Controversial writer, actor and author of Love and F–k Poems, and Just Give Me The Pills, Koraly Dimitriadis, has been awarded a Moreland Council Writers Residency in 2019 to continue to work on her fiction novel, Divided Island. Working at Brunswick Library for three months, Ms Dimitriadis will also deliver a free workshop to the community in May Writing Fearlessly as part of the program. Set in Cyprus and Melbourne, Divided Island is a love story that explores how our upbringing affects who we love and how we love.

“It’s been a long time,” Ms Dimitraidis said. “I have been working on this book and off for 15 years now. It was the first creative project I started. I’m at the end stages now, taking feedback from selected writers and publishers, making the finishing changes. Christos Tsiolkas really encouraged this book and has been mentoring me for many years when I first started writing it. I’m very thankful for his support.”

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Ms Dimitriadis was also awarded a UNESCO City of Literature residency in Krakow and a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship for Divided Island.

Ms Dimitriadis has also just announced that she will be touring the USA thanks to funding from the Cypriot Ministry of Education. She will be a feature poet at the New Orleans Poetry Festival, Austin International Poetry Festival, the popular Write About Now in Houston, and she has also been invited to perform at the iconic feminist bookshop in New York, Bluestockings Bookstore, Café, & Activist Center. She will also be attending the American Society of Journalists and Authors conference as she is a professional member of the organisation. This is Ms Dimitriadis’ second time in the USA.

“Touring has become a paramount part of my poetry,” Ms Dimitriadis said. “I feel it is necessary as I find the Australian arts sector small and very cliquey. It is difficult here. There is a lot of discrimination against controversial, opinionated Greek women, not only for the mainstream arts sector but from our culture. I find touring liberates my art, even though it can be difficult, as a single parent.”

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Dimitriadis will announce her tour dates and venues on her website and via her regular newsletter www.koralydimitriadis.com