I was searching by the sea
for the ancient harbor. Did an earthquake
destroy it? Alaric and his Visigoths?
I was searching for the words
of the ancient storytellers—
Whatever leaves is lost.
It was a small cove,
an open domicile of rocks,
the keels shining, the sea
tearing itself apart.
Liana Sakelliou has published 18 books of poetry, criticism and translation in Greece, the USA and France. Her poems have been translated into several languages and have been published in a number of anthologies and international journals. She teaches American literature, specializing in contemporary poetry, and creative writing in the Department of English Language and Literature of the University of Athens. The recipient of grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the Department of Hellenic Studies of Princeton University, the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and the British Council, Ms. Sakelliou is a member of the Greek Writers’ Association Coordinating Committee and a short story judge in the European Union Prize for Literature.
Born in Nevada and raised in California, Don Schofield left America in 1980. Since that time he has been living and writing in Greece, traveling extensively, and teaching at various universities—Greek, American and British. Fluent in Greek, a citizen of both his homeland and his adopted country (or, more precisely, the country that adopted him), he has published several poetry collections, the most recent of which are The Flow of Wonder (2018) and In Lands Imagination Favors (2014), as well as an anthology of American poets in Greece and translations of contemporary Greek poets. He is a recipient of the Allen Ginsberg Award (US), the John D. Criticos Prize (UK) and a Stanley J. Seeger Writer-in-Residence fellowship at Princeton University. His first book, Approximately Paradise, was a finalist for the Walt Whitman Award, and his translations have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Greek National Translation Award. Currently he lives in both Athens and Thessaloniki.