With a line up of writers and events, including panels, readings, performances, and workshops, the Greek Writers Festival will attempt to challenge and entertain audiences, with the aim of fostering a broader cultural, political and literary dialogue.
In 2019, the theme of the festival is "Diasporic Dialogues" which is befitting as the program will showcase Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, African, Middle Eastern, Jewish and Australian First Nations writers and performers as well as those who identify as queer.
The program features over 30 sessions with more than 50 culturally and linguistically diverse writers and performers participating across different diasporas, communities, and generations.
The events are as follows:
Dates: Friday, 31 May – Saturday, 8 June, 2019
Venue: The Greek Centre for Contemporary Culture at 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
FRIDAY, 31 MAY
Growing Up Greek and Rebellious
Time: 7pm – 8pm / Location: Mezzanine
Professor Vrasidas Karalis speaks to maverick authors Maria Katsonis and Dmetri Kakmi about what it is like to grow up expected to be a “good” Greek daughter or son when all you want to be yourself and follow your own path. Drawing on their respective work, these acclaimed writers will examine ideas of family, community, identity and sexuality. and, of course, telling your story your way.
Panelists: Dmetri Kakmi, Prof. Vrasidas Karalis (chair), Maria Katsonis
SATURDAY, 1 JUNE
Joyful Strains
Time: 10am – 11am / Location: Mezzanine
Following on from his landmark 2010 anthology Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home, editor and poet Kent MacCarter speaks to authors Dmetri Kakmi, Maria Tumarkin, and Chi Vu about writing cultural displacement and the experience of being an immigrant in an ethnocentric society.
Panelists: Dmetri Kakmi, Kent MacCarter (chair), Maria Tumarkin, Chi Vu
The Art of Poetry
Time: 10am – 11am / Location: Library
That the word poem derives from the Greek word “poiema” or “made thing” is indeed quite telling. How does a poet turn experience into poetry? Whose experience is it? Are imagination and inspiration personal or universal? How does a poem work and move and sound, and why? In the spirit of the famous Paris Review interviews this in-depth discussion about the aesthetics and praxis of poetry takes us into the “mindfields” of poet and researcher Dr. Lucy Van and celebrated poets Michelle Cahill, Dr. Tina Giannoukos, and Ouyang Yu.
Panelists: Michelle Cahill, Dr. Tina Giannoukos, Dr. Lucy Van (chair), Ouyang Yu
The Art of Fiction
Time: 11:15am – 12:15pm / Location: Mezzanine
How does an author conceive a novel and execute that on the page? In the spirit of the famous Paris Review interviews, Prof. Vrasidas Karalis finds out when he puts novelists Dr. Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Effie Carr, and Will Kostakis under the microscope in this fascinating discussion about the process of writing fiction.
Panelists: Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Effie Carr, Prof. Vrasidas Karalis (chair), Will Kostakis
The Word and the Image
Time: 11:15am – 12:15pm / Location: Library
Join poet and researcher Dr. Lucy Van as she speaks to award-winning poets Bella Li and Stavros Messinis about the relationship between the written word and the image in avant-garde poetry, and the narrative possibilities that can be produced in their work.
Panelists: Bella Li, Stavros Messinis, Dr. Lucy Van (chair)
Hauntings: Trauma, the Uncanny and the Supernatural
Time: 1:45pm – 2:45pm / Location: Mezzanine
What is the link between traumatic experience and depictions of the uncanny? Join author Hariklia Heristanidis as she leads fellow weavers of phantasmic worlds Dmetri Kakmi, Hoa Pham, and Chi Vu down the long dark corridors of depicting cultural memory and trauma through the symbolic use of the supernatural.
Panelists: Hariklia Heristanidis (chair), Dmetri Kakmi, Hoa Pham, Chi Vu
The Politics of Language
Time: 3pm – 4pm / Location: Mezzanine
How does literature from marginalised communities challenge the colonial monolingualism of the Australian literary landscape and broader national narrative? Dr. Lucy Van finds out when she explores the topic with the inimitable poet-activists Π. Ο. and Sista Zai. and acclaimed author and First Nations community activist Dylan Coleman.
Panelists: Dylan Coleman, Π. Ο., Sista Zai, Dr. Lucy Van (chair)
(Re)writing the “migrant working class”
Time: 4:15pm – 5:15pm / Location: Mezzanine
Acclaimed Western Sydney novelist and director of Sweatshop literacy movement Dr. Michael Mohammed Ahmad joins Thomastown poet, translator and Beat scholar George Mouratidis in a head-on discussion about the experience and legacy of the migrant working class, and the role of literature in its representation of a diasporic community and its transformation on the page.
Panelists: Dr. Michael Mohammed Ahmad, George Mouratidis
Bilingualism and Identity
Time: 4:15pm – 5:15pm / Location: Library
If literature is a vehicle through which we make sense of the world, what happens to writing when the author writes in a language other than his or her own native tongue? What is the impact of bilingualism (or multilingualism) on an author’s aesthetics and praxis and their negotiation of a largely monolingual literary and cultural landscape? Poet and researcher Dr. Tina Giannoukos speaks to author Maria Tumarkin, and poets Dean Kalimniou and Ouyang Yu, about this vital and fascinating topic.
Panelists: Dr. Tina Giannoukos (chair), Dean Kalimniou, Maria Tumarkin, Ouyang Yu
Forked Tongues: Bilingual Reading I
Time: 5:30pm – 7pm / Location: Mezzanine
With over 200 different languages other than English spoken in this country, as well as 15 surviving First Nations languages, what does “Australian” literature really sound and feel like? This land abounds with so many different tongues, dialects, vernaculars, patois, pidgins (including our beloved “Greeklish”) spoken by poets and storytellers whose work embodies the perpetual negotiation of lives between worlds – so many, in fact, that we couldn’t fit even a few of them into one room! Split across two events running simultaneously, this reading––and its sister reading “Forked Tongues: Bilingual Reading II”––break open, challenge, and enrich the monolingual landscape of Australian literature. With over fifteen writers taking part, you will be sure to hear Australia like you’ve never heard it before.
Featuring: Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Dylan Coleman, George Mouratidis, Ling Toong , Dimitris Troaditis (MC), Maria Tumarkin, Lucy Van, Ouyang Yu
Forked Tongues: Bilingual Reading II
Time: 5:30pm – 7pm / Location: Library
With over 200 different languages other than English spoken in this country, as well as 15 surviving First Nations languages, what does “Australian” literature really sound and feel like? This land abounds with so many different tongues, dialects, vernaculars, patois, pidgins (including our beloved “Greeklish”) spoken by poets and storytellers whose work embodies the perpetual negotiation of lives between worlds – so many, in fact, that we couldn’t fit even a few of them into one room! Split across two events running simultaneously, this reading––and its sister reading “Forked Tongues: Bilingual Reading I”––break open, challenge, and enrich the monolingual landscape of Australian literature. With over fifteen writers taking part, you will be sure to hear Australia like you’ve never heard it before.
Featuring: Michelle Cahill, Effie Carr, Dr. Tina Giannoukos, Hariklia Heristanidis, Dean Kalimniou, Π. Ο. (MC), Tom Petsinis, Alex Skovron
SUNDAY, 2 JUNE
From Bonegilla to Maribyrnong
Time: 10am – 11am / Location: Mezzanine
How do you write about geographic displacement as an immigrant or refugee? Poet and researcher Dr. Lucy Van leads a stimulating and vital discussion about the legacy of internment camps in the history of Australian migration as seen through the works of three diverse writers – playwrights Tes Lyssiotis and Hoa Pham, and author and comic Hung Le.
Panelists: Hung Le, Tes Lyssiotis, Hoa Pham, Dr. Lucy Van (chair)
Is there a Greek-Australian canon of literature?
Time: 10am – 11am / Location: Library
Greeks have been writing in Australia for over a century. In that time a significant body of work has emerged, but what is its place within the broader Australian literary landscape? How do we recognise it and is it even definable? Join poet and journalist Dean Kalimniou as he leads a ground-breaking discussion with Greek community historians, poets, translators and researchers Drs. Christos Fifis, Tina Giannoukas, and Konstandina Dounis that explores the history and development of that literature, while attempting to define a “Greek-Australian” canon.
Panelists: Dr. Konstandina Dounis, Dr. Christos Fifis, Dr. Tina Giannoukos, Dean Kalimniou (chair)
Barricades and Barbed Wire: writing activism
Time: 11:15am – 12:15pm / Location: Mezzanine
Poet and founder of the Black Arts movemtn, Amiri Baraka, said that all art is political. With this in mind, poet and researcher Alex Kostas asks poet-activists Andrea Demetriou, Sista Zai, and Dimitris Traoditis the vital questions: How does politics imbue their art, and how does their art shape their politics?
Panelists: Andrea Demetriou, Alex Kostas (chair), Sista Zai, Dimitris Troaditis.
The Art of Performance
Time: 11:15am – 12:15pm / Location: Library
What is the relationship between writing and performing? Do you perform on the page, do you compose on the stage? How important is improvisation, personality, presence? Join veteran slam poetry champion and Memphis ambassador Benjamin Theolonuous Sanders (IQ) as he leads an animated discussion with performance poets John Englezos, and Sharifa A.Tartoussi about this vital topic that proves poetry is well and truly ALIVE and speaks directly to our times.
Panelists: John Englezos, Benjamin Theolonious Sanders, Sharifa A. Tartoussi
Publishing from the Margins to the Mainstream
Time: 1:45pm – 2:45pm / Location: Mezzanine
How do you accommodate marginal and diverse voices in new Australian literature? Editor and poet Kent MacCarter speaks to publisher Helen Nickas, and editors Michelle Cahill and Dmetri Kakmi in a discussion about book-making in a shifting publishing landscape.
Panelists: Michelle Cahill, Dmetri Kakmi, Kent MacCarter (chair), Helen Nickas
From the Existential to the Divine
Time: 1:45pm – 2:45pm / Location: Library
This enlightening discussion with Prof. Vrasidas Karalis and poets Dean Kalymniou and Nikos Nomikos examines the influence of existentialism, humanism and religious traditions in Greek-Australian writing. This session is in the Greek language only.
Panelists: Dean Kalimniou, Prof. Vrasidas Karalis, Nikos Nomikos
The Old Greeks: Movies in and the Memory of Migration
Time: 3pm – 4pm / Location: Mezzanine
Greek language academic and researcher Anna Chatzinikolaou leads a fascinating discussion with author and academic Prof. George Kouvaros about his fascinating new book, The Old Greeks, as he interprets the migrant experience through film and photography.
Panelists: Anna Chatzinikolaou, Prof. George Kouvaros
Πες τα Χρυσόστομε!: Open Mic (Greek language)
Time: 3pm – 4:30pm / Location: Library
This session is in the Greek language only.
Chaired by Dimitris Troaditis.
The Siren Call of Football
Time: 4:15pm – 5:15pm / Location: Mezzanine
Football is a fundamental of Australian culture and a barometer of the changing face of the nation. Footy fan and painter Jim Pavlidis leads this fascinating examination of the game, Australian culture, and politics, with writers George Megalogenis and Tom Petsinis.
Panelists: George Megalogenis, Jim Pavlidis (chair), Tom Petsinis
Translation: Lost and Found
Time: 4:45pm – 5:45pm / Location: Library
Author and translator Prof. Vrasidas Karalis discusses the art, aesthetics, and indeed, the ethics of translation with poet-translators Dean Kalimniou, George Mouratidis and Ouyang Yu.
Panelists: Dean Kalimniou, Prof. Vrasidas Karalis (chair), George Mouratidis, Ouyang Yu
Like It Is: Spoken Word
Time: 5:30pm – 7pm / Location: Mezzanine
Stories, poetry, rhythms, music – these things never sleep: not on dusty shelves in dim libraries guarded by gargoyles nor between the pages of schoolbooks force-fed like spinach. They are ALIVE and everywhere about us, in our daily lives and distant dreams, in the beat of the heart and the rhythms of the street, the whispers of ancestors and the world pouring in through the window. They belong to us, speak to us, for us. Join five different voices telling five different stories five different ways for an electrifying evening of spoken word to ignite your soul and blow your mind!
Featuring: John Englezos, Krishnamurthy Prasad, Benjamin Theolonious Sanders (IQ), Sista Zai, and Sharifa A. Tartoussi
Intergenerational Greek-English Poetry Reading
Time: 6pm – 7:30pm / Location: Library
Which “generation” of the Greek diaspora here in Australia do you belong to, and which one speaks to you? Join seven unique “Greek-Australian” poetic voices as they explore and enrich our understanding of a migrant generation, and celebrate the experiences, struggles, memory and language of a changing community in the antipodes. This session is in both the English and Greek languages.
Freaturing: Dina Amanatides, Nikos Nomikos, Stavros Messinis, Dimitris Troaditis, Dr. Tina Giannoukos, Dean Kalimniou, George Mouratidis, Prof. Vrasidas Karalis (MC)
FRIDAY, 7 JUNE
Anarchy in Fitzroy
Time: 6pm – 7pm / Location: Mezzanine
(In)famous poet and anarchist Π. Ο. makes a lost world come to life. Fizroy in the 1960s, a kaleidoscope of kafenia, gambling, drunks and drug addicts, and the whole wonderful chaos of what is lost as migrants moved out in the process of gentrification.
Featuring: Π. Ο.
New Country / First Nation
Time: 7:15pm – 8:15pm / Location: Mezzanine
An evening with acclaimed author and academic Tony Birch as he talks about growing up in inner-city Melbourne in the 1960s and 1970s with Greek migrants and the contribution they made to Australian culture and society.
Featuring: Tony Birch
100 Months, Third of East: A Work for Soprano and Contrabass
Time: 8:30pm – 9:30pm / Location: Mezzanine
Deborah Kayser has for several decades, been a guiding voice for new, innovative vocal music in Australia. In this performance for two musicians, she collaborates with composer / bassist Nick Tsiavos in his work, One Hundred Months, Third of East. This work is a journey through a kind of modernist Byzantium of the imagination, an exploration of an architecture of loss and desire, into which both voice and bass are immersed.
Performers: Deborah Kayser (soprano), Nick Tsiavos (contrabass)
SATURDAY, 8 JUNE
Writing a Legacy
Time: 1:45pm – 2:45pm / Location: Mezzanine
What is the legacy of memorialising the Greek migrant experience in literature? Acclaimed and much-loved educator and researcher Anna Chatzinikolau leads a fascinating and enriching discussion with poet and author Dina Amanadites and historian Lella Cariddi about literature’s capacity to record and immortalise what it means to leave one home and arrive in another land to make another. This session is in both the English and Greek languages.
Panelists: Dina Amanatides, Lella Cariddi, Anna Chatzinikolaou (chair)
Gary Foley and Fotis Kapetopoulos in conversation
Time: 3pm – 4pm / Location: Mezzanine
Veteran activist and acclaimed academic Gary Foley talks with journalist Nikos Kapetopoulos about Aboriginality, left-wing activism and Hellenic connections.
Speak, poet!: Open Mic
Time: 4:15pm – 5:15pm / Location: Mezzanine
Do you have an itch in your soul, a fire in your heart or a sky in your brain? Do muses and satyrs and strange spirits dance wildly on the tip of your tongue? Then YOU, poet, need to SPEAK! All you need is this microphone, five minutes, and a few golden ears to share your poems, songs, stories, anecdotes, visions, nightmares, anything. Just rock up and sign up and do your own thing, freak feely, and let it all hang out!
Note: You must turn up to the event to sign up for your spot. Places fill up fast, so first in, most blessed! MC: Dimitris Troaditis
Book Launch: Tom Petsinis’ Steles and Dimitris Troaditis’ Λοξές Ματιές (Sideward Glances)
Time: 5:30pm – 7pm / Location: Library
Come celebrate with us as we––in true bilingual fashion––launch the latest poetry collections of two unique voices in Australian literature: Steles by acclaimed poet and novelist Tom Petsinis, and Λοξές Ματιές (Sideward Glances) by journalist, social activist and Greek language poet, Dimitris Troaditis. Proceedings and readings will naturally and seamlessly oscillate between English and Greek, as the poets’ work intertwines and reflects the richness and complexity of “Greek” literature in Australia. It sounds more familiar than you may think! Presenters include poets Dean Kalimniou and George Mouratidis.
WORKSHOPS
Writing Young Adult Fiction with Will Kostakis
Award-winning author Will Kostakis mixes personal anecdotes with practical writing advice in a workshop that spans the entire creative process, from generating ideas and planning, to writing and editing.
Note: There is a limit of only 10 places, so make sure you book.
Date: Saturday, 1 June / Time: 1:45pm – 3:45pm / Location: Library
Writing the line: the play of image and rhythm with Tina Giannoukos
How can image and rhythm enrich and deepen our expression of the poetic impulse? This workshop draws on various traditions to explore the metaphorical and rhythmical potentialities of language. We will read poems, do exercises, and workshop our poetry to gain insight into our poetic practice and develop a language to speak about poetry.
Note: There is a limit of only 10 places, so make sure you book. Participants are required to bring an unpublished poem of their own, no longer than one page, to workshop.
Date: Saturday, 8 June / Time: 10am – 1pm / Location: Library
This podcast is only in Greek.
