Patras World Poetry Festival 2021

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4th “Patras World Poetry Festival 2021

13th - 19th of December

LIVE & ON LINE EVENTS

This year, the 4th “Patras World Poetry Festival” boasts a variety of original literary events taking place between the 13th and 19th of December 2021, hosting a total of 70 poets from 20 different countries.

The occasion of a calendar year combining on one hand the memory of the Greek people’s fight for freedom, and on the other hand the contemporary experience of confinement, led us to this year’s thematic center: “CONFINEMENT-FREEDOM-HUMAN REVOLUTIONS”. We bring novel aims and ideas, along with a greater and more essential need for expression, synergy and communication.

For 2021, the festival’s programme will be extended from 4 days to 7, hosting a multitude of events for audiences and participants both Greek and foreign, raising the bar and aiming to establish a tradition of cultural celebration.

This year too, for its most part, the Festival will be held online, a blended programme combining physical and online activities as adjusted to Covid-19 regulations, in a shifting terrain of cultural events during the pandemic.

The events of the week’s programme will take place in three (3) different places in Patras, each one of them a space for hosting cultural events. The events will be broadcasted ONLINE on the website www.culturebook.gr including both main and side events:

Main Events:

  • 15th-18th December 2021

Five (5) Online Poetry Meetings including Readings and Roundtables: There will be lecterns where the guest poets will be presented; their works will be read (in 2 languages). The guest poets will also participate in the roundtables and discuss topics revolving around poetry and criticism.

  • 18th December 2021

Online Award Ceremony for the Greek “Jean Moréas” Poetry Award for 2021: The annual ceremony for the “Jean Moréas” Awards for Greek poetic art and production in its entire spectrum.

  • 16th December 2021

Newcomer Poet Marathon: A night of presentations and readings of new poets, combining physical and online presence.

Parallel Events: (11th -19th of December 2021)

  • Festival Anthology: Limited trilingual book edition plus eBook.
  • Online shows:
  • #meet_the_poets: tributes and interviews online at the culturebook.gr channel.
  • #videopoetry: presentation of video-poetry online.
  • Poetry Set to Singing: music radio tributes to poetry set to singing.
  • Exhibitions:
  • Poetry exhibition: presenting the works of poetry
  • Book exhibition of Newcomer Poets: presenting poetry collection books from new poets; participation from established poets and publishing houses.
  • Art Exhibition: “CONFINEMENT-FREEDOM-HUMAN REVOLUTIONS”
  • Poetry Alley: Presentation of poets and poems (the ones participating in the festival) on a central pedestrian precinct of Patras.

During both the physical and the online events, there will be participation from internationally acclaimed academics, novelists, critics, and representatives of institutions.

The Patras World Poetry Festival 2021 is organized by the “Grafeion Poiiseos” Poetry Foundation, the literary website Culture Book (culturebook.gr), while it is annually held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism*. The festival’s events are supported by the Greek Library of London, the University of Western Macedonia, the Hellenic Open University and many other esteemed institutions, since the festival takes place under the aegis of the Hellenic Republic’s President.

The Patras World Poetry Festival is one of the largest literary institutions in Greece, certainly the largest of its whole region, and it has already drawn attention amongst esteemed festivals internationally. Every year, the city of Patras hosts important figures of world literature and offers a richness of events, including poetry readings, seminars and cultural activities. The festival’s vision is to promote Greek literary expression worldwide and turn this capital of Western Greece into a European center for literary studies. Through its actions, the festival communicates with various departments of Greek literary studies all over the world and it chronicles contemporary poetic expression.

A detailed programme will soon be posted on the festival’s website www.culturebook.gr.

Sincerely,

On behalf of the Scholarly Representatives

Kotopoulos H. Triantafyllos

Chair of the “Patras World Poetry Festival”

Skiathas D. Antonis

Chair of the “Grafeion Poiiseos” Poetry Fountation

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EVENT MANAGER

Maria Alaniadi

Communication:

poetryfestival@culturebook.gr

grafeion.poihseos@culturebook.gr

Archival content available on www.culturebook.gr 

Demetra Christodoulou, Greece

Demetra Christodoulou, Greece

Demetra Christodoulou, Greece

The Poems

BANQUETS

Terrified the night knocked on my door
As if hunted by thieves.
I had no reason to deny refuge
To a defenseless creature.
She entered. The dawn cracked violently outside
In a white, operating-room light.

Thus I was taught to play hostess to the end.
As a coexistence, as an act of kindness
To a hunted woman.
She stands on the verge of the life left for me
Wrapped in her heavy quilts.
She does not demand, or impeach, or confess.
More often she takes from my hands
Instead of food a bouquet of daisies.
When I wash my windows I find them
Sketched in the air of breath.
They sparkle, the woman rejoices,
I, of course, remain silent.

Snowed on with slaughter and science
The city outside is still growing.
The middle wall faintly cracks
Like the bones of a child growing up
Deprived of the right to mourn love
Deprived of hope in the darkness of a hug.

(ΜΕΤΑΦΡΑΣΗ: ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΑ ΤΣΙΤΣΑ)


*


ΔΕΞΙΩΣΕΙΣ

Έντρομη χτύπησε την πόρτα μου η νύχτα
Σαν να την κυνηγούσαν ληστές.
Δεν είχα λόγο να αρνηθώ καταφύγιο
Σ' ένα ανυπεράσπιστο πλάσμα.
Μπήκε. Ξημέρωσε έξω βίαια
Μ' ένα άσπρο φως χειρουργείου.

Έτσι διδάχτηκα να δεξιώνομαι το τέλος.
Ως μια συνύπαρξη, ως πράξη καλοσύνης
Προς μια κυνηγημένη γυναίκα.
Στέκει στην άκρη της ζωής που μου μένει
Τυλιγμένη στα βαριά της παπλώματα.
Δεν απαιτεί, δεν καταγγέλλει, δεν ομολογεί.
Πιο συχνά δέχεται από τα χέρια μου
Αντί τροφής ένα μπουκέτο μαργαρίτες.
Όταν πλένω τα τζάμια μου τις βρίσκω
Σχεδιασμένες από την άχνα της πνοής.
Εκείνα αστράφτουν, η γυναίκα χαίρεται,
Εγώ, όπως είναι λογικό, σωπαίνω.

Χιονισμένη από σφαγή κι επιστήμη
Η πόλη έξω συνεχίζει να αναπτύσσεται.
Τρίζει η μεσοτοιχία ανεπαίσθητα
Σαν τα οστά παιδιού που μεγαλώνει
Χωρίς δικαίωμα στον θρήνο της αγάπης
Χωρίς ελπίδα σε σκοτάδι αγκαλιάς.


The Poet

Demetra Christodoulou was born in Athens in 1953. She studied Law and Philology. She has published 15 books of poetry, one of prose and an anthology of translated ancient Greek lyric poetry. She has been awarded the State Poetry Prize in 2008, the prize of the literary magazine NAGNOSTIS in 2015 and the prize "Zean Moreas" of the Poetry Bureau in 2018. Her poetry has been translated into various languages.

*

Η Δήμητρα Χ. Χριστοδούλου γεννήθηκε στην Αθήνα το 1953 , σπούδασε Νομικά και Φιλολογία και εργάστηκε στη Μέση Εκπαίδευση. Έχει εκδώσει 15 βιβλία ποίησης , ένα με πεζά κείμενα και μεταφράσεις αρχαίας λυρικής ποίησης. Της απονεμήθηκαν το Κρατικό Βραβείο Ποίησης 2008, το Βραβείο Ποίησης 2015 του" ΑΝΑΓΝΩΣΤΗ" και το Βραβείο Ποίησης 2017 "Ζαν Μορεάς" του Γραφείου Ποίησης.

Βραβεία Jean Moréas 2021 - Βραχείες λίστες
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