The Greek Community of Melbourne, SEKA and the Cypriot Community are presenting Andrea Demetriou’s poetry collection “The Inconsolable Clock”, on Monday 19 June at the Greek Centre, at 7 pm (Level 1, 168 Lonsdale St. Melbourne).

The book is introduced by Christos Tsiolkas and will be launched by Damien Kingsbury - Professor of International Politics, Arnold Zable - author of the “The Fighter”, Demos Krouskos (Chair) - CEO of North Richmond Community Health.

“Like all true poets, Demetriou understands the dignity and profound power of the pause - take us from a Cyprus shattered and divided by the horror of war and occupation, to an evocation of the sight and sounds of inner-city Melbourne streets and then they return to us to the eastern Mediterranean to where another war, an economic war, again shatters and divides," writes author Chris Tsiolkas. "Writing in two languages and two continents, in Cypriot Greek and in Australian English. Demetriou's voice is that of the outsider. Her voice is born in exile and in migration, how else can she be else? But if there is lament in her poems there is also a defiant and proud declaration of joy. Gamo ta panta sas agapao (Fuck it all, I love you all). It's that defiance and generosity that drew me first to Andrea as a person and which makes me fall in love with her as a poet. The truth that is love and the truth that is pain being shot straight into your heart. This is the book you hold in your hands.”

Angelo Loukakis, Author and Executive Director of The Australian Society of Authors: “You could argue that there is a political dimension or desire in Andrea's poems, but that is just one, important aspect of her work. Rather than political, she is more certainly in the lineage of Cavafy, above all the Cavafy of loss of civic virtues destroyed. The concerns of Elytis, too, are there to be seen in Andrea's work, she is in the tradition of Axion Esti.” 

Arnold Zable, awarded Writer, Novelist, and Human Rights Advocate: “In her work the political and the personal are inseparable. Her voice rises from a space that lies between cultures, between worlds, between a stolen past and a fragile future. It is the voice of the displaced, a seeker, an activist, and a dreamer, infused with passion and artistry-- the private, made transcendent and universal.”

Professor Michael Tsianikas, Flinders University: “Absolutely sublime poems by Andrea, being intuitively gifted to capture a sudden and accidental light on the dark side of the moon.”

When: Monday 19 June, at 7.00pm

Where: Greek Centre, Level 1, 168 Lonsdale St. Melbourne.