New website/ New blog

This blog has moved. I have a new website and new blog here.

Please visit www.noranadjarian.com for the latest news on my writing!

Another Writing Year...

2020, what a strange year you have been! Though you deprived me of much of my freedom, you led me to success in other ways. Here's what happened in autumn/winter: 

My poem Nausicaa was one of twenty shortlisted poems in the Live Canon International Poetry competition 2020 and is part of the anthology of the competition's longlisted poems. Later in the year, I was invited by Live Canon to write a poem inspired by one of the silent women characters in Pindar. My poem Pindar Forgot to Mention, on the character Protogeneia, was beautifully performed by Alice Barclay.

I also have short fiction forthcoming in the wonderful journals Sand and MoonPark Review.

Europa 28, Hay Festival

Thrilled to be one of the 28 women selected to offer their visions for the future at Hay Festival #europa28, live and online 6 - 9 October. 

Participants include the fabulous Leïla Slimani, Nora Ikstena and Kapka Kassabova.  Zadie Smith and Olga Tokarczuk will also make special guest appearances online.

 

Explore the programme at hayfestival.org/europa28 

 #imaginetheworld #stories #essays #womensfiction #hayfestival #rijeka2020

Good Things Have Happened...

...since I last wrote. My tiny micro "Voyage" was a finalist in the annual New Zealand micro competition, I've had flash accepted by the wonderful "Lunate" and "Cabinet of Heed", my story "When We Lost It" was one of the winners in the March/April  Didcot Writers flash competition - and my poem "Cassandra Speaks" was Highly Commended in the Ken Saro-Wiwa Poetry Competition 2020!

From Somewhere in the Mediterranean

The book is out! And my "Shadow Theatre" is in it.

CIRCLE SURFACE SUN From Somewhere in the Mediterranean

Edited by Irena Eden & Stijn Lernout

Schlebrügge.Editor | ISBN 978-3-903172-50-0 |

A few months ago I was commissioned to write a story inspired by the Mediterranean light for the new book Circle Surface Sun.

Vienna-based artists Irena Eden and Stijn Lernout invited 22 authors from all the countries along the Mediterranean basin to write about the light in their region. Whether autobiographical essay, subjective commentary, poetic description, or philosophical reflection—the texts were to articulate one or the other facet of the special light that unites this geographic area.

A photo series by the two artists on the subjects of sea and light condenses the atmospheric connection between the texts and, at the same time, documents the installative and illustrative way the two artists deal with the subject. 

The anthology situates its starting point in Albert Camus’ critical reflection on Europe at his time and its Mediterranean utopia of solidarity and simplicity, in which light and the sun play a major role. In the current economic, environmental, and humanitarian crises, the idea of an inclusive Mediterranean Europe based on cultural diversity seems to have eroded in favor of nationalist interests, economic isolation, and populist ideologies fanning hate and fear. In this climate, the prospect of reiterating Camus’ “solar thought” as an “art of living for catastrophic times” has attained new urgency.

The authors explore their present day, looking out from the Mediterranean shores as the mythological origins of Europe. Circle Surface Sun gathers these voices from different places and myriad perspectives in an attempt to open a transnational, border-crossing dialogue among countries and continents, and to create a space for community and joint thinking.

Countries included:

Albania~Algeria~Bosnia and Herzegovina~Croatia~Cyprus~Egypt~France~Greece~Gibraltar~Israel~Italy~Lebanon~Libya~Malta~Montenegro~Morocco~Palestine~Slovenia~Spain~Syria~Tunisia~Turkey

More information on Schlebrügge.Editor website: https://schlebruegge.com/en/content/circle-surface-sun

National Flash Fiction Day Anthology

More good news today! My story "Endless Possibilities" will be included in the 2020 National Flash Fiction Day anthology.

A note from the editors: It was an incredibly difficult decision; not only was the standard of submissions exceedingly high, but we received nearly twice the number of entries as last year.  Both editors read every piece anonymously, and a good proportion of the submissions many, many times more.

Hummingbird

"The first hummingbird lived in Europe over 30 million years ago. Its colors were bright and bold, magnificent and stirring. When the hummingbird hovered above a flower with that spectacular blur of wings, its heartbeat was unbelievable.

This is a beginning."

Read my story "Hummingbird" on Literary Hub. It's the story with which I represent Cyprus in the Hay Festival Europa28 project and in the anthology Europa28: Writing by Women on the Future of Europe (Comma Press, 2020).

The anthology may be ordered here.