Dr Konstandina Dounis will present this year’s Dimitris Tsaloumas Memorial Seminar on Thursday, 19 September, at 7.00 pm at the Greek Centre. This seminar is organised in collaboration with the Greek-Australian Cultural League.

Dimitris Tsaloumas’ significance in Greek-Australian literature cannot be overstated. He received numerous major state and national awards for his poetry throughout his lifetime and enjoyed the rare honour of his books selling out, leading to multiple editions. Tsaloumas also held prestigious residencies at Oxford and Cambridge and was invited to give numerous poetry readings around the world. Recently, his work has gained further recognition in Greece, as highlighted by a tribute in the award-winning Athens-based literary journal, Koralli.

In this year’s seminar, Dr Dounis will present “A Woman’s Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness: The Depiction of Women in Dimitris Tsaloumas’ Early Collection of Poetry, The House with the Eucalypts”. The talk will explore how Tsaloumas’ early collection portrays women and examines the interplay of memory and dislocation in creating vivid and intense imagery. Dr Dounis will also share personal reflections from her visits to Tsaloumas’ home in Elwood, during his writer-in-residence period in England, and at his cherished home in Leros, Greece.

Dr Konstandina Dounis is an award-winning educator, author, and literary translator with the Monash Education Academy at Monash University. Her research focuses on Greek-Australian literature, history, and culture. Her doctoral thesis, The Shadow and the Muse, investigates immigrant women’s texts and their challenge to traditional gender perspectives. Dr Dounis’ most recent translation is Litsa Nikolopoulou-Gogas’ memoir, Moments of Truth (Australian Scholarly Publishing). She has also published widely, with upcoming chapters in The Cambridge History of Australian Poetry and A New History of Greek-Australian Literature.

Event Details

When: Thursday, 19 September 2024

Time: 7.00 pm

Where: The Greek Centre, mezzanine level, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne