Press Release
Award-winning poet Koraly Dimitriadis is touring Europe and spending much of her time in Cyprus to perform her poetry from her books Love and Fck Poems (also in Greek), Just Give Me The Pills, and She's Not Normal, as well as new poetry never before performed. As part of this tour, Dimitriadis will also launch her short story collection, THE MOTHER MUST DIE, in Larnaka at The Tudor Inn Bar & Restaurant at 6pm.
"I am very excited to be back in Cyprus," Dimitriadis says. "Having my poem about my grandmother in the "Journeys to Cyprus" exhibition at CVAR last week was such an honor. My yiayia poem was supported by the Department of Antiquities, the Cypriot Ministry of Culture, the University of Sydney, and the Australian High Commission Cyprus. I feel very blessed to have these organizations behind me, championing my poetry, my art, my voice, the migrant experience, and feminism".
At the event on the 25th, Koraly will perform one of her stories and then be joined by award-winning short story writers Constantia Soteriou (winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize) and Cypriot-Australian Erini Loucaides for an in-conversation followed by a Q&A.
"I wanted to have that dialogue between Cypriot writers I respect and my work, like I did at CVAR with academic and poet Maria Kouvarou," Dimitriadis says. "This is a new approach that I would like to have in my performances here: conversations and dialogue around my work that help bridge those gaps between diaspora and homeland."
Similarly, this is what Koraly's new short story collection brings to Cypriot literature. A defiant, unapologetic collection that is raw and to the heart of the migrant experience in Australia, with universal topics of violence against women, divorce, inequalities in single motherhood, cultural expectations, Cypriot politics, toxic masculinity, and identity.
"Let's just say I didn't hold back in this collection. I was lucky my publisher in Australia, Puncher and Wattmann, didn't try to censor me."
Koraly's full tour can be found on her website.
