Antigone Kefala (28 May 1931 – 3 December 2022) was an Australian poet and prose-writer of Greek-Romanian heritage. She was a member of the Literature Board of the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

and is acknowledged as being an important voice in capturing the migrant experience in contemporary

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. In 2017, Kefala was awarded the

State Library of Queensland The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Queensland Libraries Act 1988. It contai ...

Poetry Collection

Judith Wright Calanthe Award The Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award is awarded annually as part of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards for a book of collected poems or for a single poem of substantial length published in book form. Winners 2020 * Winner: Pi ...

at the

Queensland Literary Awards The Queensland Literary Awards is an awards program established in 2012 by the Queensland literary community, funded by sponsors and administered by the State Library of Queensland. Like the former Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, the QLAs ...

for her collection of poems entitled ''Fragments''.

Life

Born in

Brăila Brăila (, also , ) is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County. The ''Sud-Est'' Regional Development Agency is located in Brăila. According to the 2011 Romanian census there were 180,302 pe ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

in 1931, Kefala and family moved to Greece and then New Zealand after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Having studied

French Literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than Fr ...

at Victoria University and obtained a MA, she relocated to Sydney, Australia in 1960. 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 Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and English, with ''Absence: New and Selected Poems'' reissued in a second edition in 1998. Her work, written in

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French ''vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Definit ...

, has been described as having an almost metaphysical detachment. It is characterised by an austere allusiveness unusual in

Australian poetry Australian literature is the literature, written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Australia, Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western civilisation, Western history, Australia was ...

. Aside from Greek and English it has been translated into

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

and French. 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. 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 The Patrick White Award is an annual literary prize established by Patrick White. White used his 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature award to establish a trust for this prize. The $25,000 cash award is given to a writer who has been highly creative o ...

. A week later, she died on 3 December 2022, at the age of 87.

Works

Poetry * ''The Alien'' (

Makar Press A makar () is a term from Scottish literature for a poet or bard, often thought of as a royal court poet. Since the 19th century, the term ''The Makars'' has been specifically used to refer to a number of poets of fifteenth and sixteenth cen ...

: 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) * Prose fiction * ''The First Journey'' (

Wild & Woolley Wild & Woolley was an Australian small book publisher founded by Pat Woolley and Michael Wilding in 1973. Woolley bought a corner tenement in Chippendale, Sydney, in 1975 for $23,000. Starting in 1973 with the iconoclastic ''All About Grass' ...

: 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) * ''Max: The Confessions of a Cat'' (Owl Publishing: 2009)

Awards and recognition

* 2017

– State Library of Queensland Poetry Collection – Judith Wright Calanthe Award for ''Fragments'' * 2022

– winner

References

External links

Antigone Kefala on Australian Poetry Library

with German translations in

Gangway Broadly speaking, a gangway is a passageway through which to enter or leave. Gangway may refer specifically refer to: Passageways * Gangway (nautical), a passage between the quarterdeck and the forecastle of a ship, and by extension, a passage th ...

#1
"Journal II"
prose poem in

#18
"Alexia: Antigone Kefala's overdue fairytale"
by Michael Tsianikas {{DEFAULTSORT:Kefala, Antigone 1935 births 2022 deaths Greek emigrants to Australia Romanian people of Greek descent Greek emigrants to New Zealand Modern Greek poets New Zealand emigrants to Australia People from Brăila Greek women writers Victoria University of Wellington alumni Australian women poets 20th-century Australian poets 20th-century Australian women writers Patrick White Award winners