The Greek-Australian Writers’ Festival is looking to go to new heights in 2025.
The all-day literary celebration, organised as part of the Greek Festival of Sydney, will take over the city on 27 April at the Prince Henry Centre at Little Bay, New South Wales.
Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos, the Founder and Director of the Festival, noted that the program continues to improve in scope with each passing year.
“This year it is much bigger as there are so many books on Greek themes in publication. We are holding parallel sessions to accommodate all of them,” she told Neos Kosmos.
“We again have a great variety of books; memoir, fiction, non-fiction and photography and we are branching out to young adult fiction as well as psychology. There should be something there for everyone.”
Dr Vatsikopoulos noted that the program for the event is filled with numerous writers that she is immensely enthusiastic to showcase.
“I am excited about officially launching “Patrimonies: Essays on Generational Thinking” by Professor George Kouvaros,” she said.
“Dr Andonis Piperoglou from Melbourne University will be launching and conducting an ‘In conversation’ and we are following this after lunch with Professor Nikos Papastergiadis’ memoir ‘John Berger and Me’.”
The Professional Fellow at UTS stressed her pleasure in hosting some of the country’s “eminent Greek Australian intellectuals” who are able to contribute greatly to important discussions pertinent to their generation.
“We are at a time when we are contemplating the past, the influence of our parents and asking deep questions about who we are and how those who came before us have left their mark.”
The Festival will also showcase quality work from female writers, such as Koraly Dimitriadis’ “The Mother Must Die” and Emily Tsokos Purtill’s “Matia”, both of which explore women’s lives and dig deeper into the issues that confront them on so many levels.
“Koraly will be on conversation with Mikala Theocharous a young journalist from Nine and Emily will discuss her multi-generational novel with editor Kiriakis Orfanos,” Dr Vatsikopoulos said.
“We also have branched into psychology with Dr Anastasia Hronis’ book on the pleasure neurotransmitter, dopamine, which I am sure will be an interesting session facilitated by former ABC journalist Helen Tzamiras.”
As in previous years, the literary celebration will also put a spotlight on photography books that depict photos from Newtown to New York and along with Silk Road.
“This will be facilitated by Dr Phil Kafcaloudes who joins us as he has done every year with his expert questions. Phil will also be discussing the phenomenon of retelling Greek Mythology with author of Karen Martin,” she said.
“Award winning author Peter Polites will be asking the questions this year when he is in conversation with fellow author Will Kostakis (who won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Award for young adult fiction).”
The event will feature numerous other works and authors, with books available to be purchased and signed by the writers throughout the day.
The festival’s director admitted she is really proud of how the event has expanded and improved in a very short timeframe, with the first year featuring mainly Sydney-based writers and it now including people from across the nation.
This year we have authors from Perth, Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney. It is worth a trip to Sydney, I think, given we have all these writers in one place,” she said.
“I am indebted to the Greek Festival of Sydney and Nia Karteris who, along with the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW, have been very supportive and made this the success it has become.”
When asked what she hopes to see from this year’s event, Dr Vatsikopoulos had a very clear answer: “I want to see more people attending”.
“We have an established and expanded middle class of professionals who read and think about issues. I want to see them on the day. I also want to see the third generation of young people put away their mobile devices and come and listen,” she said.
Looking to the future, the Festival’s Director also had clear but direct messages.
“If anyone has a book out, then I’d love to hear from them so we can include their work next year,” she said.
“I hope that next year we can expand and include writers from Greece.”
