IOANNA PAPADOPOULOU is a Greek by descent and Scottish by residence author. Other than writing, she is passionate about art history and museology. She has been published at Hexagon Magazine, Idle Ink, Piker Press and The Future Fire.
Ioanna’s novel, Winter Harvest, was published by Ghost Orchid Press in November 2023. Find it on Goodreads.
Ioanna’s new novella, THE CASTAWAY AND THE WITCH is forthcoming from Ghost Orchid Press in autumn 2025.
TELL US ABOUT WINTER HARVEST.
Ioanna: Winter Harvest is the story of Demeter, the Greek goddess of the Harvest, but not simply of the mother goddess who lost her daughter and went on a journey to find her. It is the story of a female goddess, struggling to fit into the patriarchal status quo of Olympus while she is constantly changing her identity in an attempt to find her place in the world and what it means to be female.
WHAT INSPIRED THE STORY?
Ioanna: I wrote Winter Harvest after years of reading ancient Greek mythology retellings and always feeling that something was missing from them compared to how I experienced them as a young girl. I am not sure why I feel this way. If it is one issue or many small ones that cause this dissociation. I am not sure what my objection is, only that I feel something is out of place.
Out of that discomfort, Winter Harvest was born, my personal attempt to reimagine the myths I grew up with, placing the heroes in the roles and power dynamics that were important to me as a child. I chose Demeter as my heroine and narrator, the Goddess my young self thought was the most powerful woman in Olympus, the one who fought and won against Zeus. Through her myths, most largely unknown, I further explored femininity in Greek Mythology and her place as a Goddess who is neither good nor bad, but a very flawed creature with immense power and my own ideas of womanhood, motherhood and gender politics.
You can find Ioanna on Twitter: @IoannaP_Author or Instagram: @joanne.papadopoulou.