The crisis in Greece has generated a whole new vocabulary and dominated newspaper headlines for over five years. Beyond the headlines however, a powerful Greek literary movement has been in motion.

Now, a timely anthology (Futures: Poetry of the Greek Crisis, London, November 2015) offers a poetic response to the social and economic upheaval that continues to threaten toppling the whole European project, introducing a new generation of writers who shed a different kind of light on the plight of a country in an apparently ongoing state of emergency. 

Several poems in "Futures" explore the gradual, often violent, modification of personal and collective identity in a time of crisis. From a city whose walls carry urgent messages and political graffiti emerge dynamic, angry voices:

"the gouged marble, the graffiti scrawls,

the statue standing like something outraged

remind you, you who yearned to live beyond this,

that hope marked you too."

[from 'This City' by Adrianne Kalfopoulou]

Shortly before being officially released in London bookshops, the book, edited and translated by poet and literary theorist Theodoros Chiotis, will be presented by literary critic Vangelis Hatzivassiliou at the Greek Stand of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015, today, Friday, Oct 16.

See also: Greek Poetry Now, A directory for contemporary Greek Poetry; Austerity’s City - poems by Adrianne Kalfopoulou; Greek News Agenda: Narratives of Greece @ Frankfurt Book Fair 2015