Cirrus@Austlit

"In this book, more than forty Greek-Australian women have composed, through poems and stories, a migrant tale of hardship, survival and joy: a truly Australian tale, a truly Greek tale, as both countries have given and taken from each other through migration. Each writer contributes, in her own voice and style, a part of this story which begins with the first generation of migrants, who had to endure life away from ‘home’, and is followed by those of their offspring who live in, or between, two worlds and experience the conflicts, as well as the joys, of a dual existence. Contributors range from the unpublished, to those previously published only in Greek, to others who are established names in 'Australian' literature. They are all here side by side, telling their part of the story. The editors of this book have provided a Greek-Australian story, fittingly, in bilingual form."

Taken from: http://owlpublishing.com.au/re-telling-the-tale.html

'Alexia is a fictional account, in the fairytale mode, of the experiences of a Greek refugee family who settles in New Zealand in the fifties. The story centres on Alexia, the young heroine whose world is literally turned upside down when she finds herself surrounded by people whose language and culture are totally alien to her. With a mixture of a child naivety and grown-up ironic humour, the story gives the stark ethnic, linguistic and cultural contrasts, which an experience of displacement entails.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

"The poems in this book were selected to reflect the diasporic experience. Antigone Kefala, a Greek from Romania and living in Australia, has lived her life moving between (or within) different languages, cultures and countries. As the editor’s note states, the poems capture artistically and intellectually the two most significant phenomena of the twentieth century: wars and migration. The selection was made from all previous collections by Kefala: The Alien, Thirsty Weather, European Notebook and Absence."

Taken from: http://owlpublishing.com.au/poems-a-selection.html

"This play (written in English and in Greek) aimed to be published first in book form and subsequently to be staged as a theatrical production. Distinguished author Vasso Kalamaras from Perth, Australia, whose writing captures the universal themes of exile, marriage, motherhood, betrayal and more, chose as her subject the legendary queen Olympias of Ancient Macedonia and mother of Alexander the Great. The play explores the fascinating story of a woman (wife, mother and grandmother) who fought courageously against the male order of her day."

Taken from: http://owlpublishing.com.au/olympias.html

The novel follows Melina Pappas as she pursues her studies at university. Melina was born abroad and raised on the island - described vaguely, but with a resemblance to New Zealand - and thus occupies an in-between space in society which affects how she is perceived. As Catalina Rebus Segura describes, "She is passionate and shows it in her mannerisms and speech. However, islanders are defined as cold and indifferent as their body language is subdued to their detached speech." 

"In The Island, Kefala focuses on perceptions and the consequences of interaction as well as on verbal and non-verbal communication."

Source: "Language and Bilingualism in Antigone Kefala’s Alexia (1995) and The Island (2002)" by Catalina Rebus Segura.

'Max: The Confessions of a Cat is a modern fable whereby the protagonist Max - a philosophising cat - is observing the humans around him with much perspicacity and wry irony. As humans do not seem to pay much attention to 'other' voices, Max is determined to change things.' (Publisher's blurb)

Dreams of Clay Drops of Dew contains two hundred poems, including the very short poems known as “Scattered Thoughts”, and translated into English by Konstandina Dounis, seeks to acquaint the English-speaking readership with the beauty of her work and the wide range of her thematic preoccupations. [From the publisher's website]

'During the "kindled hours" of a single winter's night in his suburban "hermitage" in Melbourne, an elderly Nikos Nomikos is revisited by a searing vision he first had in a faraway place and time. With Noted Transparencies, the ascetic poet traverses worlds, tragedies and loves, more than half a century later, in his pained and joyous struggle to break the spell of the vision which has haunted him all his life.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.