BOSTON – In Boston, this year’s ‘OXI’ Day will be dedicated to Greek women writers. On October 28th Boston University will host ‘Inspiring Greek women writers and the importance of their translations’, a literary symposium with five women participants. Kelly Polychroniou, Master Lecturer at the Department of Classical Studies at BU, Vilelmini Sosoni, Assistant Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting at the Ionian University – Greece, and Karen Emmerich, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University will introduce two prominent women authors of contemporary Greece: Amanda Michalopoulou and Kallia Papadaki to the public of Boston.

Internationally acclaimed author of eight novels and three short story collections, Amanda Michalopoulou has received numerous awards, including the Revmata Award (1994), the Diavazo Award (1996), the Academy of Athens Prize (2013), and the International Literature Prize by NEA – U.S. (2008). Coupling the Greek literary tradition with the postmodern transgression, Michalopoulou’s works put a sharp focus on crucial social and existential issues of our times.

Screenwriter, script doctor, poet, and novelist, Kallia Papadaki has received the New Writers Award from Diavazo (2010), the Centre National du Livre (CNL) development grant (2012), the Young Author’s Award from Clepsidra (2016), and the European Union Prize for Literature (2017). Creating at the crossroads of different forms of art, Papadaki is a wakeful poet who harks the society’s heartbeat and reflects on its changes and transformations.

The two authors will read from their books, and discuss some of the issues with the professors and the audience. Attendees will have the chance to meet the writers and experts at a reception afterwards.

The authors will sign copies of their books and those who register in advance will receive a free copy thanks to the generosity of the BU Center for the Humanities and Ted Kyrios Memorial Fund. The event, which is free and open to public as well as to Boston University faculty and students, will be held at Photonics Auditorium (PHO 206), 8 St. Mary’s Street, Boston, MA from 5:30 to 7:00 PM, and is generously sponsored by the BU Center for Humanities, the BU Philhellenes, the Department of Classical Studies, the European Studies Program, the Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, the Department of World Languages and Literatures, and the MFA program in Literary Translation.

The reception following is sponsored by Greek 4 Kids, whose director is Kleanthi Mavrogiannaki.