Stephen House has won many awards and nominations as a poet, playwright, and actor. He’s had 20 plays produced with many published by Australian Plays Transform. He’s received several international literature residencies from The Australia Council for the Arts, and an Asialink India literature residency. He’s had two chapbooks published by ICOE Press Australia: ‘real and unreal’ poetry and ‘The Ajoona Guest House’ monologue. His next book drops soon. He performs his acclaimed monologues widely. Stephen’s play, ‘Johnny Chico’ has been running in Spain for 4 years. 

expired…

my passport has expired… and i’m staring at its dog-eared uselessness and wondering what it is saying to me about my world travel as i have never allowed it to expire before although i know that covid had something to do with this as the passport reached its final day during the initial pandemic blast and i’d just got back from indonesia with earlier side trips from there to cambodia and india and i’d been vaguely thinking about spain where i had a play about to happen and also planning to head back to bali again where i had been living part time for a decade and then covid hit and it all stopped and once that would’ve never halted my wander as i’ve always stuck to my postponed travel plans and so i’m aware that it was not just covid and realize i’d been thinking about where to from here before covid arrived and being the age i am has also had an impact upon overseas ideas into the future as i have asked myself recently if i do want to keep this moving around abroad going for as much as it has been wonderful throughout my life i’m feeling that i want a change and know the unusable passport doesn’t mean the same to me as it once would’ve and that maybe enjoying travel in my own country and spending more time with those i love is what i really want before i am expired… like my passport.