This Diasporic page contains book commentaries/reviews mainly of Diasporic writers
The Medusa Glance
The Medusa Glance is a present-day triptych, a rich and profoundly nuanced contemporary narrative, sensitive to all the immanent and minute shades of reality, aspiring to embrace and incorporate the whole spectrum of lived experience. As a key motive, the author invokes Medusa, the female monster with venomous snakes on hear head. Stricken with fear, we are nonetheless tempted to be immersed in the poetic universe of Manolis. The epigraph characterizes the bold enterprise of the author aimed at the explicitation of the inner architecture and dynamics of experience, at the renewal of narrative practices and at the constant (re)negotiation of identity. The reader is swept away by a polychromatic tempest of verbs and embarks on a journey guiding him to the dimension of the minute and infinitely multifarious undulations of sublunary consciousness. Read more »Yannis Ritsos - Γιάννης Ρίτσος
He had no time – how could he listen? Fighting for his bread
he didn’t see that the wheat ear grew tickling the sun’s ear
he didn’t see the blond mustache of summer
he didn’t see that he also grew. Read more »Diachronic Contribution of Greek to other Languages
The Diachronic Contribution of Greek to Other Languages is the new volume compiled and edited by Dr George Kanarakis and published a few months ago in Athens by Papazissis Publications. Dr Kanarakis, Professor of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Charles Sturt University, is a well-known linguist and hellenist. Read more »Το Πουλί με τις Αλήθειες/The Bird that spoke the Truth
ΤΟ ΠΟΥΛΙ ΜΕ ΤΙΣ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΕΣ Η λήθη σκέπασε το παρελθόν, το άγνωστο πολιορκεί το σπίτι φαντάσματα πραγμάτων που αγαπήσαμε και… Read more »Ubermensch
Poetry, EKSTASIS EDITIONS Ubermensch, by Manolis Aligizakis is the most difficult and most philosophical poetry book I have come across.… Read more »Ο τρόμος ως απλή μηχανή
«Είναι απλό: Δεν σε πεθαίνει ο τρόμος. / Ο τρόμος μόνο σε ξεγεννάει. / Βγάζει το φίδι απ’ την κοιλιά σου. / Ο μαιευτήρας σού χαμογελά, / Που ζεις μια τέτοια αιθέρια νύχτα / Είναι απλό: Ο τρόμος δεν σε ταπεινώνει. / Σε αίρει στο ύψος των περιστάσεων. / Απλώς πατάς πάνω στον εαυτό σου. / Ο τρόμος δεν επείγεται. Σε περιμένει. /Μπορείς, σκεπτόμενος, να διαφύγεις./ Απλώς δεν μπορείς να σκεφτείς./ Στον τρόμο ένα κι ένα κάνουν δύο./ Απλώς δεν βρίσκεις το πρώτο και το δεύτερο: / Τη στιγμή αυτή ο ένας σε ψάχνει / Κι ο δεύτερος του φανερώνει τη θέση σου. / Ο τρόμος προνοεί. Είναι ψύχραιμος. / Εξάλλου ξέρετε κι οι δυο τι θα αξιώσει. / Πίνει ακόμη μια γουλιά απ’ τον καφέ του / Κι απλώς σηκώνει τα μάτια του πάνω σου. / Είναι απλό: Η φωνή του αέρα, / Οι ψίθυροι οι σοφοί των ερειπίων, / Το κουρέλι από την υγρασία που απομένει / Σε κάποια σκιερή γωνιά του πυρετού, / Όλα γλιστράνε μέσα στο φρεάτιο. /Ο ήλιος βάζει το δάχτυλό του στο τζάμι / Και κάνεις τη βουτιά. Αυτό ήταν. Θα δεις τώρα / Σε όλη την απλότητά του τον τρόμο». Read more »From Dusk to Dawn
At Diasporic Literature Spot, being a literary website, from time to time we receive books from established as well as aspiring writers. I would say that in most cases these books can be a hassle to read and an even bigger problem to write about. However there are those certain books, by certain emerging or inspiring and aspiring writers that we feel privileged to receive, to hold in our hand and to read deepest thoughts in creamy or white colour pages. These specific books are the reason why Diasporic Literature is in existence Read more »Saltwater in the Ink: Voices from the Australian Seas
Lucy Sussex gives public voice to the private thoughts, experiences and observations of selected nineteenth-century seafarers to the Australian colony. These seafarers kept a record of their voyage either as letters to loved ones left behind in England or in journal entries. The white glossy cover of Saltwater in the Ink, composed of a chair covered in red patterned fabric, a red quill, a laced decorated fan, pewter cup and barrel, is aesthetically appealing and invites exploration. Read more »Yannis Ritsos Poems
A careful hand is needed to translate the poems of Yannis Ritsos, and Manolis is the ideal poet to undertake such an enormous task. Born in Crete, Manolis’s youth was intermingled with the poetry of Ritsos. Once a young man moved by the Theodorakis version of Epitaphios, he’s now a successful poet in his own right who is still moved to tears hearing the refrains of those notes from half a century ago. Read more »Hypatia's Feud
The Ptolemies, like philosopher kings, endowed Alexandria, with the Royal Library and the Mouseion. They also supported gifted men and women bursting with curiosity and ambition to conduct research in the fields assigned to the nine Muses over three hundred years.
Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821–91) the renowned historian of that era documented the importance of the pioneering work undertaken in Alexandria. Read more »The curse of being a hero
“74 υπό σκιάν”[1] “From Australia, the land down under, comes a fresh breeze of creativity and culture.” These are the… Read more »“The Mountains Couldn’t Walk Away”
“The Mountains Couldn’t Walk Away” by Andrea Demetriou was recently launched at fortyfive downstairs by Tim Colebatch (Economics Editor, The Age), Christos Tsiolkas (Author, The Slap) Arnold Zable (Author, Jewels and Ashes)and Bill Papastergiadis president of the Greek community of Melbourne, as part of the Antipodes Festival 2010. The poetry collection reflects nostalgia and its consequences for a world which was eclipsed by the Turkish invasion in Cyprus. It is illustrated by colour photographs taken by the author and has been published by La Trobe University. Over 170 people from diverse cultural backgrounds attended the launch and warmly applauded the speakers and the musical performance of the poet. Read more »[tabgroup]
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“Ο κήπος των ονείρων μου”
Άννα Γάτσιου
Εκδόσεις “Ναυτίλος”
Μελβούρνη, 2012
Υλικό από την παρουσίαση της ποιητικής συλλογής της Άννας Γάτσιου “Ο Κήπος των ονείρων μου” που έγινε στη Μελβούρνη στις 23 Σεπτεμβρίου 2012.
Οι μαθήτριες που συντονίζουν το πρόγραμμα, Μαρία και Δήμητρα, είναι τρίτης γενεάς παιδιά Ελλήνων στην Αυστραλία και ευχόμαστε να έχουν βιο ανθόσπαρτο στην συγγένειά τους με την Ελληνική γλώσσα που προσπαθούν να μάθουν. Η καθηγήτριά τους Άντρια Γαριβάλδη τους έδωσε την ευκαιρία να συμμετέχουν εδώ.
This material is in the Greek language and it is from the book launch of the poetry collection by Anna Gatsios “The garden of my dreams” (translated from the Greek), on Sept 23rd, 2012. The two students organising the event are third generation children of parents from Greek origin in Australia. They are to be congratulated on their command of the Greek language. Their teacher Andrea Garivaldis has given them this opportunity to participate here.
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Βίντεο παρουσίασης, Μέρος 1
Οι χαιρετισμοί των αντιπροσώπων των οργανισμών που συμμετείχαν στην εκδήλωση και συμπαραστάθηκαν στη Διασπορική Λογοτεχνική Στοά και στη συγγραφέα, Ελληνο-Αυστραλιανός Πολιτιστικός Σύνδεσμος, Σύνδεσμος Ελλήνων Λογοτεχνών και Συγγραφέων Αυστραλίας και Παναρκαδικός Σύλλογος “Ο Κολοκοτρώνης”
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Hyper-Literature / Ελληνόγλωσση Υπερλογοτεχνία της Διασποράς
It is a fact that a plethora of studies have been carried out on all types of traditional literature, with the exception of literature in electronic formats, an area which has remained largely unexplored. This paper examines one facet of such literature as a distinct body; that which appears in digital format on the Internet in Greek, mainly created by writers of the Diaspora.
“The Mountains Couldn’t Walk Away”
“The Mountains Couldn’t Walk Away” by Andrea Demetriou was recently launched at fortyfive downstairs by Tim Colebatch (Economics Editor, The Age), Christos Tsiolkas (Author, The Slap) Arnold Zable (Author, Jewels and Ashes)and Bill Papastergiadis president of the Greek community of Melbourne, as part of the Antipodes Festival 2010. The poetry collection reflects nostalgia and its consequences for a world which was eclipsed by the Turkish invasion in Cyprus. It is illustrated by colour photographs taken by the author and has been published by La Trobe University. Over 170 people from diverse cultural backgrounds attended the launch and warmly applauded the speakers and the musical performance of the poet.
Μετάφραση του έργου του