NORA NADJARIAN: My Lucky Day

Thursday, December 17, 2009

My Lucky Day

OK. I knew it was going to take place

Time: December 16, 2009 from 6:30pm to 7pm (U.S. Pacific Time)
Location: at the Folded ning
Organized By: J.S. Graustein

Event Description:
Announcement and unveiling of the video depiction of the winning works for 3Cheers Autumn 2009.

I did some quick calculations in my head (yeah, right) and worked out that 6:30pm U.S. Pacific Time on December 16 translated as 4:30am Cyprus time on December 17. I went to bed thinking: I'll never get up on time. I'll never win. I'll never have the pleasure of knowing how other people might visualize my story ZOO. I'll neverzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

A miracle happened. I jumped out of bed at exactly 4:30am, I started chatting online straight away with some wonderful people on another continent... They were surprised that I'd got out of bed for this, "That's dedication for you" somebody said, I was thinking this is fun. Then Jessi said the results were now officially announced and we should go and look at the video. The first still of the video was of a ... pelican! My heart started beating faster. I felt like a bloody kid about to open a parcel to find the exact same Xmas present they had asked for... And "OH MY GOD" I wrote. "Are you wide awake now?" somebody asked... We had virtual fireworks and drank virtual champagne. I'm telling you this was the best literary fun I've had in a long time. Thank you, Jessi, and to all those who voted for my story. Congratulations to the other two winners: Linda Leedy Schneider’s for “To Yesterday’s Poem” and xtx for “Better Things”.

And here it is, that lovely video which made my day.

1 comment:

Ethel RohanDecember 17, 2009 at 7:17 PM
It is a lovely video, and fine work all round. Congratulations, Nora.
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Biography

Nora Nadjarian is an award-winning Cypriot poet and writer. She has represented Cyprus at literary events and festivals in Europe and elsewhere, including Frankfurt Book Fair and Dresdner Bardinale and within the framework of EU2016, in the poetry project ‘In European Poetry I want to live’ (Amsterdam).

Her work has been cited or published in the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Telegraph and has also won prizes and commendations in international competitions, including the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, the Féile Filíochta International Poetry Competition, the Binnacle International Ultra-Short Competition and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize. Her work deals with the themes of women, refugees, identity, exile, love and loss, as well as the political situation in Cyprus.

In Cyprus she is best known for her book of short stories “Ledra Street” (2006) but has had poetry and short fiction published internationally. Her work was included in A River of Stories, an anthology of tales and poems from across the Commonwealth, illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski, Best European Fiction 2011 (Dalkey Archive Press), Being Human (Bloodaxe Books, 2011) and Capitals (Bloomsbury, 2017).Her latest publication is the collection of short stories Selfie (Roman Books, 2017) and her short plays “Mermaid” and “Catalina” were recently performed at the Old Red Lion theatre in London.

Her special interest lies in the teaching of creative writing. In recent years she has facilitated several creative writing workshops– in English, Greek and German – at schools, universities and prisons in Cyprus and Germany.