is inhaling her with every breath; with every minuscule raindrop, she is caressing his skin.”

Her prose is concise, carrying across the love of the beauty inherent to our environment and life itself. Her stories are often based on British folk tales or Greek mythology, such as her serialized novel “Underworld”, a reimagining of the myth of Persephone.

Multiple of her short stories, such as “Changeling” and “Selkie Skin” are set in modern day, and the blend between modern reality and the metaphorical, fantastical is effortless. Often, the characters are modern, but subject to the inevitable pull of the mythical, which ends up taking them over by the end of the story. This is something that I find myself strongly relating to (in the metaphorical sense - I have yet to be kidnapped by a faery).

My favorite aspect of her writing, however, is the effect upon reading: There is a wholesome tranquility to it. When I finish a story of hers, my impulse is not to keep scrolling, but to close the app and be present for my child, maybe take him exploring in the neighbourhood. With the amount of distractions available in this day and age, this is the kind of fiction I enjoy most nowadays:

Fiction that is not indulgent, that, while maybe sucking you under for a little, always washes you back up on the shores of your own here and now.

If any of this sounds like your jam, I urge you to check out “Notes from the Edge”

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This Ode to Katherine Kapodistria was written by

Silvia de Negrobosco

, author of ”Poor Translations.”