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Theodoros Papaioannou, author of the fairy tales Anapoda and Apenanti, spoke in the first person to diastixo.gr about his first steps in writing.His text is republished here: For as long as I can remember, I have been in a school. A pupil, a student, a teacher. Surrounded by pencils, erasers, pens, exercise books, books and notebooks. Well, you don’t need much else to start writing. I’ve been writing since I was a child. From little notes to stories, short stories, plays and poems. I started writing fairy tales when I was older. When I was little, they used to read them to me or tell them to me. Later, I read them on my own. I never wanted school to end. I don’t know why. I liked it when it stopped for the holidays, but I always wanted it to start again. So the only way for school to continue was to cross over to the ‘other side’, and go from being a pupil to becoming a teacher. ‘Upside-down’ things, in other words. I think that in the end things didn’t turn out quite like that, because most of the time when I go into the classroom I sit at a desk. I feel better at a desk with the children around me. Ah, the children. Without them, I probably wouldn’t write. I collect their sentences and words on scraps of paper, in diaries, in the palm of my hand... Their conversations are usually the starting point for a story or a fairy tale. Is that too much to ask? When I finally believed that my stories could be read by more children, I started knocking on the doors of publishing houses. I knocked with large mustard-coloured envelopes, but they wouldn’t open them. That’s when I remembered I had to be patient. (I’d been through the same thing with music, when I was learning the guitar.) Because I wasn’t patient; I wanted everything to happen straight away. In a flash, as they say. At some point, a man turned up – what we call a ‘sponsor’ – and so my first book, containing two plays for children, was published in a limited edition. It was black and white, but I didn’t care at all. I kept sending out those mustard-coloured envelopes in the hope that a door might open. The exercise in patience continued. ‘A good lesson, I won’t deny it, but how long will it last?’, I wondered. Eventually, I decided to put together a portfolio of my own, containing all the replies from the closed doors. They all said more or less the same thing. ‘Thank you, very nice, but we won’t be taking it because...’. The folder just kept getting thicker and thicker. After a few years, one folder made it through, the door opened, and it became a book! With its colours, its songs, everything about it. Such joy! That wait, with all its setbacks, gave birth to *Anapoda*, which is also my first book to be awarded by the Children’s Book Circle in 2015.With the colours of the rainbow adorning nature and Melios the beetle, it was now clear that, after patience and perseverance, the journey was changing course. The following year, *Apenanti* came along with its songs, won the booksellers’ award from Public, and it too boarded the ship. Well, then came more fairy tales, a teenage novel; some are on their way, some are on paper and others in my mind. I feel lucky because I have precious travelling companions: Viktoras, Sofia, Kostas, Leda, Irida, Marilena, Roula, Vicky, Christina, Myrto and, of course, my son Orestis, who writes the music for the songs in the fairy tales.When I perform or narrate a fairy tale and I’m surrounded by children, I feel that this is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. To be among children. I love that they speak the truth without a second thought, that they are spontaneous. That they laugh with all their hearts when something strikes them as truly funny. For children to let you share a story of yours with them is truly a great honour. When they actually enjoy it and have a good time, it’s magic. When I first started writing, I used to say that if even one child fell asleep reading one of my stories, I’d feel happy. Now that I’m sure that’s happened, I can say that I am. When friends ask me, ‘But how do you come up with them? Where do you find them?’ and things like that, I reply: Everywhere. In the trees, in the plants, on a walk in the mountains, in children’s laughter, in a photograph, on a journey... I try to look at the world around me as if I were seeing it for the first time every time.

Professor and author Charidimos K. Tsoukas was recently honoured with two prestigious international awards.On 8 July 2016, he was named the 18th honorary member of the European Group of Organization Studies (EGOS) for 2016. The EGOS award ceremony took place in Naples, Italy, during the 32nd conference of the international academic association. Each year, EGOS – the largest academic association for organisational and management studies in Europe – honours a scholar with the title of Honorary Member for their work and contribution to the development of the relevant academic field.In her speech honouring Professor Tsoukas, Professor Ann Langley noted, among other things: ‘Charidimos K. Tsoukas’s dedication to research and knowledge, his wisdom and his professional virtues far exceed the criteria of the EGOS Council. Mr Tsoukas is not only an outstanding researcher and a dedicated member of EGOS, but also a significant academic entrepreneur, an inspiring teacher and a responsible citizen with a keen interest in the common good. Charidimos is an original thinker who has made a significant and influential contribution to organisational studies and the EGOS community. We are proud to name him as our Honorary Member for 2016.”On 8 August 2016, he was awarded the Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award by the Organization and Management Theory Division of the American Academy of Management . The American Academy of Management is the world’s most authoritative and largest academic association for the study of management issues. The award was presented at its annual conference in Anaheim, California.Charidimos K. Tsoukas is the Columbia Ship Management Chair in Strategic Management in the Department of Business Administration and Public Administration at the University of Cyprus, and former Dean of the School of Economics and Management.Ikaros has published his book *The Tragedy of the Commons: Political Corruption, the Discrediting of Institutions and Bankruptcy*. This book is an anthology of the author’s political articles from 2007 to 2014, accompanied by an extensive introduction. The Tragedy of the Commons is, in essence, a chronicle of the descent into bankruptcy, a retrospective look at the political and institutional processes and decisions that led to the country’s widespread collapse. You can find more information about the book here. You can read more about Charidimos K. Tsoukas on his website: www.htsoukas.com

On this day, 20 September 1971, Giorgos Seferis, one of the greatest Greek poets, passed away. During the poet’s funeral, the human river that formed to honour him turned into one of the largest anti-dictatorship marches ever held.Giorgos Seferiadis, as was his real name, was born in Smyrna on 29 February 1900. He began writing his first lyrics in 1914, when, with the outbreak of the First World War, he emigrated to Athens with his family.He also lived in Paris and London, and subsequently, due to his diplomatic career, he was constantly changing his place of residence: Koritsa, Alexandria, South Africa, Ankara and Lebanon were among these places.One of the greatest moments in Greek literature is undoubtedly his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1963. The award was announced on 24 October, whilst the official ceremony took place on 10 December in Stockholm. ‘‘George Seferis laid the foundations for free verse,’ Odysseas Elytis would say of him. George Seferis had a close relationship with Nikos Karidis, founder of Ikaros. In 1945, *Deck Diary II* was published. This edition, in 313 numbered copies, marked the beginning of a collaboration that continued for fifty years. The poet’s poetic, essayistic and translational work has been published and reprinted without interruption throughout all these years. George Seferis’s way of thinking and expression remains highly relevant today and is remembered by readers young and old. George Seferis’s poem ‘Erotic Discourse C’: O dark shudder in the root and in the leaves!Stand tall and watchful amidst the crowd of silence; lift your head from your curved hands; let your will be born and tell me again&the words that touched and mingled with the blood like an embrace; let your longing lean, deep as a walnut’s shadow, and flood us with the profusion of your hair, from the down of the kiss upon the leaves of the heart. Your eyes lowered and you wore the smile that painters of yore humbly depicted. A forgotten passage in an old gospel, your words breathed life into the light voice: ‘The passing of time is silent and otherworldly; the pain gently glows within my soul; dawn caresses the sky, the dream remains absent; it is as if fragrant bushes were passing by. ”With the glint in my eyes, with the blush on my cheeks, they awaken and descend, doves of jade; their circling flutter entwines me low, a human touch upon my bosom, the stars. ”My hearing, as if a shell had shattered, the adversary’s wail resounds—distant and indissoluble, the world’s lament—yet these are moments and they fade, and the dual-edged logic of my longing reigns, alone. »As if I had been resurrected naked in a stolen memory, you came, familiar and a stranger, my dear, to grant me, an old woman, the boundless redemption I sought from the swift whispers of the wind...&The cracked sunbeam faded and vanished; it seemed a delusion to seek the gifts of heaven. Your eyes lowered. The moon’s thorn sprouted, and you feared the shadows of the mountain. ...In the mirror, our love, how it fades away; in sleep, dreams, the school of oblivion; in the depths of time, how the heart constricts and is lost in the rocking of a stranger’s embrace... You can read more about Giorgos Seferis’s books here: http://ikarosbooks.gr/authors/seferis

We are welcoming autumn with a host of important books for readers of all ages. Read on for more information about the titles we plan to publish by the end of 2016.GREEK POETRYThe World, Small and Great by Odysseas Elytis, set to music by Giorgos Kouroupos Edited by: Ioulita Iliopoulou To mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Odysseas Elytis, a special anthology of the poet’s poetry and prose will be published in five languages (Greek, English, French, Spanish, Italian). Poems and excerpts from Odysseas Elytis’s prose are presented alongside his photographs and artwork. The publication is accompanied by 2 CDs containing all the texts from the book, some recited and others set to music by Giorgos Kouroupos. Kiki Dimoula: Semicolon Kiki Dimoula’s new collection of poetry.Yannis Antiochos: Dissolution Yannis Antiochos’s new collection of poetry. GREEK PROSE Dimitris Nollas: Stories Are Always Foreign (Short Stories 1974–2016)The book includes all of the author’s short stories from 1974 to 2016. Specifically, it contains the collections: Polyxeni (1974), Tender Skin (1982), I Dream of My Friends (1990), The Blurred Windows (1996), The Old Enemy (2004), In the Place (2012), and three further short stories published in anthologies. The volume is supplemented by an extensive afterword by Titika Dimitroulia.PHILOSOPHYChristos Giannaras: Ontology of the PersonChristos Giannaras: Attempts at Ontological InterpretationFOREIGN PROSEAnthony Marra: The Tsar of Love and TechnoTranslation: Achilleas KyriakidisFrom Leningrad in 1937 to Siberia in 1999, and from Chechnya in 2000 to present-day St Petersburg, perhaps the most significant novelist of the youngest American generation, Anthony Marra, has penned yet another gripping journey through time and history, at once heart-wrenching and witty, tender and violent, following in the footsteps of his multi-award-winning *Constellation of Vital Phenomena*.A mural-like novel written in nine short stories that span the history of this vast and long-suffering country, featuring characters, images, and even objects that move from story to story to form a hidden fictional universe, with the spectacle of a mosaic, yet the coherence of a novelistic narrative.Colm Tóibín: BrooklynTranslation: Athina DimitriadouIn the 1950s, in a small town in south-east Ireland, Ellis, a girl from a poor family, like many others, struggles to find work. As soon as she is offered a position in North America, she accepts it without hesitation. This decision takes her to Brooklyn, where she patiently builds a new, happy life, leaving behind her frail mother and her charismatic sister. But her past will soon call her back, forcing her to choose between her homeland, her family and love.With restraint, skill and exceptional emotional insight, Colm Tóibín, one of the finest Irish writers of our time, has crafted a compelling story about destiny.From the author of the novels *The Testament of Mary* and *Nora Webster*. *Brooklyn* was adapted for the big screen a few months ago, with a screenplay by Nick Hornby and directed by John Crowley.Canek Sánchez Guevara: 33 Revolutions (33 revoluciones)Translation: Achilleas KyriakidisCanek Sánchez Guevara’s 33 Revolutions is like a vinyl record with 33 tracks, through which we hear the daily routine of a bureaucrat on a Caribbean island.Our hero is separated from his wife and spends most of his time in the company of a Russian neighbour, through whom he discovers the joy of reading. The books he reads gradually broaden his horizons, whilst the grey and corrosive reality surrounds him: the office routine, the daily complaints—big and small—from colleagues, his own obsessive thoughts spinning like a broken vinyl record.Every day he observes the incredible outbursts of dissent in the streets and witnesses the sad spectacle of young people leaving the island in makeshift vehicles, whilst at night he suffers from Kafkaesque nightmares in which he is arrested and put on trial for no reason.His real problems, however, will begin when he declares his unwillingness to become a state informant.The 33 Turns is a candid and moving story about the disillusionment of a generation that believed in the ideals of Castro’s revolution, as well as a unique insight into the lives of ordinary people in Cuba over the past few decades. Alejandro Zambra: The Private Life of Trees (La vida privada de los árboles)Translation: Achilleas KyriakidisThe Private Life of Trees recounts the story of one long evening: Julian, a professor of literature, reads to his stepdaughter Daniela whilst waiting for his wife Veronica to return home. Every evening, Julián tells Daniela stories about the private life of trees, and every Sunday he devotes time to writing his novel. None of this changes today. As Julián realises that his wife will not return, he recalls their life together to date and imagines Daniela’s life as she grows up—at 20, at 24, at 30, without a mother—and wonders what she will think of his book. In a world on the brink of collapse, why does Julián choose to read and write books? This question haunts the pages of The Private Life of Trees, steeped in nostalgia and melancholy.Yet another novel that confirms Alejandro Sabra as one of the most remarkable writers of the younger generation. NON-FICTION Erik Larson: Dead Wake (Greek title to be announced) Translation: Katerina SchinaThe gripping story of the sinking of the Lusitania.On 1 May 1915, with the First World War already in its tenth month, the Lusitania, a luxury ocean liner, set sail from New York bound for Liverpool, carrying a large number of passengers, including many children and infants. Despite the fact that Germany had declared the seas around Britain a war zone, the liner’s passengers did not believe they were in any danger, as for a century civilian ships had been kept safe from any attack. For months, German submarines had been sowing terror in the North Atlantic, but the Lusitania was one of the finest and fastest transatlantic liners of the era, known as the ‘Hound of the Seas’.Germany was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, captain of the submarine U-20, was ready to rise to the challenge.In Dead Wake, Erik Larson, in a manner that captivates the reader, examines the sinking of the Lusitania by U-20 and the events surrounding the wreck, bringing to the fore the lives of a host of formidable characters, he paints a sweeping portrait of America during the progressive era.CHILDREN’S BOOKSAntonis Papatheodoulou, Myrto Delivoria (Illustrations): Tick tock. Clocks, time for a lesson!It’s hard to learn to tell the time. It’s even harder to learn how clocks tell the time. In this new, hilarious book by the two creators, time and the relationship between the teacher and their pupils are presented from a different perspective. Wasn’t it about time for a book like this? Jannie Ho: Our friend Rosie and the nursery Translation: Filippos MandilarasA wonderful activity book with 3D cut-out figures for creative children.Rosie is a teacher at the nursery in Foteinoupoli and she loves teaching the children new things. Can you help her take the register, make a clock so she can teach the children the time, become more creative in the classroom and, finally, organise a very special exhibition? Tracey Corderoy, Tim Warnes: Now!Translation: Filippos MandilarasArchi has absolutely no patience. There are so many things he wants to do every day. And, of course, he wants to do them... NOW! It’s the perfect story to share with impatient little children who want everything... NOW! Mary Hoffman, Ros Asquith: The First Big Book about Families Translation: Antonis Papatheodoulou There are families that are big, small, happy, sad, rich, poor, quiet, noisy, angry, cheerful, stressed or relaxed. Most are a bit of all these things at times. How is yours today? The first major book on Families, with humour and sensitivity, explores the various forms of the family today and provides a wonderful opportunity for discussion between young and old. Rebecca Jones: Colouring Cards and Envelopes – NATUREA book for all ages containing 24 cards, envelopes and stickers!Grab your crayons and felt-tip pens and colour the pages of this book in the most amazing colours. Create unique cards and envelopes with a NATURE theme and give them to your friends and family.CHRISTMASJulia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler (Illustrations): The StickmanTranslation: Filippos MandilarasThe Stickman has lived in a tree for a very long time. There, he is kept company by his wife and their three children. But it’s dangerous being Stickman: a dog wants to play with him, a swan wants to build a nest with him, and much more... He even ends up in a fireplace, ready to catch fire! Will he manage to find his way back to his family and his tree? Another highly successful book by the two award-winning creators. New York City Ballet-Valeria Docampo: The NutcrackerTranslation: Antonis PapatheodoulouThe Nutcracker, the classic and much-loved fairy tale, is presented for the first time based on George Balanchine’s production for the New York City Ballet.It is Christmas Eve and Mary, beneath the moonlight and the soft glow of the Christmas tree, falls into a deep sleep, embraced by her beloved Nutcracker. The magical dream she is about to have will lead her to discover true happiness in the distant world of the Land of Sweets!The story of this beautiful book, which has remained unchanged over time, follows the choreography of the famous ballet, and its illustrations are inspired by the actual sets of the production, which is considered the best in the world.Do you believe in The Nutcracker? Rebecca Jones: Colouring Cards and Envelopes – CHRISTMAS A book for all ages containing 24 cards, envelopes and stickers!Grab your crayons and felt-tip pens and colour the pages of this book in the most amazing colours. Create unique Christmas-themed cards and envelopes and give them to your friends and family.