A journey into the richness of the Australian artistic culture has been in the cards for many years, for a group of poets and writers of the Diaspora, who felt the need to bring to the surface and highlight the significant voices of the different communities that make up the mosaic of the Australian population. Significant voices that go undetected in the broader community due to the barriers of the dominant monolingual literary scene in Australia.
“Kalliope X”, a new bi-annual, online publication that reflects the Australian literary landscape will be launched on Wednesday 17 November at 6.30pm through an online presentation by Prof. Vrasidas Karalis.
Named after the muse of epic poetry in Greek Mythology, this journal is the first step of a collaboration between six published authors and poets living in Melbourne and Sydney: Effie Carr, Angela Costi, Dmetri Kakmi, Dr. George Mouratidis, Dimitris Troaditis and Hariklia Heristanidis.
Though they are all of Hellenic background, their interest is not confined to the Greek-Australian community, nor within any borders for that matter, as they prepare to explore the writings of authors and poets of all the diverse communities that make up the Australian population. From the First Nations, Australian writers, to poets and authors who have something to add to the dialogue, in the country, but also overseas.
There is so much richness, so much material that does not reach the broader community due to the language barriers, that exist in a country where English is the dominant language.
Perhaps the moment this project started to take shape and form, was when these writers found themselves under the same roof, at the Greek Writers Festival in 2019, amongst other writers of different backgrounds.
That is where they realised that despite their differences they have a shared experience, that they wanted to explore and celebrate. With a passion for art, writing and ideas, they decided to take action and start modestly this cultural and artistic experiment.
“Through poetry, fiction, reviews, interviews, essays and criticism, and an openness to languages other than English, we aim to show what Australia looks, sounds and reads like”, they state on their website which will go live on the day of the launch.
They hope that this initiative will add value, and contribute something different to what already exists in the literary scene in Australia. Their next step will be to discover and publish the original work of the artists of the Diaspora in both the original language, and translated into English.
The launch of “Kalliope X” on Wednesday at 6.30pm will be hosted by Dr. Lucy Van (University of Melbourne), and presented by Prof. Vrasidas Karalis (University of Sydney). This will be followed by readings of poetry and fiction from the issue, featuring Hidayet Ceylan and Matt Hetherington (Turkish, English); the late great, Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, read by Dimitris Troaditis and Angela Costi (Greek, English); Hariklia Heristanidis (English); and more!
Places are limited so make sure you register for the event at www.eventbrite.com.au/e/kalliope-x-launch-tickets-202252190747A
For more info visit www.kalliopex.com Issue 1 will be published on 17 November.