Antigone Kefala

Antigone Kefala
Born(1931-05-28)28 May 1931
Brăila, Romania
Died3 December 2022(2022-12-03) (aged 91)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
OccupationPoet
Notable awards2022 Patrick White Award

Antigone Kefala (28 May 1931 – 3 December 2022)[1] was an Australian poet and prose-writer of Greek-Romanian heritage. She was a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council and is acknowledged as being an important voice in capturing the migrant experience in contemporary Australia.[2] In 2017, Kefala was awarded the State Library of Queensland Poetry Collection Judith Wright Calanthe Award at the Queensland Literary Awards for her collection of poems entitled Fragments.[3]

Life

Born in Brăila, Romania in 1931,[4] Kefala and family moved to Greece and then New Zealand after World War II. Having studied French Literature at Victoria University and obtained a MA, she relocated to Sydney, Australia in 1960.[5] There she taught English as a second language and worked as a university and arts administrator. Her poetry and prose is written in both Greek and English, with Absence: New and Selected Poems reissued in a second edition in 1998.

Her work, written in free verse, has been described as having an almost metaphysical detachment.[6] It is characterised by an austere allusiveness unusual in Australian poetry. Aside from Greek and English it has been translated into Czech and French.[7]

In 2009, Antigone Kefala: A Writer’s Journey, an anthology of reviews, essays and analytical writing of Kefala's works edited by Professor Vrasidas Karalis and Helen Nickas was published by Owl Publishing.[8] In 2021, a collection of essays on her prose and poetry titled Antigone Kefala: New Australian Modernities, edited by Elizabeth McMahon and Brigitta Olubas, was published by UWA Publishing.

In November 2022, Kefala won the Patrick White Award.[9] A week later, she died on 3 December 2022, at the age of 91.[4]

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections
  • The Alien (Makar Press, 1973)
  • Thirsty Weather (Outback, 1978)
  • European Notebook (Hale & Iremonger, 1988)
  • Absence: New and selected poems (Sydney, Hale & Iremonger, 1992, 2nd ed. 1998)
  • Poems: A selection (Melbourne, Owl Publishing, 2000)
  • Wayfarers and Other Poems (Picaro Press, 2010)
  • Fragments, Artarmon, N.S.W. Giramondo, 2016, ISBN 978-1-925336-19-1
  • Journeys (Owl Publishing, 2019)
  • Poetry (Giramondo Publishing, 2025)

Prose fiction

  • The First Journey (Wild & Woolley, 1975)
  • Alexia : A Tale of Two Cultures (John Ferguson, 1984)
  • The Island (Hale & Iremonger, 1984)
  • Sunday Morning in The Oxford book of Australian Short Stories selected by Michael Wilding (Melbourne, Oxford University Press: 1994)
  • Summer Visit: Three Novellas (Giramondo Publishing, 2003)
  • Sydney Journals (Giramondo Publishing: 2008) ISBN 978-1-920882-41-9
  • Max: The Confessions of a Cat (Owl Publishing, 2009)

Selected critical studies and reviews of Kefala's work

Sydney journals
  • Allen, Delia (Autumn 2009). "Narratives of exile". Overland. 194: 88.

Awards and recognition

References

  1. ^ "Antigone Kefala: Death Notice". Sydney Morning Herald. 10 December 2022. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  2. ^ "Antigone Kefala". Australian Poetry Library. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  3. ^ "Winners and Finalists". Queensland Literary Awards. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  4. ^ a b "Antigone Kefala obituary". 4 December 2022.
  5. ^ "Antigone Kefala: A writer's journey". Owl Publishing. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  6. ^ Page, Geoff (25 February 2017). "Fragments and A House by the River review: Poetry of encounters and memories". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  7. ^ Adelaide, Debra (1988) Australian Women Writers: A bibliographic guide, London, Pandora.
  8. ^ Evdokia, Fourkioti. "Book Launch in Melbourne Antigone Kefala: A Writer's Journey". Greek Reporter Australia. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  9. ^ "Minimalist poet Antigone Kefala wins the Patrick White Award for her contribution to Australian literature". University of New South Wales. 24 November 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  10. ^ "Winners of prestigious Queensland Literary Awards announced". Queensland Government. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  11. ^ "Kefala wins 2022 Patrick White Award". Books+Publishing. 24 November 2022. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
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