In response to impacts of COVID-19 on the lives of the people of Nillumbik, and on creative practitioners across Australia, Nillumbik Shire Council called for writers to provide short texts, reflecting on their pandemic experiences. At the time, and for months afterwards, walking was one of the few sanctioned recreational activities, and in that way a reminder of 'normality' and the importance of community. Twenty texts were selected to be stencilled onto public walkways for the Written in the Time of COVID-19 project. There, on the pavements of locations throughout Nillumbik, they could intersect with the precious pleasure of the daily stroll, jog or cycle. Such was the quality of writing received, that many other texts could have been chosen. Writers responded with humour, sadness and passion to the extraordinary times. Given this response from writers, who submitted work from across the country, and the importance of recording the public experience of COVID-19, it was determined that a collection should be created, gathering in one place the very best of Written in the Time of COVID-19 submissions. This anthology is the result. It takes its name from a phrase in the piece, Moss, by Eltham writer, Lucinda Bain. Within these pages are tiny threads that exist only because, in 2020, a virus changed our lives and caused us to reconsider how we lived them.
