Overland literary journal

Tearing down walls

Sometimes I get so tired of words. They pour out of me. It is not words that I lack. It is the discipline to arrange the words in a way that best articulates what it is I am trying to say. I’m trying to tear down walls, layers and layers of walls. Emotional walls, cultural walls, female walls, writing and publishing industry walls. But sometimes it’s best just to shut up and say everything you want to say in a single photo. So I’m going to keep this post brief, and let the photo say the rest. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 10-11-2011, 14 user comments

Words from Cyprus

Hi Overlanders! Greetings from Cyprus! Island of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. I am here working on my novel, Misplaced. One-quarter of my novel is set in Cyprus, the rest in Melbourne. I have been writing my novel for six years. I am amazed at how much richer my prose is simply by being amongst the Cypriot people and way of life. The characters are coming to life through the dialogue and Cyprus is a living, breathing character. What has also taken me by surprise is that I came to write Misplaced and all this other writing is coming out of me too. I have been writing a travel diary of sorts on my website/

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 4-10-2011, No comments

Poetry or pornography?

With the launch of my second poetry chapbook, Love and Fuck Poems, approaching, I thought it timely to write a post to hopefully generate some discussion about poetry and pornography, and the fine line between the two – or can they be the same thing? It’s a question that’s been dancing in my mind the last six months. Before that time the thought never crossed my mind to explore this kind of poetry. But then I was introduced to a poet named Ben John Smith, editor of Horror Sleaze Trash and suddenly my poetry world was expanded to new horizons.

Ben was featuring at Passionate Tongues Poetry readings at Brunswick Hotel the first time I was exposed to his poetry, and he invoked a strong response – people either loved or loathed him. Mention his name to some poets and they’ll reciprocate with a look of disgust. ‘His work isn’t literature!’ someone said to me, ‘he’s sexist, misogynistic – he’s a pornographer, that’s all he is.’ And I received more than a few complaints when I interviewed him on 3CR’s Spoken Word program a few weeks ago. I’m working with Ben to put together a show for my launch where we will be going head-to-head, poetry style, and I have to say, getting to know him as a person, he is a far stretch from the ‘sexist pig’ people label him to be. In fact, he has been in a loving relationship with his girlfriend for ten years, so what seems to be the problem here? ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 27-06-2011, 108 user comments

Antithesis presents: words outside the wog box

As I’m typing this blog post, only a few kilometres away on Lonsdale Street in the city, the annual Antipodes festival is in full swing. There’s fairy floss, carnival rides, imported Greek singers, bouzouki, Greek dancing and, of course, souvlaki. The Antipodes festival has been running since 1987 and, according to their website and to many Greeks in Melbourne, it is ‘a celebration of all things Greek’. But surely there’s more to being Greek than Antipodes, or the collection of ‘wog boy’ films? Challenging the Greek stereotype isn’t the only reason a few prominent Greek-Australian artists came together and created Antithesis, it was also to expose the hidden underground art created by Greek-Australians that for some reason, isn’t pushing through to the mainstream. As the curator of the literature/

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 19-03-2011, 16 user comments

Writing: community and culture

For my Overland Subscriberthon post this year, I wanted to raise and discuss the importance of writing community. Here at Overland, I have always felt a sense of community; a place where I can share my thoughts and engage in hearty political debate. A place where I can learn, make mistakes, reflect. We may be a small group, but there’s a community spirit, and we are all contributing to Melbourne’s political landscape and culture.

But what about novel writers? We are so isolated, in our little offices, typing away. I’ve been writing novels for six years now and I have to say, it does get pretty lonely. You procrastinate a lot. Surf the net. Watch the walls. That’s why I was ecstatic when my friend told me about National Novel Writing month. The basic principle is to start a new novel and update your word count progress throughout the month on the NaNo website. The total of each region, in my case, Melbourne, is ranked against other regions from around the world to determine the NaNo winner for 2010. You can work on your new novel anywhere you like, but for those writers craving a sense of community, organisations from cafés to corporate businesses have opened their doors and allowed writers to gather on their premises, network and write. Every day there is a NaNo gathering so it’s as simple as logging on and checking where to go to for the day and off you go. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 24-11-2010, 3 user comments

Victoria, when are you going to support your arts?

This year I have harshly come to the realisation that our government doesn’t care about art, well, not unless you’re Tim Winton, Nicole Kidman or the Australian orchestra. To them, emerging artists are just the people on the sidelines who should get their act together and get a real job. We are the annoying buskers on Bourke Street outside Myer, the poet reading at shady pubs in front of ten people, the TAFE students who should be getting serious and studying at university. After all, isn’t university the place artists go to become ‘real’ artists? To learn all the rules there is to learn on how art should be created? Then all of us artists can keep producing and reproducing and regurgitating the same art again and again and Australian culture can stand still forever. Yes, that’s exactly what we need as a society: to be unchallenged. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 10-11-2010, 18 user comments

Melbourne getting all poetic

With the closing ceremony of the Overload poetry festival at the Grace Darling Hotel on Sunday, I was disappointed poetry would once again retreat from the limelight. The experience I had this year, participating in the festival as a poet, was far more exciting than my role reviewing it here on Overland last year. Observing from afar is quite a different experience to being part of Melbourne’s poetic voice. Over this year I have gotten to know many of Melbourne’s poets by attending regular poetry readings and it is only recently that I have come to appreciate just how lucky I am here in Melbourne to be a part of such a vibrant poetic and overall artistic community. I didn’t have a chance to attend all of the interesting and diverse readings and events that were part of the festival, but I thought I’d write a few words reflecting on my own personal experience. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 23-09-2010, 3 user comments

Where poetry and the Greens meet

Extending Our Community with the Australian Greens
1 August 2:00-4:40
284 Brunswick st Fitzroy

Aboriginal elder Uncle Reg Blow will conduct a cleansing ceremony to precede a heat of the invitational Melbourne Believer Slam. Slam MC: Michael Reynolds Competitors: Ben Pobjie, Laura Smith, Luka Haralampou, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Graham Colin, Dandelion Jackson, Rhys Rodgers, Koraly Dimitriadis, Joel MacKerrow and Eddy Berger.

Introductory words by Greens candidate Kathleen Maltzahn. Closing remarks by Greens candidate Brian Walters.

Admission $10 $5 concession.
A fundraiser for the Australian Greens.

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 29-07-2010, 3 user comments

Poetry review – My father’s tools

My father's tools
Tom Petsinis
Arcadia

The relationship between father and son is explored in Tom Petsinis’s sixth poetry collection My father’s tools, published by Arcadia. The poetry, accompanied by the artwork of Jim Pavlidis, is series of poems, each named after a tool in Petsinis’s deceased father’s toolbox. Although each short poem can be enjoyed in isolation, the power lies in reading them together, chronologically. As a whole, the collection paints a portrait of a complex relationship – father and son – beginning at the surface and chiselling deeper to its core. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 15-07-2010, 5 user comments

The Muslim voice pushing through

The politically conscious hip-hop group The Brothahood ask ‘Why?’

Five Muslim spoken-word/rap artists born in Australia with Lebanese backgrounds, The Brothahood are smashing stereotypes with their album Lyrics of mass construction, and tracks like ‘Why?’ When I accidentally stumbled across them a few months ago I was asking myself why haven’t I heard of these guys? All of Australia needs to turn off their televisions and listen:

Now if a wake up one morning and grow myself a beard /
people start talkin and getting themselves scared /
but – Mr Goldberg he lives down the block /
when he grows a beard no-one ever gets a shock /
why when my sister walks properly dressed /
she wears a headscarf they think she’s oppressed? /
then you got the nuns dressed in black and white head to toe /
but no-one questions them – why – i dont know

Hesh, Ahmed, Moustafa, Jehad and Timur work full-time jobs, live on opposite sides of the city in suburbia and struggle to find time to come together, but when they do, they produce raw and confronting material that challenges the propagandist mainstream newsfeeds the Australian public sees every day. They may not have flashy video clips but the content is honest and allows the Muslim voice in Australia, commonly silenced by fear, to be heard.

Only recently introduced to their work, by the Nothing rhymes with RRR podcast, my initial reaction was: why aren’t these guys funded by an arts council? Why do these guys have to struggle to create? Governments complain of the racism in Australia but do nothing about it. Why not start by funding people like The Brothahood and other diverse voices from different backgrounds? Only through art can we appreciate the many cultures we have in Australia.

The Brothahood began their career years ago as spoken-word artists performing with a beat boxer and have since incorporated music in their performances. Their track ‘The Silent Truth’, a response to the Cronulla riots, was featured on Triple J’s Unearthed in 2007:

I can feel ya eyes on me but i aint in the wrong /
keepin to yourself scared that my beard hides a bomb /
tensions climbin higher than that ape king kong /
label me a thug coz i'm from Lebanon /
butcha WRONG, im like any other aussie /
try to ride a train but u always gotta stop me /
coz of 9/11 now you all wanna wanna drop me /
little do you know that your thinkins kinda sloppy

But The Brothahood don’t only write about issues faced by Muslims in Australia. My favourite track is ‘Act on It’, which voices anger over the state of Israel and the suffering of Palestinians:

It was born on injustice, theft and murder /
Driving Palestinians out further and further /
Now don't get me wrong Judaism ain't to blame /
But we must understand that Zionism ain't the same /
Now I know you're mad at me, blunt brutality /
The Z ain't got no links to Jewish spirituality /
Huh, now you wanna twist, call me terrorist /
Yes, I'm anti Zionist, Expect me to resist

This Thursday morning, 15 July from 9–9:30, I’ll be interviewing Jehad from The Brothahood on 3CR’s Spoken Word program (855 AM). We’ll be discussing spoken word, lyrics and politics. You can also listen online at www.3cr.org.au

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 12-07-2010, 8 user comments

Mother Muse at Sospeso
– a literary event

From the doubts of conception through to the power of labour, and onto the magic and miseries of babies and children and mature awareness as daughters – 5 women wordsmiths share their perspectives to create a multi-voiced portrait of mothering in modern Australia.

Performing on the night: Koraly Dimitriadis, Vicki Thornton, Amy Bodossian, Tiggy Johnson and Sunyata Di Cousens (with links by midwife Geoff Fox).

When: This Friday, 4 June
Time: 7–10pm
Place: Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn

The night also includes an open mic section if you would like to read.

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 2-06-2010, 1 user comment

The joke of ‘Mother’s Day’

Two weeks ago I promised myself I wouldn’t blog till I finished the current draft of my novel. I’ve tried really hard to push this blog piece down but it keeps resurfacing in my mind, tormenting me, and so I realised the only way to get back to finishing my novel is to write the damn piece. I know that by writing this piece I am, in a way, shooting myself in the foot. But I became a writer to write so that’s what I’m doing.

Mother’s Day was the final straw. I didn’t feel like celebrating at all, and I’m a mother. I was outraged by the concept of ‘Mother’s Day’. Putting aside the obvious idea that it’s a marketing and money-making scheme, our society has allocated one day to celebrate mothers yet for the other 364 days a year we get the complete opposite. We are branded as whiny, selfish, brushed aside when we strive for success in our careers and we’re cut no slack at all. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 17-05-2010, 27 user comments

Spoken Word on the airwaves

This Thursday morning between 9 and 9.30, I’ll be interviewed by Peter Goodyear on 3CR’s Spoken Word program (855 AM). 3CR can also be streamed online.

Apart from reciting a selection of my prose and poetry, I’ll also be discussing my influences, the writing of my novel Misplaced and the Melbourne rock band, Trial Kennedy – helping me bring my story to life. This interview is my introduction to 3CR soundwaves, and I’ve been invited to be a monthly presenter on the Spoken Word program along with Peter Goodyear, Rhonda Jankovic and Santo Cazzati. My first show as interviewer, to air on Thursday 3 June, will feature Overland blogger, Tara Mokhtari who will be reciting her poetry and talking about her experiences as a teacher of creative writing. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 4-05-2010, 6 user comments

The mountains couldn’t walk away – Sydney launch

A few weeks ago, I posted a review on the Melbourne book launch of Andrea Demetriou’s haunting book, The mountains couldn’t walk away. Andrea’s poetry collection is a reflection of her experiences escaping Cyprus as an eight-year-old girl when Turkey invaded in 1974. Since posting my review, I’ve received requests to post some of her poems here on the blog, and Andrea has been kind enough to allow Overland to do this.

Due to the success of the Melbourne launch, The mountains couldn’t walk away is being relaunched in Sydney on Thursday. This is an event I highly recommend to poets, or anyone interesting in engaging with the refugee voice. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 26-04-2010, No comments