June 2025 Dante’s New South
Benheart: Ben is a living testimony of a dream come true: from childhood between Morocco and Italy, through technical discoveries and dramatic trials, to rebirth and the founding of a brand that fuses hearts, craftsmanship and style. Benheart is not just fashion, but a life statement - combining heart and craftsmanship, with strong roots in Florence and global vision.
www.benheart.it/?srsltid=AfmBOopJp1pzGmdew4Qc2oMvNo-0p7wLlIeJm9uVh_ETAUOWT1j-ilAd
Waqas Khwaja is the Ellen Douglass Leyburn Professor of English at Agnes Scott College where he teaches courses in Postcolonial literature, British Romanticism, Empire Narratives, Victorian Novel, and Creative Writing. He has published four collections of poetry, Hold Your Breath, No One Waits for the Train, Mariam’s Lament, and Six Geese from a Tomb at Medum, a literary travelogue about his experiences as a fellow of the International Writers Program, University of Iowa, and three edited anthologies of Pakistani literature.
He served as translation editor (and contributor) for Modern Poetry of Pakistan, showcasing translations of poems by 44 poets from Pakistan’s national and regional languages, and has guest-edited special issues on Pakistani Literature and poetry for the Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies and Atlanta Review. A bilingual edition of one of his collections, No One Waits for the Train, was published as Nadie espera el tren in Madrid, Spain, in 2024.
www.agnesscott.edu/directory/faculty/khwaja-waqas.html
Joseph Saul Portillo After dedicating 25 years to Christian ministry and cultivating a successful career in business operations, Joseph Saul Portillo turned inward to explore his artistic calling, embarking on a new chapter in Fine Art Photography.
Today, Joseph Saul is a Creative Producer and Digital Artist based in Rome, Georgia, whose evocative work in pictorial portraiture has earned him international acclaim as a Master of Light Photographer. His award-winning style, marked by emotional depth and artistic precision, has led to collaborations across film, music, and education projects. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Rome International Film Festival and on the Advisory Board for Georgia Highlands College’s Digital Media and Communications program.
Wiktor Miesok was and raised in Poland, he relocated to Norway in 2012, drawn by a longing forTolkienian mystical landscapes. Though he seeks inspiration in the silence and raw,untamed nature of the North, he remains stubbornly Eastern European at heart.
An engineer by trade, he has a passion for storytelling and fiction that explores thehuman condition and its potential for both good and evil.
His latest novel, and the first serious foray into fiction, tells the story of a young man in1980s East Germany who, in his search for freedom, ends up in a Soviet penal colony and becomes entangled in the ruthless criminal underworld.
Additional Music Provided by:
Dr, Fubbs: www.tiktok.com/@doctorfubbs?lang=en
Justin Johnson: www.justinjohnsonlive.com
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We Deeply Appreciate:
UCLA Extension Writing Program: www.uclaextension.edu
Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org
Alain Johannes for the original score in this show: www.alainjohannes.com
The host, Clifford Brooks’, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. Find them all here: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order
Check out his Teachable courses, The Working Writer and Adulting with Autism, here:brooks-sessions.teachable.com