ABSTRACT
“Hell is other people”, said Jean-Paul Sartre’s character Garcin in the play No Exit. The ability to reconcile the meaning to be taken from COVID’s enforced lockdowns has been difficult for many as we negotiate shared space while still being closed in, with no concrete idea of when, or if, the status quo we find ourselves within will end and what we might appear like at the other end of it. The importance of creativity and writing during isolation has been established through previous examples of travel, war, illness, shipwreck, and imprisonment. Now, having endured our own period of isolation there is a chance to reflect on how festivals and literary events have adapted through crisis, how writers have discovered inspiration from historic inspirations such as Tales from the Decameron and how we might utilise idleness to write our own pandemic stories for people to appreciate in the future.
