MANI LIT FEST
.jpg)
Evan Fallenberg is the author of the novels Light Fell (Soho Press 2008), When We Danced on Water (HarperCollins 2011) and The Parting Gift. (Other Press 2018) and a translator of Hebrew fiction, plays and films including Meir Shalev's A Pigeon and a Boy, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and a finalist for the PEN Translation Prize. His first novel, Light Fell, won an American Library Association Award for Literature and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction.
Fallenberg teaches at Bar-Ilan University, co-founded the Vermont College of Fine Arts International MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Translation, and taught at City University of Hong Kong. He is the recipient of writing and translation fellowships in the US, Canada, Switzerland, Iceland, China, and Italy and is the founder of Arabesque: An Arts and Residency Center in Old Acre. Fallenberg was artistic director of the Translation Residency program at Mishkenot Shaananim in Jerusalem from its inception until 2021.
Sarah Bower is the author of four novels, most recently Lines and Shadows, published in 2023. Her short fiction and non-fiction has been published in Lighthouse, Asian Cha and MsLexia among others. Her work has been broadcast on BBC Radios 3 and 4, and has been widely translated. Sarah teaches creative writing for the Open University where she is currently reading for a PhD in creative and critical writing. Sarah hails from Yorkshire but now lives in Norwich.
Giselle has spent over 20 years performing as a seasoned professional singer on stages across the world. She is a published writer, and a multi-award winning singer, songwriter and pianist. Her work includes performances with artists such as Jose Carreras (The Three Tenors) and the BBC Concert Orchestra for BBC Radio 2. She has appeared on Canadian Radio and Canadian TV (CBC), and British Television (BBC), and won Talent Rock's Top Female Vocalist Award, where she performed live on U.S. Television. She has won over 20 songwriting awards for her 2008 album Turning Circles and Marquis Records (under EMI Records) released one of Giselle's songs worldwide called "The Key". Giselle was a singer-songwriter Ensemble Director at Carleton University in Ottawa and founded the annual Muzik Ottawa event which showcases up and coming artists in the Capital Region. Giselle is a Canadian Music JUNO Award Jurist, and a Canadian FACTOR Award Jurist. She is also wrote a comprehensive video e-course entitled "The Secrets of Songwriting" which includes lyric & music writing techniques and exercises, as well as information on songwriting from Industry professionals. Giselle can be can be watched offering free tips on songwriting and navigating the music industry on her YouTube channel called MuzikPlanet. She has also previously been a successful artist manager and acquired her artists over $70,000 in grant funding, managed the release their debut album and video, placed them in high profile industry showcases and arranged one-on-one personal meetings with the heads of A&R at Sony Records and Universal Records.
Lulu Keating As a filmmaker for many years, Canadian Lulu Keating won awards and travelled to film festivals around the world. Now, instead of screenplays, she’s writing novels and short stories.
Her literary work has been published in Geist Magazine, Parallelogram, The Globe and Mail, and North of Ordinary. In her hometown, Dawson City Yukon (settled during the Klondike Goldrush) the prize for her story was a gold nugget. Keating’s collection of short stories, Splinter and Shard, was published by ECW Press in May 2024 and is available in bookstores and through Amazon. She continues to work on two novels, Klondike Codfish and Astrid’s Vision.
photo by Janelle Hardy
Lisa Eveleigh began her career as a researcher at the BBC, then joined A P Watt, the world's oldest literary agency, as an assistant, in 1986. Among well-know authors she worked with whilst training are Sir Michael Holroyd, Sir Quentin Blake, Jan Morris, Sir Philip Pullman and Dick King-Smith. She was promoted to agent after discovering several major writers including Philip Kerr. Authors she represented included Helen Dunmore, winner of the first Women’s Prize for Fiction, Eleanor Farjeon Award Winner Leila Berg, Suzannah Dunn, Nicola Barker and Libby Purves.
Lisa has a BA in English Literature and an MA in Biography and Creative Non- Fiction. She has run her own literary agency since 1996, and is proud to represent Carol McGrath.
Jenny Barden trained as an artist then switched to law and qualified as a solicitor. She worked for one of the leading firms of company-commercial lawyers in the City of London before a chance encounter with a painting triggered a passion for writing. Journeys to South and Central America led to an interest in the Age of Discovery and eventually to two novels published by Ebury Press/Penguin Random House. She has written for magazines and non-fiction publications and been shortlisted for several national awards. She is a director of the Historical Novel Society and is represented by Jonathan Pegg in the UK. She is currently working on a thriller set at the time of the Spanish Armada.
Carol McGrath Following a first degree in English and History, Carol McGrath completed an MA in Creative Writing from The Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University Belfast, followed by an MPhil in English from University of London. She is published by Headline. The Handfasted Wife, first in a trilogy about the royal women of 1066 was shortlisted for the RoNAS in 2014. The Swan-Daughter and The Betrothed Sister complete this highly acclaimed trilogy. Mistress Cromwell, a best-selling historical novel about Elizabeth Cromwell, wife of Henry VIII’s statesman, Thomas Cromwell, was republished by Headline in 2020. The Silken Rose, first in a Medieval She-Wolf Queens Trilogy, featuring Ailenor of Provence, saw publication in April 2020. This was followed by The Damask Rose. The Stone Rose was published April 2022. The Stolen Crown 2023 and July 2024 The Lost Queen about Berengaria of Navarre and The Third Crusade. She is currently writing a sequel to Mistress Cromwell. Carol writes Historical non-fiction as well as fiction. Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England was published in February 2022 by Pen & Sword. She frequently speaks at Conferences and gives podcast interviews.
Find Carol on her website: www.carolcmcgrath . Sign up for her regular newsletter using the relevant home page drop down.
Neil Fawcett is a former English teacher who laid down his white board pen to become a stay-at-home dad for Tom and Emilia. This allowed him to focus on his first literary love, poetry. Over the years Neil has published his work in many journals in print and online. He studied for his MA in poetry at the Manchester Writing School and benefited from the teaching of Carol Anne Duffy and Michael Symonds Roberts. Neil enjoys performing his work and applies a clear dichotomy between the poems he performs and the poems he writes for the page.
Neil’s collection ‘A Little Book of Love and Alarm’ is due to be published early next year.
Claire Papamichael was born in Athens in 1963 and studied Sociology in the Panteion University. She has worked more than 35 years as a freelance literary translator from English to Greek. Among the authors she has translated are Maeve Binchy, Marian Keys, Graham Greene, Sebastian Faulks, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens and recently Madeleine Miller, Alex Michaelides and Olivia Manning. She has translated The Promise by Damon Galgut, who won the 2021 Booker Prize and also his acclaimed novel Arctic Summer. She is currently translating the third volume of the Saga of The Century by Rebecca West, Malafrena by Ursula LeGuin and Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2021.
Except for some attempts at poetry as a favour to friends, The Book of Katerina by Auguste Corteau is the first book she has translated from Greek to English. The translation was among the three that won a European Prize for Translation last summer. "
Carmen-Francesca Banciu, born in Romania, is a German and Romanian novelist, poet, publicist, and lecturer in creativity and creative writing. She occasionally writes in English and Romanian. After receiving the International Short Story Prize of the City of Arnsberg for her story "The Radiant Ghetto" (1985), she was banned from publishing her works in then-communist Romania. In 1991, she accepted the DAAD's Berlin Artists' Program invitation and moved to Germany.
Carmen-Francesca was writer-in-residence at Rutgers University (US) from 2004 to 2005 and at the University of Bath (UK) in 2009. She currently lives in Berlin and works as a freelance author. Her books explore the author's geographical, psychological, and linguistic migrations in Europe during and after the fall of communism. Her main character, Maria-Maria, evolves throughout the books, freeing herself from the chains of the past and stepping out of the victim role to shape her own destiny. The themes of reconciliation, peace, and forgiveness are essential and represent a constant concern in her books.
Banciu created the Course in Creativity and Creative Writing, "TOUCHING LIFE—Das Leben berühren."
She has been awarded numerous grants and prizes. Her works have been translated into several languages. Her novel in verse, "Farewell, Dear Comrades and Lovers!" was longlisted for the German Book Prize 2018.
Latest Books:
-
2019: "Ein Land voller Helden" (novel), PalmArtPress, Berlin / "O Țară plină de eroi," Editura TracusArte
-
2021: "Vaterflucht/Fleeing Father" (novel), PalmArtPress, Berlin
-
2023: "Ilsebill salzt nach" (novel), PalmArtPress, Berlin
-
In the fall of 2024, the revised and expanded edition of the novel "Mutters Tag - Das Lied der traurigen Mutter / Mother’s Day - Song of a Sad Mother," part of the “Trilogy of the Optimists,” will be published by the German and English language publisher PalmArtPress, Berlin.
Olga Profili was born in Athens. She has studied Italian Language and Literature as well as Romance Linguistics both in France and in Italy. After completing her PhD on a Greek dialect of Southern Italy, she continued her research at the University of Grenoble, until she was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at Oxford University. In Oxford she conducted research on Italian intonation and taught French linguistics.
As a European Commission official, Olga worked in areas such as Translation, Language Policy and Communication, as well as Information for Women. She is a former President of the Commission's Staff Committee and speaks 6 languages.
Olga is now dividing her time between Brussels and Greece, where she is DJing for tango events. She has published two novels in Greek, both by Kaleidoscope.gr.
Gerd Lepic studied psychology and art education and received his doctorate in philosophy in 1996. Since 1987 he has regularly taken part in group exhibitions and exhibited his works in solo exhibitions in Germany, France, Italy and other European countries. He taught at the University of Applied Science Munich and was artist in residence in the Netherlands, France and Greece. Gerd Lepic is an active member of several European artist groups and professional associations, for example in the Bavarian Chamber of Psychotherapists (PTK) and the International Association of Art (iaa). From 1989 to 2021 he published specialist articles in scientific journals and books on the topics of trauma, resilience and art. Since 2021 he has been publishing the European Artist Diaries 93 Days in Italy and 294 Days in Greece.
Gerd Lepic studierte Psychologie und Kunsterziehung und promovierte 1996 in Philosophie. Seit 1987 beteiligt er sich regelmäßig an Gruppenausstellungen und stellt seine Werke in Einzelausstellungen in Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien und anderen europäischen Ländern aus. Er lehrte an der Katholischen Stiftungshochschule München und war Artist in Residence in den Niederlanden, Frankreich und Griechenland. Gerd Lepic ist aktives Mitglied in mehreren europäischen Künstlergruppen und Berufsverbänden, beispielsweise in der Psychotherapeutenkammer Bayern (PTK) und der Internationalen Gesellschaft der Bildenden Künste (IGBK). Von 1989 bis 2021 veröffentlichte er Fachartikel in wissenschaftlichen Zeitschriften und Büchern im Themenbereich Trauma, Resilienz und Kunst. Seit 2021 publiziert er die Europäischen Künstlertagebücher 93 Tage in Italien und 294 Tage in Griechenland.
Regina Hermans My name is Regina Hermans. I was born and brought up in the States and moved to Germany in 1975, where I studied psychology and trained as a psychoanalyst. I am a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association. I retired from practicing psychotherapy ten years ago and devoted my attention to my growing family. My fourth grandchild was born last month. As my grandchildren live a long distance from me, I have entertained them via Facetime with puppet shows ( I have a very impressing collection of puppets by now) and telling them stories. I’ve always enjoyed children’s literature and thought I’d give it a shot after some very positive feedback from my granddaughter (age 5) and other children to whom this story has been read. Adults find it amusing as well because they recognise the themes that are hidden between the lines. Recently I have submitted the German version to a well-know German publisher and they have accepted the manuscript for publication! So, thanks to Mani Lit Fest, I am embarking on my own new adventure as a writer.
Pandora Bethea was born in Athens, Greece and grew up in Iran until the age of ten. She received her high school diploma from the American Community School of Athens (ACS). Because she was surrounded by many cultures, languages and tradition, multiculturalism is her comfort zone. At the age of 26, she flew to New York and travelled cross-country with her friend Fani to San Francisco. She received her degree in English Language and Literature from Sonoma State University and taught in California public high schools for years discovering young poets in her classroom. She loved being a part of the poet community in San Francisco Bay. Pandora's poetry has been published in "Healdsburg Haiku" by Running Wolf Press, in "The Peace Press" of Sonoma County, in "The Sitting Room" annual publication, in "A Word for All Seasons" Benicia Poets Anthology, and California Poets in the Schools Anthology. As a world traveller, she has experienced many countries, including Guatemala, Morocco, Vietnam, India, Iran, Dubai, Denmark, the U.S. and Europe, but her favourite spot is the family summer cottage on the Aegean in northern Evia. She is the proud mother of her adult children, daughter Maya and son Alexander Sibley, and yiayia (grandmother) to babies Iris and Luna Gaertner.
Kalman Dean-Richards is a working class novelist and scriptwriter from the Black Country, England. His debut novel, Marco? was published in 2022. Buy the book here.
Steve Potter is an author of two books on psychotherapy and uses writing both therapeutically and creatively www.mapandtalk.com He has been to the Mani every Autumn for the past twenty years.
Theresa Stoker has won competitions in various genres including theatre, short story and travel writing. Her travel pieces have appeared in the Telegraph Just Back travel section and been published in indie magazines. Her dystopian children's novel, Ronela Versus The Child Snatchers, is being prepared for publication with Sweet Cherry Publishing. She is very proud of being part of Write Club The Podcast for 2 years and 100 episodes. In 2020 she was interviewed by French filmmaker Sonia Dauger for a documentary about author Marguerite Yourcenar for the ARTE TV channel.
Melanie Wicks has lived in the Mani for over 20 years and during that time has played the violin in various local bands, started a local theatre group along with Theresa Stoker, and co-created the Mani Lit Fest with Theresa Stoker and Carol McGrath in 2018. She also designed and maintains this website for Mani LIt Fest.
Melanie is an aspiring writer and has so far produced a few short stories and is in the early stages of writing a novel set in Greece. Read her ghost story 'Miroloi' (set in the Mani) in our Lit Fest Library
Pat Woolfe (host of Open Mic) is a retired English and drama teacher from Manchester, who now spends most of the year in Stoupa, where she lives with her husband Mike, and numerous cats.
She is one of the founder members of Write Club the Podcast, where she says she finally had the chance to develop some of the stories inspired by characters, situations, snippets of conversation she had been mentally filing away for future reference. Her previous literary efforts were often in response to the need to provide drama material for students, or members of the Youth Theatre she ran, and included several short plays. More recently, she has produced a number of short stories, often with just a hint of darkness, one of which won the 1st prize in the 2019 Mani Lit Fest Short Story competition.