Thursday November 20, 1997

George Economou, Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma and director of its creative writing program, who has published six books of poetry and many translations from ancient and modern Greek.

Rochelle Owens is author of eighteen books of poetry and plays. Her play, Futz is considered a classic of the American Avant-garde theater.
Stavros Deligiorgis will read one of their poems in translation.

Scheduled "Open Mike" readers, all Professors on staff at Deree College, Athens, are: Janet Hanna, Rahman Singh, Teresa Gastardo, John Petropoulos, and Fotini Georgousi.

Thursday January 15, 1998

Eleni Vainas, originally from the United States and now residing in Athens, is a Graphic designer and writer and the Seattle Writer's Association Writers in Performance Fiction Award Winner for 1997. She will read from her manuscript-in-progress, Greece, My Greece. She has performed her poetry in and around Seattle, Washington at Barnes and Noble Books, the O K. Hotel, Kismet Cafe, The Globe Cafe, Writer's Reading Time series, Mercer Island Arts Council.

Read her CV, poetry and articles

Gregory M. Foster, originally from the United States and now from the Island of Icaria, reads his narrative and lyrical poetry. He has performed in New York at the Nuyorikan Cafe and the Poet's Cafe, Lower East Side, run Poetry Slams in Charlottesville, Virginia, organized and read poetry readings on WBAI New York Radio.

"Open Mike" Poets

Geoffrey Wade originally from England. His poetry of impressions on life will be read by Granville S. Barnes.
Maria Lalic originally from Sarajevo, writes poems of love and longing, loss and renewed hope from her book My Love Poetry is in Sarajevo

Thursday January 29, 1998

Reading from their book Three Women and a Lion:

Mary Rose James, a Guyanese-born Canadian residing in Crete, writes poems, short stories and articles, a series of which was published in a regular column of her own in The Rodos News, the island's English-language newspaper. Poems from Three Women and a Lion have been featured in the British poetry journal, Psychopoetica, and Tolmi, a Cretan newspaper.

Valerie Kramboviti, originally from South London, now Crete, writes poetry and is currently working on a children's book.

Natalie Ventura, born and raised in the United States, teaches English at the University of Crete in Iraklion. She has had poetry published in several journals and has read her work at the University of Crete in Rethymnon, and at Compendium Books (June, 1996).

"Open Mike" Readers

Peter "Kip" Soteres, from the United States (See details below - Thursday, March 19, 1998)

Elizabeth Mavroudi the youngest of the Compendium to date, was born in London and has lived in Athens all her life. She started writing poetry after reading and being influenced by the poetry of Sylvia Plath. In September she will attend University in Birmingham, England.

Thursday February 19, 1998

Maria D. Lalic, originally from Sarajevo, has seen war. She writes and speaks from the eyes and heart of a refugee from a war-torn country and a life where dying, betrayal and suffering became the norm. Somehow floating through her words come love, longing and renewed hope. She will be reading from new work and her book My Love Poetry is in Sarajevo

Nikos Savvakis studied politics in England and taught English in Athens. He was born in Finikouda, a small village in the southwestern Peloponnese, where he now lives, runs a cafe and writes poetry. He will be reading from both old and new work and his first published collection, 2:45 Stroll

Carnival week. Wear a costume to be eligible to win a book of poetry!
Besides the featured readers scheduled, Compendium encourages all interested poets to bring a poem they have written (no more than 5 minutes long) to read during the "Open Mike" section of the program.

Thursday, March 19, 1998

Kirsti Simonsuuri, a Finnish poet, scholar and writer, is currently the Director, Finnish Institute at Athens. She has lectured widely and given readings in many countries. She has published a study of Homer and the early Greek epic, numerous studies on Greek mythology, European literature and Finnish literature; several collections of poems, novels, radio plays and essays in Finnish. Translations of her work have appeared throughout the world. She will read from Enchanting Beasts. This anthology of modern Finnish women poets, which she edited and translated, won a Columbia University Translation Award in 1991.

Read an article about her (includes a poem)

Peter "Kip" Soteres, from the United States, is a popular Athens teacher and writer of poetry and textbooks. His ESL textbook for the Proficiency Exam (Hillside Press) is used widely. He is an MFA graduate of Washington University under Howard Nemiroff. His poetry has appeared in Shenandoah, Southern Humanities Review, Fennel Stalk, and Literary Review . He was assistant Poetry Editor, Southern Humanities Review.

Read his CV and excerpts from one of his novels.


"Open Mike" Reader

Lucille Drosopoulos, teacher, writer of poetry, music and short stories, is an accomplished musician. She plays guitar and writes and sings her own compositions. Her music and poetry strongly reflect her religious beliefs.

Thursday, April 30, 1988

The Athens Launching of From Purple into Night by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, English translation by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke and Jackie Wilcox Shoestring Press, London

Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke is one of Greece's foremost poets and a distinguished translator (Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood, Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee, Seamus Heaney). She studied foreign languages and literature at the Universities of Nice, Athens, and Geneva and was awarded that city's First Prize for Poetry in 1962. The following year her first volume of poetry appeared. Since then there have been further volumes, including the first volume of her Collected Poems. She has read her poetry and lectured at most major universities and literary festivals in the USA, Canada, Mexico, and across Europe In 1985 she was awarded the Greek National Prize for Poetry

Roger Green, a Hydra-based poet, will read from Wolvercote Dreaming, also published by Shoestring Press, as well as new work. He and Katerina have been friends since the Nikos Katzanzakis Centenary Celebrations in Crete in 1983. He describes himself as "a nomad who wears the world like a loose garment and goes where the weather suits his clothes." The author of two previous collections of verse, he has also compiled The Train for Small Oxford Books and as "Tiresias" produced Notes from Overground for Paladin, Granada Publishing

Thursday, May 21, 1998

Margaret Eddershaw has been a theater and television actor in England, run her own Theater company, taught Drama and was Senior Lecturer in Theater at the University level. She has had two books on theater and many of her poems published. She lives in Napflion and has been a full-time writer since 1995

Brian Johnstone, visiting Athens from Scotland, is a poet whose work is receiving increasingly wide recognition through both publication and performance. Highly effective as a reader of his own poetry, he is experienced in creating a receptive and communicative atmosphere. He is author of The Lizard Silence, 1996, Scottish Cultural Press
Geoff Wade is an Englishman and a Socialist in his political beliefs. He attended Ruskin College at Oxford and Hull College, Yorkshire before falling in love with Lily, his Greek wife, and Greece itself. For five years he taught in Athens and then suffered a stroke. Although his speech was impaired, his poetry comes from a lively and witty mind. Kip Soteres will read for Geoff.

Thursday, June 18, 1998

The Rainbow Collection is the title of a collection of poetry published by a group of women from various cultures and mother tongues who got together in 1983 for a one-time day of writing and reading their works aloud, and who, fifteen years later, still meet regularly twice a month for a writing workshop

Sigrid R. Ammer arrived in Greece in 1975 as a lecturer in German Language and Literature to help establish the German department at the University of Athens. She has written and had published novels, articles, poems and short stories in Germany, Yugoslavia, and Greece

Ann R. Baker is English and lives in Athens. Taking part in the "Open" workshops of the writing group revived and maintained a long time interest in writing and enjoying poetry

Read her poetry

Brenda Davies is Canadian and has lived in Greece for about twenty years. She has always been interested in writing, particularly for children.

Mary Matheson Frangakis is Australian. Celebrating more than 25 years of living in Greece, she has been a member of the Writing Workshop since its beginning
Chris Lavdas, born in Wales, was brought up in London and has lived the greater part of her life in Athens. The mythology and landscape of Greece inspire her writing. She has written and had published articles and poetry in German and Greek.

Christel Solopoulou-Hoehmann was born in Germany but has rooted herself in Greece. She has had short stories published in German magazines.

Monday, July 13, 1998

Author's Night
Compendium Books & Lycabettus Press Invite You to a Publication Party
This Way to Paradise- Dancing on the Tables
a memoir by Willard Manus, Lycabettus Press, June 1998

Meet Willard Manus, an American novelist and journalist, and his Scottish wife Mavis, a journalist and cookbook writer, at a special party to celebrate the publication of This Way to Paradise- Dancing on the Tables. The Manuses fell in love with Lindos, Rhodes on their honeymoon in 1961 despite the fact that the village, once a famed and prosperous fortress-town, had fallen on hard times. They decided to live there full time, bringing up two children, purchasing and restoring a Knights of St. Johns house in the shadow of an acropolis predating the one in Athens.
Manus tells the story of his love for Lindos and its people: not only Greeks but foreigners who have helped put the village on the map: the Pink Floyd rock band, Germaine Greer, S. J. Perelman, Richard Hughes, Nicol Williamson and Bruce Chatwin, among others, transforming it from an artist's colony to one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Mediterranean.
The book tells stories of communal celebration, joyous excursions around Rhodes and other islands, sailing and spear fishing adventures, romantic dinners under the stars, hilarious encounters with characters and rogues, all against a backdrop of real-time passed: the village's evolving return to prosperity and fame, an intimate portrait of what life was like under the Colonels from 1967- 74, as well as vivid sketches of the return of democracy and freedom to Greece.
This night only, at the publisher's home.

S E A S O N  T W O

Thursday, November 19, 1998

Wild Child: Twenty Voices, Twenty Poems about the Wild Side. Twenty poets, each reading one long or a few short poems, will take part in a fall extravaganza celebrating the wild and/or crazy side of life, such as Halloween Balls and lion hunts in Zimbabwe, just two of the topics to be covered.

Thursday, January 21, 1999

Margaret Eddershaw, a Poet popular with Compendium audiences through her previous readings here, has been a full-time writer since 1995. Her varied background includes a career as a theater and television actor in England; in addition, she has run her own Theater company, taught Drama, and was Senior Lecturer in Theater at the University level. She has had two books on theater and many of her poems published. She lives in Napflion.
Jeanine Allison, an Open Mike reader at Compendium in the past, is making her debut as a featured reader this evening. She teaches at American Community Schools.

Thursday, February 18, 1999

Janet Hanna is a Senior Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing at Deree College. A published poet and dramatist, she has recently completed her play "Jocasta," which will be produced this Spring.

Adrianne Kalfopoulou is an Assistant Professor in the English Literature Department at the University of LaVerne's Athens campus. She has had poems published in the States and Canada. Her manuscript, "Wild Greens" was a finalist in the 1998 Cleveland University and Red Hen Press first book contests.
Raman Singh is a Senior Professor of American literature at Deree College after decades (!) of teaching in the US. A former editor and publisher of the journal Studies in Black Literature, he writes poetry and has won awards for his short stories. He is currently working on a movie script assignment for a Hollywood production company.

Ben Johnston studied Finnish and Spanish in Ireland, ending up in Athens in 1981 because the bus to Finland never turned up and the bus to Spain broke down! Still here, he acts, writes his own brand of poetry full of Irish wit, ducks tomatoes when necessary, and teaches.

Thursday, March 18, 1999

David Connolly has lived and worked in Greece since 1979. He was Head of Translation at the British Council in Athens for a number of years, and subsequently taught at Ionian University in Corfu as a lecturer in Literary Translation. He has written numerous articles on translating and on modern Greek poetry and has published translations of a number of leading Greek poets including Nikiforos Vrettakos, Odysseus Elytis, Kiki Dimoula and Nikos Engonopoulos. His most recent works are Odysseus Elytis: Carte Blanche (Harwood Academic Publishers 1999) and Yoryis Yatromanolakis: Eroticon (Dedalus Books 1999).
On this, the 3rd anniversary of Elytis' death, David will read from two of his collections, which he has translated: Journal of an Unseen April (Ypsilon books, Athens, 1998) and The Oxopetra Elegies (Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996).

Peter O'Leary, from Galway, Ireland, lived in London for many years and has been a long-time resident of Athens (an eternity, he claims!). He, too, worked for the translation department of the British Council in Athens. A performer and teacher, he writes music as well as poetry. He will read from his first book of poetry, Tides of the Heart.

Thursday, April 15, 1999

Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke is one of Greece's foremost poets and a distinguished translator (Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood, Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Pushkin). She has read her poetry and lectured at most major universities and literary festivals in the USA, Canada, Mexico, and across Europe. Her first volume of poetry was published in 1963; further volumes have appeared since then, including Collected Poems and From Purple Into Night, her latest book translated into English. In 1985 she was awarded the Greek National Prize for Poetry. She will be reading her translations of other poets (including Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes) and new translations of her own poetry by Jane Assimakopoulos, David Connolly, and Peter Green.

Jena Woodhouse, from Queensland, Australia, has received several major awards for her poetry and has been published extensively in Australian literary journals. Her first volume of poems, Eros in Landscape, was published in 1989; the second, Passenger on a Ferry, in 1994. Her young adult novella, Metis, the Octopus and the Olive Tree, came out in 1993. Her first novel, Rosewood Dreaming, is currently in production and will be published in the year 2,000.

Thursday, May 20, 1999

Margaret Leedis, born and raised in Canada, has been writing since she was twelve. She has been published in various anthologies and was editor of the Canada Council literary journal, Arc. Besides writing her own poetry, she has translated several major contemporary Greek poets (1910 - 1980) into English.
Timothy Jennings, from California, has lived and worked in Athens for twenty years. He has been writing poetry all of his life. A freelance editor and translator, he also writes scripts for Greek television programming.

Vladislav Neklyaev, from Russia, has been in Athens for two years. He works in telephone communications. His poetry is written in English and Russian.
Thursday, June 17, 1999
Amy Mims o Cliff Cook o Florence Brunelato Elizabeth Outram

S E A S O N  T H R E E

Thursday, November 25, 1999

Stavros Deligiorgis, translator, is a University of Iowa Professor Emeritus now living in Athens. His work includes books and articles in scholarly magazines as well as collaborations in performance and intermedia art projects. He has a strong interest in literary translation from Modern Greek, French, Romanian and Italian into English. He will be reading from his translation At the Gates of Morn, Four Romanian Poets.

A. E. Stallings poetry, in her "new career as a Greek Housewife," fills laundry with longing and passion. She is a recipient of the Eunice Tietjens Prize from Poetry magazine a Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in the Best American Poetry (1994). She will be reading from several works in her series of Chapbooks and from new work.

Thursday, January 20, 2000

Roger Greene Since his last featured reading at Compendium, Roger has been writing, living, and generally existing on Hydra. He has had several books of His poetry published, and is currently working towards a book based on his poem, "Leonard Cohen's Banana Tree." Roger is originally from England

Eleni Vainas, designer and writer, reads from Museum Dreams, a manuscript in progress, and other new work. Originally from the US she resides in Athens, editing and writing

Monday, February 14, 2000

Celebrate Love! On this special Valentine's Day reading, we celebrate Love, Poetry, and the marriage of our featured readers- who met last April at Jena's reading.

Vlanes is a bilingual poet (Russian, his native language, and English), composer and translator. He is currently completing a Ph.D. thesis on the Pre-Raphaelite poet, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, for the University of St. Petersburg, and working on the first complete Russian translation of Rossetti's major sonnet-cycle, The House of Life."

Jena Woodhouse is an Australian poet and fiction writer. Her publications include the poetry collections Eros in Landscape and Passenger on a Ferry, and a novella for children, Metis, the Octopus and the Olive Tree. A novel, Rosewood Dreaming, is in the pipeline.

Allan Massie, who will provide musical accompaniment to the readings, is an American-born Poet and musician.

Didi on drums. (See Thursday April 20, 2000, D.D.M. Fadoul)

Thursday, March 16, 2000

Poetry Greece Launch, Wendy Holborow, Editor

Compendium Poetry is proud to announce the launching of a new poetry journal originating in Corfu, Poetry Greece. The first issue is already on sale at Compendium and at retail outlets in many countries. Wendy Holborow introduced some of the poetry featured, and set for the magazine's aims to promote new and established poets and to introduce Greek poets to an English readership. Poetry Greece welcomes contributions from anyone writing in English or translated into English, whatever their nationality.

Thursday April 20, 2000

Jackie Morfesis is in Greece for one year on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship from the US She is an artist, poet, and academic. Employed by Rutgers University in New Jersey, Jackie has lectured and published in art history and women's studies. Her creative work is inspired by mythology, nature, and dreams.

D. D. M. Fadoul, "Elderdiery" in his native Sudan, is an artist, painter, and sculptor, poet, and musician, who has made Athens his home for the past ten years. In Sudan he studied art, theater and stage design (he has his MFA from Carnegie Mellon in the US, in Theater Design), and he studied interior design at the Arts Institute of Pittsburgh. He is working on his 3rd book of poetry.

Thursday, May 18, 2000

Peter "Kip" Soteres is a textbook writer and teacher from the United States who has been living and writing in Athens for several years. His poetry has been published recently by The Literary Review, and will be published in the second issue of Poetry Greece. He published a limited run chapbook, As Close to Innocence. He is currently re-writing a long narrative poem, Skakis and at work on a long poem, The Bright Apocrypha.

Haris Vlavianos, editor of the influential journal Poetry, lives and works in Athens. Born in Italy, he spent time in Brazil with his father, and studied in England. His publications include: poetry: Sleepwalkings (1983), Miracle Vender (1985), So to Speak (1986), Implacable Refutation (1989), Adieu (1996), and The Angel of History (1999). Prose: The Other Land (1994). His translations include poetry and theatrical work. His own work has been translated into several European languages.

Thursday, June 15, 2000

Ann Rivers is a Hydra poet who last read at Compendium during the 1996-1997 season. Her new book Pilgrimage and Early Poems was published with hopes of bringing the peace of poetry to the conflict in the Middle East. "Pilgrimage: Palestine" is a sequence of 14 poems from the Holy Land for the 14 stations of the cross. Two poems were written at Athens Airport, the key poems written in Israel, and an envoi composed on the ferryboat back to Hydra. Ten of her previously uncollected poems are also included.

Peter O'Leary, from Galway, Ireland, lived in London for many years and has been a long-time resident of Athens (an eternity, he claims!). He worked for the translation department of the British Council of Athens. A performer and teacher, he writes music as well as poetry.

Thursday, November 16, 2000

Reading at Compendium from the US:

George Economou, Professor of English Emeritus, University of Oklahoma, and former director of its creative writing program, has had seven books of his poetry published as well as numerous translations from ancient and modern Greek and other European languages. His latest book of poems, Century Dead Center and Other Poems, was published by Left Hand Books in 1997. His translation of Euripides' Rhesus has just appeared in the new Penn Greek Drama Series.

Rochelle Owens is the author of twenty books of poetry and plays. Her latest books are New and Selected Poems, 1961-1994 by Junction Press and Four Plays by Broadway Play Publishing. Her long poem, Luca: Discourse on Life and Death is in production now with Junction Press of San Diego. Her plays have been produced world wide, including the festivals at Edinburgh, Avignon, and Berlin. Her play, Futz is considered a classic of the American Avant-garde theater.

Thursday, January 18, 2001

Margaret Eddershaw worked for 25 years in the U.K. as an actor, director and university teacher of theater. She has published on Brecht and Stanislavsky, and several of her plays have been performed at Edinburgh Festival and in London fringe theaters. In 1995 she left Britain to live in Greece, and started writing poetry as a way of coming to terms with the murder of her sister in December of that year. Since then she has had more than 50 poems published in anthologies and magazines. Poems shortlisted in 1999: Lost Soles for the Scottish National Competition and Dream of Dinka Dancing for the Coventry Prize. In 2000 she won first prize with Time's Deceit in the Stort Valley International Competition and second prize in the Rotherham Riverside Festival with A Woman's Misfortune.

Gregory M. Foster originally from the US and now firmly established on the Island of Icaria, reads his narrative and lyrical poetry. He has performed in New York at the Nuyorikan Cafe and the Poet's Cafe, Lower East Side, run Poetry Slams in Charlottsville, Virginia, organized and read his poetry on WBAI New York Radio. In 1999 he made a CD of his poetry, Alabama, backed by the free-form Jazz of musician Joel Futterman. He has worked with Art Blakey, Omar Wilson, and others. The title poem is based on a racist church bombing in Alabama and its innocent victims.

Wednesday, February 14, 2001

2nd Annual Valentine's Night Poetry Love Fest Open Mike All Night

After last year's successful Valentine's Night Poetry Love Fest, Compendium is sponsoring its Second Annual Night of Free Love (Poetry). Bring poems of LOVE that make you smile and your heart beat a little faster.

Thursday, March 15, 2001

Ides of March Open Mike All Night
At our Valentine's Night Poetry Love Fest, poets from England, Canada, the USA, Albania, the Sudan, Australia, Hydra, Icaria, and Athens read their work. A good range of poets and poetry were heard. When poets and audience alike asked for another night of All Open Mike, we delivered. Anyone who has a poem to read--their own or someone else's--is encouraged to read.

Thursday, April 26, 2001

Rescheduled to May 10 due to Strikes

Thursday, May 10, 2001

Dimitris Lyacos The First Death
"As skillfully articulated a vision as was Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, balancing Lyacos' shocking imagery is the counterweight of intellectual stringency and spiritual austerity the reader is invited to contemplate what is in effect an abstraction of horror." International Herald Tribune
Dimitris Lyacos' work has already made a significant impact across Europe His trilogy Poena Damni (Pathway 7.213, Nyctivoe, The First Death) has been performed in a number of major cities. The First Death was published last year in English by Shoestring Press. The German version of Nyctivoe will be out next October.
Shorsha Sullivan, translator, has been working on contemporary Greek poetry and theater for the last ten years.
Tonight, Dimitris will introduce The First Death and Shorsha will read from his translation. A discussion with the public will follow.

Read his CV, poetry and reviews

Thursday June 21, 2001

George Dandoulakis will read from his translation of Odes by Andreas Kalvos. This Shoestring Press edition is the first English version of the work of a poet who is in some respects the equal of his contemporary, Greece's national poet, Solomos.

Stephanos Papadopoulos, a Greek-American brought up in Athens and Paris, has translated Ritsos' poetry. His own poetry has been published extensively in journals, including The Yale Review. Tonight he will read from his first book, Lost Days, brought out concurrently by Leviathan in London and Rattaplax in New York.

S E A S O N  F I V E

Thursday, October 18, 2001

Tassos Denegris, born in Athens, is one of Greece's best known living poets. He has published six collections of poetry and translated works by Borges and Octavio Paz, among others, into Greek. His own work has been translated into many languages, including French, Hungarian, Portuguese, Spanish, and English. He often tours various capitals of the world giving readings, and was one of the "Poets of the World" at the Lima Peru gathering in 1998.

Philip Ramp, born in Michigan, is a poet and experienced translator who has been living and working in Greece for over thirty five years. He translated Denegris' Selected Poems into English (Shoestring Press, England). He has published numerous volumes of original poetry, the most recent, Butte. Political Themata Editions, Athens, and done many translations from the Greek. He is the representative of the Shoestring Press in Greece, a UK publisher producing an ongoing series of Greek literature in English translation.

Thursday November 15, 2001, Sam Abrams and Emer Ronan-Assimakopoulou (Mark Sargent open mike - read his CV and poems)
Thursday, January 17, 2002, Alexander Rez and A. E. Stallings
Thursday, February 14, 2002, Valentine's Love Fest 
Thursday, March 21, 2002, Nancy Horton and Ian Pollard 
Thursday, April 18, 2002, Zekri S. Azzabi and Mark Sargent (postponed due to strikes)
Thursday, May 18, 2002, Don Schofield and Nana Tokatli
Thursday, June 13, 2002, Zekri S. Azzabi and Nancy Horton