Antigone Kefala

Antigone Kefala (born 28 May 1935) is a contemporary Australian poet and prose-writer of Greek-Romanian heritage. She has also been a teacher, and a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council.

Born in Brăila, Romania in 1935, Antigone Kefala and family moved to Greece and then New Zealand after World War II. Having studied French Literature at Victoria University, she relocated to Australia in 1960. There she has taught English as a second language and worked as a university and arts administrator. Her poetry and prose is written in both Greek and English, with Absence: New and Selected Poems reissued in a second edition in 1998. Her work is characterised by an austere allusiveness unusual in Australian poetry. Aside from Greek and English it has been translated into Czech and French.

Works

Poetry

• The Alien (Makar Press: 1973)
• Thirsty Weather (Outback: 1978)
• European Notebook (Hale & Iremonger: 1988)
• Absence: New and selected poems (Sydney, Hale & Iremonger: 1992, 2nd ed. 1998)

Prose fiction

• The First Journey (Wild & Woolley: 1975)
• The Island (Hale & Iremonger: 1984)
• Summer visit: Three Novellas (Giramondo, 2003)
• Sydney Journals (Giramondo, 2008) ISBN 978-1-920882-41-9

External links

• 3 poems with German translations in Gangway #1
• "Journal II" prose poem in Gangway #18
• "Alexia: Antigone Kefala's overdue fairytale" by Michael Tsianikas