FOMITE

Here one will find no vacuous laments on the past, or a social haranguing that even on banners is out-of-date. There are no slick ironies purporting to be insights into truth, but a voice firm and truly insightful, committed to seeing things as they are, an eye that can perceive them and the poetic skill needed to show us how we can live with grace and beauty even under restrictions, where the future is a thing of the past. Grim, bleak even, but in pursuit of a full life, beauty is still to be found.

 

Review by James Sunderland-Smith

 

About the Author

Aristea Papalexandrou (b. 1970) has published 5 collections of poetry and her poems and essays on poetry and the theater have appeared in many Greek newspapers and literary magazines. She studied music and Medieval Modern Greek Philology, During the past two decades she has been involved with the investigation of the post-dictatorial period in Greece and its evaluation of the work of modern Greek female poets, a work which in March 2014 was deemed the School of Fine Arts worthy of being used as her doctoral thesis under the title: The Involvement with the Poetics of Female Creative Artists during the final quarter of the 20th Century. She is also professionally involved with editing texts and typographic corrections while at the same time teaching The History of Modern Greek Literature at various cultural institutions. Her poetry has been put to music by the notable composers Michalis Kaloyerakis and Apostolos Kitsos. Finally, she was awarded the coveted Petros Haris Award of the Athens Academy for the collection It’s Passing Us By as well as her general contribution to Greek Literature.       

 

About the Translator

Philip Ramp (b. 1940) was born in Michigan and attended the University of Michigan. He has lived in Greece for over 50 years (50 of them with his wife who recently died). He has published 15 collections of his own poetry and and an equal number of collections of Greek poets in English translation. Both his poetry and his translations from the Greece have been published in the USA, UK and Greece.