The harbor of Tinos is
nine miles northwest and virtually equidistant from the old and new ports of
Mykonos. How long that trip takes depends upon whether you travel by freighter,
ferry, or fast boat. Since I brought my
car, I went by ferry, and shall return the same way on Sunday.
Almost every regularly
scheduled commercial passenger vessel in or out of Athens’ port cities of
Piraeus and Rafina that stop on Mykonos also stop on Tinos. That’s not just
because Tinos lacks an airport, but because it serves as home to the Lourdes of
Greece—The Church of Panagia Evangelistria—and the extraordinarily influential
earthly power behind it, The Panhellenic Holy Foundation of our Lady of the
Annunciation of Tinos, better known simply as The Evangelistria
Foundation. Not surprisingly, the
Evangelistria Foundation is one of the sponsors of the Festival, along with the
Municipality of Tinos and The Tinos Cultural Foundation.
The Festival takes
place in three unique locations on the island, and is described by its
organizers as aiming “to
present the various cultural sides of Tinos while making the
island a reference point and meeting place of international contemporary
literature. The program includes public speeches, readings,
discussions, roundtable meetings between the public and the writers,
in combination with local music and dances. Authors and poets will read their
work in their native language, while the texts will be available in Greek and
English translations."
.
As it turns out, I’m the only USA attendee and only mystery
writer among a handful of non-poets. In fact, I’m the only native English-speaking
participant, the rest hailing from Greece, Albania, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Kurdistan, Mexico, and Slovenia. In deciding
what to read (and have translated into Greek) I originally went with a lengthy funeral
lamination poem I’d composed for my new Kaldis novel coming out in
October. Don’t worry; I won’t saddle you
with any of that here. I’ve already covered that ground elsewhere.
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| US-China relations poetically at work |
But on reflection I decided to avoid competing with such
extraordinarily talented, well-recognized international poets, and played to the local audience
by allowing them to hear how a non-Greek mystery writer described their
island’s most hallowed institutions and landscapes. I delivered that address at the opening
ceremonies Thursday night, and I’m still breathing and out of custody.
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| Blending in with the audience. |
Today
I participate with my new-found colleagues is a round table discussion open to
public participation, titled, “The Writer in an Era of Crisis.” We’ll see how I
fare in that.
Below
are some photos of the events and venues, capturing at times some of the participants,
namely:
Yiorgos Blanas /
Greece
Xenophon Brountzakis /
Greece
Stratis Haviaras /
Greece
Christos Ikonomou /
Greece
Laurie Keza / Greece
Elsa Korneti / Greece,
Kleopatra Lyberi /
Greece
Yiorgos Rouvalis /
Greece
Klety Sotiriadou /
Greece
Minas Vintiadis /
Greece,
Ardita Jatru / Albania
Maja Klaric / Croatia
Hiwa Panahi / Iranian
Kurdistan
Evridiki
Periocleous-Papadopoulou / Cyprus
Enrique Servin Herrera
/ Mexico
Jeffrey Siger / USA
Nicolaj Stockholm /
Denmark
Natassa Svikart Zumer
/ Slovenia
Mindy Zhang / China.
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| Dinos Siotis, artistic director of Festival and his wife, Barbara |
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| Our chaperone, Xenophon |
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| Checking in... |
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| Checking out... |
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| The pool area |
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| Poetic inspiration in a bottle |
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| Our limo |
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| Taking our show on the road |
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| Croatia and China |
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| First night line up, China, GR, US, GR, Mexico, GR |
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| Yes, she's reading poem composed on her fan! |
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| Preparing for after party |
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| Dinner |
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| Me. |
It’s been a remarkable
experience. And with any luck I’ve
convinced some of my newfound colleagues to do guest spots on MIE, though
considering their preferred literary form, I think it more appropriate to label
their contributions as “PIE.”
Jeff—Saturday
