Literature

Nobel prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk has published his latest book, "Veba Geceleri" (Nights of Plague), in a timely arrival when the world can resonate with a plague outbreak on a fictional Ottoman island as it scrambles to end the unprecedented plague of the 21st century: The COVID-19 pandemic.

A wand used by Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter is among the showbiz-related items going up for auction in California next month.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first film in the series, the wand - which was used in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire in 2005 - is expected to fetch up to $10,000 (£7,100).

"Blondes have more fun, but brunettes..."

Kranj – Ahead of Culture Day the Gorenjska Museum released a comic book about Slovenia’s most prominent poet, France Prešeren (1800-1849), authored by the museum’s consultant Magda Zore and painter Jože Trobec.

The comic, titled Comic Book about Prešeren, captures the life of the acclaimed poet who elevated the Slovenian poetry to the heights of established Romantic verse.

The Athens and Epidaurus Festivals released a statement on Monday announcing that noted actor and director George Kimoulis will not feature in this year's lineup as originally planned. The decision, it said, was taken in the wake of multiple accusations of mental and verbal abuse by colleagues.

Ljubljana – Feri Lainšček, a writer, poet, playwright and screenwriter from north-eastern Slovenia, who will receive the Prešeren Prize for lifetime-achievement, sees his work not as a job but as a way of life. He believes literary heroes are spiritual beings with lives of their own.

Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Monday that he will check whether the action plan after the fire tragedy at the Piatra Neamt county hospital has been implemented. "I am more interested in seeing what has been done after the tragedy in Piatra Neamt.

Oxford University's Foteini Dimirouli will be conducting an online seminar on "C.P. Cavafy in the World: Origins, Trajectories and the Diasporic Poet," hosted by the British School at Athens, on February 1, starting at 7 p.m. local time.

The Greek Exports Forum & Awards 2020, postponed last month, will take place on Wednesday, from 1 to 8 p.m., in the form of a LiveOn hybrid event on the Ethos Group platform.

For more information, visit ethosevents.eu.

Cultural and artistic officials and local administration officials of Iasi laid wreaths on Friday at the linden tree in Copou Park under which Mihai Eminescu wrote part of his literary work, on the poet's 171st birth anniversary. Due to the pandemic, the number of attendees was small compared to previous years, in the dozen, who had to keep their l distance and give up speeches.