George Seferis

The news came from the opposite shore of the Aegean, from Ayvalik: the ancestral home of Elias Venezis, a prominent Greek writer of the past century, is on the verge of collapse. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence.

Josh Hickey recounts a funny scene that played out in the first year of the Hydra Book Club, a pop-up bookstore he established in 2021 on the first floor of the Hydra Historical Archive and Museum, featuring Greek and foreign books, new and used, on the island.

The election of Greece's first Jewish mayor, Ioannina's Moisis Elisaf, was news that was heard around the world last May.

The prolific and esteemed Greek poet, novelist, playwright and translator Nanos Valaoritis has died, according to an announcement on his Facebook page. He was 98 years old, and "lived a life full of riches," fellow poet Dinos Siotis said in a Facebook post.

Roderick Beaton, an acknowledged authority on modern Greek literature and culture and the author of a biography of Greek poet-diplomat George Seferis, begins his latest book, "Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation," with a provocative question: "Who are the Greeks?

The exhibition "When the Light Dances, I Speak Fairly - George Seferis and his Poetry through Painting and Photography" illustrates the distinguished Greek poet's talent and highlights the impact of his writing on visual artists - including both his peers and younger generations.

Manuscripts, first editions, personal items, paintings by George Seferis himself, as well as black-and-white photographs from his student years until his last travels in Greece and abroad make up the tribute to the Nobel laureate at the B&M Theocharakis Foundation, curated by Takis Mavrotas.

It was 1949 when a group of hopeful young scientists boarded a ship and sailed across the Atlantic, leaving behind a Greece devastated by World War II and in the grips of civil strife. They were the first batch of Greeks to receive a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States, thus launching an exchange of knowledge and know-how that continues to this day.

Modern Greek literature is often overlooked, with readers of classic literature around the world well-versed on Homer, Socrates, Aristotle and other greats but not aware of other greats with the exception of legendary Nobel Prize winners like George Seferis (1963) and Odysseus Elytis (1978), as well as Nikos Kazantzakis.

Hasan Gürsoy opened the George Seferis Art Gallery in Urla, near Smyrna in Turkey, in honor of the Greek Nobel laureate. As a young boy, Seferis lived in the region until the age of 14 years, so when Gürsoy and his partners decided to open their gallery they decided to recognize the great Greek poet and thus pay tribute to the shared Greek-Turkish cultural past.