iris literary agency

Shortlisted for the Diavazo short story prize

Dimosthenis Papamarkos’ first collection of short stories has caused a stir on the Greek literary scene. Its title, transliterated as MetaPoesis, means ‘Re-making’, in the sense of stitching up or transforming old/damaged clothes, as well as punning with the idea of ‘Meta-poetry’. Indeed, all the stories are concerned both with how we attempt to remake our lives in the face of trauma, and with the retelling of old narratives (most obviously with a paradigmatic story of trauma, in Cain, and more subtly with concealed allusions to old Greek narratives, including the Odyssey, in Arise). The stories are like the title, sophisticated and many-layered.