With summer winding down and everyone shifting into ‘back-to-school’ mode, the debut novel ‘Unlucky Mel’ by Aggeliki Pelekidis offers a witty, inside look at academia. The book, published by Cornell University Press, is set to be released on September 15.

This humorous revenge story with a feminist twist follows PhD candidate Melody Hollings in the final year of her creative writing program in upstate New York as her dreams of landing the perfect academic job somewhere far away from her small hometown and publishing her first novel are close to becoming reality. She just has to finish writing that book and graduate.

Complications ensue for Melody in the form of her father’s illness and a shocking betrayal by a friend she thought she could count on. The stress of caring for her father, teaching too many students, and living with so much uncertainty over her future escalates Mel’s desire for retribution – until one night, she discovers an opportunity to ruin her friend Ben’s reputation.

Pelekidis spoke with The National Herald about her Greek roots, her debut novel, and her upcoming book.

TNH: Tell us a bit about yourself, where in Greece is your family originally from and where were you born and raised?

Aggeliki Pelekidis: My mother was born in Meligala while my father was born in Komotini, though he grew up in Athens. I was born in Brooklyn (my parents immigrated to the United States in the mid 50s). While I have lived in Brooklyn more than any other place than Binghamton (I’ve been here since 2005), my family also moved us to Riverhead, Long Island, for a few years, Clearwater, Florida, for seven years, and Canton, NY, for about five years.

TNH: What inspired Unlucky Mel?

AP: I read this hilarious book that’s a campus novel called ‘Lucky Jim’ many years ago and really wanted to create a book that also took place on a college campus but with a funny female main character. I was also a graduate teaching assistant for a Shakespeare class when I was working on my MA at Binghamton University where one of the plays we read was ‘Hamlet.’ That made me interested in the idea of revenge, especially when there’s doubt over whether it’s justified.

TNH: How long did the process take from the initial idea to publication?

AP: I started the book in 2014, two years after I graduated from BU with my PhD, and it went through several drafts with me working on it off and on when I had time before I considered it ready. I submitted it to Cornell University Press in 2021. It went through about three more revisions before it was eventually published – so about 10 years altogether from start to publication.

TNH: What was the most surprising thing you learned in the process of writing the book?

AP: The most surprising thing I learned is how a failure could teach me something important. That when one way of writing a novel doesn’t work, I could try another way and succeed.

TNH: What are you working on next?

AP: Right now I’m revising a novel that’s about the psychological and economic control a Greek father exerts on his wife and daughters and the lengths they’ll go to please him to earn his conditional love. It’s a comedy!

‘Unlucky Mel’ by Aggeliki Pelekidis is available online.