Our latest issue, Greece Is Thessaloniki 2020-21 (English edition) will be available this weekend (02-03/01) together with the New York Times International Edition – Kathimerini English Edition wherever international press is sold in Greece.

But even if you are not able to get your hands on a copy in shops, both the English and Greek editions of the magazine are also available to order right now at our e-shop!

All past issues of our magazines can be delivered to anywhere in the world at only the cost of postage and packaging.

To further introduce Greece Is Thessaloniki 2020-21, below is the letter from the editor:

THESSALONIKI ON MY MIND

The restrictions will end – but our love affair with this city won’t.

by Giorgos Tsiros, Editor-in-Chief, Greece Is

This is the sixth issue of Greece Is Thessaloniki. Admittedly, it’s also the strangest issue in terms of timing. The thought of postponing publication by at least a few weeks, until after the emergency COVID-19 restriction measures have been lifted and life has returned somewhat to normal, did cross our mind, but we soon dismissed that notion, feeling it was important to honor our commitment to the city.

Friends in need are friends indeed, and Thessaloniki has embraced this annual edition with enthusiasm ever since it was first launched in 2015 with the aim of introducing an international audience to the city’s history, culture, attractions and creative forces. What’s more, Greece Is can’t be called a magazine with a limited shelf life, nor is it a city guide in the narrow sense of the term. Readers tend to keep their back issues, picking them up again and again and finding something interesting to read. Greece Is Thessaloniki returns every year with updates and new stories, but every new edition also complements the ones that came before, so that, all together, they form a vivid panorama of the city.

The third and most important reason why we persevered with our plans has to do with the belief that although we may be in the grips of a terrible global pandemic that has imposed restrictions on our lives, this does not mean that life has to stop entirely. That we need to stay safe and protect our loved ones until this crisis passes does not mean that we cannot read about a city we love and make plans for future visits. Quite the opposite: we believe that the material in this edition – written by people who live in Thessaloniki or have intimate knowledge of it – can bring comfort to our readers, by making the time until their next visit seem shorter, and by soothing a little the ache of separation that lovers of this city may be feeling.

Special thanks are due to our two contributing Thessalonian authors who, under acute time pressure and just as the new measures were announced, came up with poignantly bittersweet yet ultimately optimistic stories “that could even be real.” This isn’t the first time Greece Is has featured works of fiction, but the words of Sophia Nikolaidou and Kyriakos Gialenios spoke straight to our hearts.

So, we wish you happy reading – until we meet again.