Episode 20: A writer and an artist meet in Wigtown
Astrid Jaekel and Ken Ilgunas
This week has a distinctive Wigtown theme as we feature Astrid Jaekel and Ken Ilgunas, a married couple who met at the Festival and who have both featured prominently over the past few years.
Astrid Jaekel is an artist and illustrator. Her project to wallpaper the buildings of Wigtown, 'If These Walls Could Talk', which celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Book Town, was the winner of the 2019 AOI World Illustration Awards. We are celebrating her contribution to the Festival with a retrospective exhibition of her many works with us over the years.
Ken Ilgunas first came to Wigtown to present his fabulous Walden on Wheels and has returned many times to discuss his passion for land rights and the freedom to roam. His latest book is This Land is Our Land. We talked to him about the essay he wrote to us about his experience in America during lockdown, "Letter from the Heartland".