“Unique and surprising, tight and passionate language”
“Every once in a while, I get a book in the mail that is unique from anything else I’ve ever read. As a collection of short stories, Stella Pieride’s Feeding the Doves has given me a new definition of what short means, not to mention how quickly a story can be told… ”
“… I found her writing a refreshing and unique collection.”
autumn butterflies
the way she flutters
her eyelashes
*
across the chirping
of the pine crickets
a splash of red
*
pine crickets
too late
to let go
*
autumn butterfly
I never thought
I’d give up
*
pine crickets
I too hide
in the pine
* Diogen Pro Kultura magazin: Third Place (tied) Autumn Haiku Sequence
Selected by: Đurđa Vukelić-Rožić Deputy editor in chief DIOGEN pro culture magazine for HAIKU Ivanić Grad, Croatia Sabahudin Hadžialić Editor in chief DIOGEN pro culture magazine 14.12.2013. Einhorn Verlag S. Begman, Küsnacht, Schweiz 14.12.2013.
What an exciting month December has been! And it is only the 4th of the month!
The Haiku Foundation’s Per Diem: Daily Haiku, a feature I project manage, is scaling new heights this month. Michael McClintock, in his collection “31 Ways of Looking at a Mountain” is taking us for a mountain hike. Each day a new view here
The Haiku Foundation Fundraising campaign is continuing up to the 6th of December with a number of releases of new material and features. On the 3rd, the new social media account on Pinterest was rolled out. I am pleased to have played a part in this one.
Then there is a new haiga by Jim Kacian, a new digital library interface… there is an endless stream of enthusiasm and creativity coming out of the The Haiku Foundation. And the fundraiser releases continue for three more days!
Are you missing out? Register for blog post notifications via email (see the THF contact page), follow the THF on Twitter: https://twitter.com/haikufound
An article about my book of short stories “Feeding the Doves“ appeared today in the Australian newspaper “Neos Kosmos,” Australia’s leading Greek community news source. I am thrilled, as many of its readers are of Greek descent, and know, remember, or wish to know about the themes of this book.
Helen Velissaris writes: “These stories manage to show universal themes entwined with the Greek psyche to give a new perspective on the Greece in the media’s headlines.
Above all, these stories show Greece isn’t defined by its current bank account, but rather the people that inhabit it.”
Read the whole article here. A very interesting take on my book.
Please visit Ramona Linke’s blog haiku-art rl, and explore the wondeful work in words and images. Ramona Linke is a writer, poet and haiga master; her work can be seen here
“Money might not grow on trees, but scientists have confirmed that gold is found in the leaves of some plants.
Researchers from Australia say that the presence of the particles in a eucalyptus tree’s foliage indicates that deposits are buried many meters below.
They believe that the discovery offers a new way to locate the sought-after metal in difficult-to-reach locations.”
I shared this poem on FB Joys of Japan 24 October 2013 Gabi Greve added it to her World Kigo Database (WKD), an educational reference site for haiku, cultural keywords and kigo, under “worldwide saijiki”, Environment Day
Amnesty International’s Livewire blog features the blog post I wrote for Blog Action Day 2013, “Human Rights and Wrongs”. One of their three favourite blogs, it can be seen by clicking here
“Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights.” Read more about Amnesty’s work here
The Living Haiku Anthology aims to bring “a multicultural voice of haiku to the general public,” its mission being “to provide numerous and varied haiku, free of charge, to readers from all over the world including schools of education at all levels.” The Anthology team is collecting and documenting many of the finest haiku (and living poets) today. So what an honour and pleasure to be included in it. Please visit and browse the poets and poetry in it. You will find an index of poets here
And while you are visiting, don’t forget to take a look at my haiku too. They can be found by clicking here
Good news first: Three reviews of my “Feeding the Doves” are now up on Goodreads! They can be viewed by clicking and scrolling down here(though you need to sign in to see them all). A big thank you to the readers who took the time to read and comment.
The bad news? I tried configuring the Goodreads Reviews button for my website and failed! The button would show the latest reviews as they appear on the right of this page. Instead, in that space, I only managed to include the GoodreadsURL!
milky way…
the baby licks
her lips
.
Kigo entry, Shiki Kukai, September 2013
9 pts
…
bird pecks at pumpkin
the scarecrow’s
third eye
.
Free Format, Shiki Kukai, September 2013
6 pts
The GoodReads giveaway has ended. I’m delighted that 608 readers entered to win a copy of my short story book “Feeding the Doves”! Thank you so much to everyone who entered!
My heartfelt congratulations to the 12 winners! You can see the winners here. I will be posting copies of the book on the 26th of September.
And to everyone else: Thank you so much for participating in the giveaway. If you did not win this time, please know there will be another giveaway in a couple of months’ time. I hope you will try again.
I will keep you posted on other giveaways, discounts, and fun stuff. Meanwhile, if you are interested in Greece, its people and history, the economic and existential crisis it is going through, my Pinterest board “Feeding the Doves” is updated regularly with news, articles, photos, and other related material: click here
October 16th is Blog Action Day, an annual online day of action when bloggers (actually anyone with a public platform) from all over the world blog on one particular theme: This year, on Human Rights!
Human Rights Day, commemorating the day in 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is observed by the international community every year on 10 December. This year, the blogging lot contributes from its own unique angle, its multitude of voices, and perspectives, an additional opportunity for observance of this most sacred of human achievements on the 16th of October.
Thanks to the adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights, whatever our nationality, place of residence, gender, origin, colour, religion, language, or other status, we can ‘rely’ on the international community to uphold dignity and justice for us.
Despite many accomplishments in the field of human rights, sadly, there are still huge challenges lying ahead. In the words of the UN,
“The world is still plagued with incidents of ethnic hatred and acts of genocide. People are still victims of xenophobic attitudes, are subjected to discrimination because of religion or gender and suffer from exclusion. Around the world, millions of people are still denied food, shelter, access to medical care, education and work, and too many live in extreme poverty. Their inherent humanity and dignity are not recognized.”
The way forward: “The future of human rights lies in our hands.”
I committed to posting a blog post on the day. It may or may not be a short story on one of the articles of the Declaration of Human Rights. We’ll see.
Starting to think about what my post/story could be about, I asked myself, and Google, my constant companion, the obvious question: How many articles does the The Universal Declaration of Human Rightscontain?
How many do I actually know of? Here is the Declaration if you are interested in checking this out yourself. It includes a simplified, plain English version. See how many you know, and weep!
I’ve listed my book “Feeding the Doves” in Goodreads Book Giveaways! There are 12 free copies (print) available to win. Giveaway dates for entering: Aug 25-Sep 25, 2013.
This is how it works:
1: The easy way: See the Goodreads badge on the right side of this Homepage, click to enter!
2: The slightly less convenient way: Find the book in Goodreads (here) and click the enter to win button there.
Either way, Goodreads will do the rest! After the 25th of September they will notify me the list of winners and I will post the books to them!
“Unique and surprising, tight and passionate language”
“Every once in a while, I get a book in the mail that is unique from anything else I’ve ever read. As a collection of short stories, Stella Pieride’s Feeding the Doves has given me a new definition of what short means, not to mention how quickly a story can be told… ”
“… I found her writing a refreshing and unique collection.”
“From a symbol of the divine (“A Life-Changing Story), to an object of meditation and near-worship in Syntagma Square (as in the title story), to their possible end in a soup kitchen destined to feed hungry children (“Pigeons”), doves’ journey functions as a counterpoint to the human sacrifice and quest for nourishing truths. Several glimpses into silent, sometimes tortured lives, end in haiku. It serves to deepen the reader’s understanding, and add new dimensions to the prose. And it’s a treat, as Pierides is both an archeologist of experiences, and a mistress of haibun.
Since Yourcenar and Kazantzakis, nobody has illuminated with such wisdom and compassion the often unseen lives that make the humanity what it is: a traveling, travailing organism with feet of myth.”
Mia Avramut is a Romanian- born writer, physician, researcher, and poetry editor at Connotation Press.
***
Having left Greece in her youth, the author of “Feeding the Doves” returns to the country of her birth through a collection of stories that lie at the heart of Greek identity.
About the Book: Greece has been in the headlines for a very long time. Recently, the headlines have been gloomy and negative, the country facing some of its most difficult years. Against this background, “Feeding the Doves” explores recurrent elements of the Greek psyche, tracing them back to challenges posed by the country’s history, culture, and environment.
The widow, the old loner, the refugee, the immigrant, the young, the writer, the expatriate, tell us their stories, touching upon themes at the heart of Greek being: Love and loss, civil war, immigration and diaspora, emigration, poverty, religion, history and catastrophe, and above all, the will to survive.
“What I admire here are the shining moments of revelation, of truths large and small bursting through the lives and memories of these characters. So many characters, and so rich!”
—John Wentworth Chapin
Founding Editor, 52|250 and A Baker’s Dozen
“Stories to surprise and entertain, to wake and calm, to wrench and elate, to tell the Greek story, past and present, and everyone’s story.”
-—Michael Dylan Welch, poet, writer,
and editor/publisher of Press Here books
Email: admin@fruitdovepress.com http://www.fruitdovepress.com
Perfect softbound
87 pages, 90gm cream interior paper
Full-color laminated cover
129 mm x 198 mm trim size
Feeding the Doves
31 Short and Very Short Stories, and Haibun
Greece has been in the headlines for a very long time. Since ancient times, her philosophers, historians, mathematicians, shipbuilders, traders, and artisans have been making the news – and, indeed, history. So, amidst the country’s most difficult years in recent times, many people believe that they know Greece and the Greeks.
.
Against this backdrop, the stories – short and very short – collected in “Feeding the Doves” explore recurrent elements of the Greek psyche, tracing them back to challenges posed by the country’s history and environment. The widow, the old loner, the refugee, the immigrant, the writer, the expatriate tell us their stories, touching upon themes at the heart of Greek being, as well as our common humanity: love and l loss, war, civil war, immigration and diaspora, emigration, poverty, religion, history, and above all, the will to survive.
Fruit Dove Press
Email: admin@fruitdovepress.com
.
[The title story “Feeding the Doves” and the cover image were inspired by a photo taken by Robert Geiss, titled “Feeding Doves” and posted on his (sadly, no longer active) blog “Daily Athens Photo.”]
I am very pleased to share the news that a positive review of my poetry book “In the Garden of Absence” appeared recently in the print edition of Modern Haiku:
“This is an engaging collection…,” Modern Haiku 44.2, 2013 (in the “Briefly Noted” section).
I’m taking part in the summer/winter 2013 Smashwords e-book promotion. For the whole month of July, In the Garden of Absence, will be available as an e-book from the Smashwords site at the reduced price of $1.50 USD, that is 75% off!
To download a copy, please visit Smashwords by clicking here and use coupon SSW75 at checkout.
The offer is good through to the 31st of July 2013.
*
“In Pierides’s meditations, imagination takes center stage, as do imaginary gardens, real toads, and their negative space… The result is a welcome debut in which the reader will find much to admire.”
The Haiku Foundation Fundraising campaign is continuing up to the 6th of December with a number of releases of new material and features. On the 3rd, the new social media account on Pinterest was rolled out. I am pleased to have played a part in this one.
