Antigone Kefala
{{Short description|Greek-Australian poet (1935–2022)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Use Australian English|date=May 2015}}
Antigone Kefala (28 May 1931 – 3 December 2022){{Cite web |date=2022-12-10 |title=Antigone Kefala: Death Notice |url=https://tributes.smh.com.au/obituaries/465820/antigone-kefala |access-date=2022-12-15 |website=Sydney Morning Herald}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/kefala-antigone|title=Antigone Kefala|website=Australian Poetry Library|access-date=8 October 2017}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.qldliteraryawards.org.au/winners|title=Winners and Finalists|website=Queensland Literary Awards|access-date=8 October 2017|archive-date=9 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009000109/http://www.qldliteraryawards.org.au/winners|url-status=dead}}
Life
Born in Brăila, Romania in 1931,{{Cite web |title=Antigone Kefala obituary |date=4 December 2022 |url=https://neoskosmos.com/en/2022/12/04/news/community/prolific-author-antigone-kefala-passes-at-age-92/}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.owlpublishing.com.au/a-writers-journey.html|title=Antigone Kefala: A writer's journey|website=Owl Publishing|access-date=5 October 2017}} 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.{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/fragments-and-a-house-by-the-river-review-poetry-of-encounters-and-memories-20170222-guihv3.html|title=Fragments and A House by the River review: Poetry of encounters and memories|last1=Page|first1=Geoff|date=25 February 2017|work=Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=8 October 2017}} It is characterised by an austere allusiveness unusual in Australian poetry. Aside from Greek and English it has been translated into Czech and French.Adelaide, Debra (1988) Australian Women Writers: A bibliographic guide, London, Pandora.
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.{{cite web|url=http://au.greekreporter.com/2014/06/09/book-launch-in-melbourne-antigone-kefala-a-writers-journey/|title=Book Launch in Melbourne Antigone Kefala: A Writer's Journey|last1=Evdokia|first1=Fourkioti|website=Greek Reporter Australia|access-date=8 October 2017}} 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. {{Cite news|date=24 November 2022|title=Minimalist poet Antigone Kefala wins the Patrick White Award for her contribution to Australian literature|url=https://www.unsw.edu.au/news/2022/11/minimalist-poet-antigone-kefala-wins-the-patrick-white-award-for|access-date=4 December 2022|work=University of New South Wales|language=en}} A week later, she died on 3 December 2022, at the age of 91.
Works
=Poetry=
- 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)
- {{Citation|title=Fragments|publication-date=2016|publisher=Artarmon, N.S.W. Giramondo|isbn=978-1-925336-19-1}}
=Prose fiction=
- The First Journey (Wild & Woolley: 1975)
- 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)
Awards and recognition
- 2017 Queensland Literary Awards – State Library of Queensland Poetry Collection – Judith Wright Calanthe Award for Fragments{{cite web|url=http://statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/Statement/2017/10/4/winners-of-prestigious-queensland-literary-awards-announced|title=Winners of prestigious Queensland Literary Awards announced|website=Queensland Government|access-date=5 October 2017}}
- 2022 Patrick White Award – winner{{Cite web |last= |date=24 November 2022 |title=Kefala wins 2022 Patrick White Award |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2022/11/24/223905/kefala-wins-2022-patrick-white-award/ |access-date=25 November 2022 |website=Books+Publishing |language=en-AU}}
References
External links
- [https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/kefala-antigone Antigone Kefala on Australian Poetry Library]
- [http://gangway.net/1/gangway1.7.html 3 poems] with German translations in Gangway #1
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20060622082133/http://gangway.net/18/gangway18.1.html "Journal II"] prose poem in Gangway #18
- [https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20020502140000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/24784/20020503/ehlt.flinders.edu.au/deptlang/fulgor/papers/v1i1_tsianikas.htm "Alexia: Antigone Kefala's overdue fairytale"] {{cbignore|bot=medic}}by Michael Tsianikas
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Category:Greek emigrants to Australia
Category:Romanian people of Greek descent
Category:Greek emigrants to New Zealand
Category:New Zealand emigrants to Australia
Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni
Category:Australian women poets
Category:20th-century Australian poets