NORA NADJARIAN: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Over the Wall - and Over the Moon

I recently went to Berlin to read poetry at the brilliant Literaturwerkstatt. Some of my poems were translated into German by Christa Schuenke, I was introduced to the German public by Ron Winkler and Brigitte Oleschinski. I felt honoured and humbled.

I walked through a hole in remnants of die Mauer, took photos, was inspired. I could hardly recognise any of the streets or buildings... Berlin changes, moves on, all the time, it seems to me.

A few weeks after my return (yesterday, to be exact) I found out that Dorothee Lang of BluePrintPress has chosen my micro-novel "The Republic of Love" for publication this summer!

Now I am totally over the moon.

Some details here.

And more details to follow...

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.