Category Archives: Poetry

‘Of This World’ (Red Moon Press, 2017)

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We are pleased to announce the publication of a new book by Stella Pierides,

Of This World by Red Moon Press, 2017.

Now available from:

Red Moon Press (USA)

Amazon UK

Amazon DE

Stella Pierides has cultivated a terse, idiosyncratic style in her haibun that is instantly recognizable, and as a consequence is one of the shining lights of this burgeoning genre. Of This World certainly is, but it also takes us out of the world at large and into private spaces we feel privileged to witness. A unique and satisfying read.

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From the back cover:

This is how it’s done! Stella Pierides — in a hushed voice — takes me through what it is to be human — and part of the human history from the roots of Western culture in Diogenes’ tub to the ‘modern’ human — with all the questions and doubts, the uncertainties that come from that.

— Johannes S. H. Bjerg, Writer

Of This World’s marvelous, emotionally resonant haibun are steeped in the grace of the garden, rooted in a physical reality so sensuous that you can smell the fragrance of baking bread, of olives and garlic, of lemon and magnolia blossoms — and yet they also spiral on the updraft of metaphor as poet Stella Pierides ‘put[s] our hearts in the shoes of the hummingbird.’

— Clare MacQueen, Editor-in-Chief, KYSO Flash

A treasure trove of language and image. Pierides walks through dark streets of history, through alleyways of memory – emerging in shiny, unexpected places. Compact, urgent and closely observant, these minute offerings will captivate readers of both poetry and short fiction. An enormously engaging collection.

— Michelle Elvy, Writer and Editor

In the Garden of Absence

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In the Garden of Absence by Stella Pierides

with an Afterword by Michael Dylan Welch

In the Garden of Absence

Awarded third place in the Haiku Society of America Mildred Kanterman Memorial Merit Book Awards 2013 (for books published in 2012). 

From the judges commentary in Frogpond, journal of the Haiku Society of America:

“A charming collection… This intersection of the past and present is within all of us, and Pierides mines it well. A very satisfying read.”

(Vol. 37: 1, p. 170)

From the back cover:

In the Garden of Absence takes you on a journey echoing the author’s childhood. Yet it does so in the context of adult concerns, uncertainties, and anxieties—as well as pleasures. This book explores the existential fear of loneliness, the many facets of absence, and glimpses a path towards bearing absence and being creatively alone.

“Readers of any book of poetry can assume that each poem has substantial personal meaning for the writer. The poems in this collection go one step further, offering personal meaning to the reader. Stella Pierides pays attention in simple ways (and sometimes vast ways) to her surrounding world, noticing the warmth of a hen’s eggs on Mother’s Day, that only a dog makes eye contact on a crowded train, or in observing the tiny dark holes in a pin cushion as she extracts its pins.”

—Michael Dylan Welch, from the afterword, “Presence in Absence”

Book cover image: “Welsh Hill,” a painting by Maria Pierides 

Book cover design: Maria Pierides and Rubin Eynon

Formatting: Thomas Geyer

Reviews, comments + Essays:

Awarded third place in the Haiku Society of America Mildred Kanterman Memorial Merit Book Awards 2013 (for books published in 2012). 

Previous praise for the Book:

— “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.”

In Briefly Reviewed, Frogpond, 36-1, Spring 2013 (Click here, please scroll down).

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— “This is an engaging collection…”

Modern Haiku 44.2, 2013 (in the “Briefly Noted” section).

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— “A Poetic Gem… In the Garden of Absence is a lovely little book that sparkles with a quiet brilliance – every word shines.”

Debbie Strange on Amazon.co.uk

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— “In the Garden of Absence is a stunning book. From homely to somewhat obscure, Pierides touches a chord. Her poetry is the essence of haiku and an inspiration for many of us. In the Garden of Absence A must-read book of poetry.”

Sondra Byrnes on Amazon.co.uk

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–“… everything, from cover to cover, the cover image, the design, the graphical presentation, the empty space around the haiku, also the introduction… all very aesthetically (one more Greek word) appealing and pleasing! Thank you for taking me on this Magical Journey!”

Freddy Ben-Arroyo, Haifa, Israel

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–“… I really enjoy reading it, and already have some favorites…”

Annie Juhl, Svendborg, Denmark.

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–“I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading your book this afternoon while sipping on a chai latte. A few that I particularly like are: “between my ego and yours”, “the horses neighing”, “your vacant stare”, “moment of stillness” and “shooting stars”. The whole book is really lovely… the beautiful cover, the feel of the paper and the afterword by Michael Dylan Welch. Thank you for sharing your beautiful poems with me!”

Lauren Mayhew, Boston, USA

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–“Stella Pierides pays attention in simple ways (and sometimes vast ways) to her surrounding world, noticing the warmth of a hen’s eggs on Mother’s Day, that only a dog makes eye contact on a crowded train, or in observing the tiny dark holes in a pin cushion as she extracts its pins.”

Michael Dylan Welch, Sammamish, Washington, USA

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–“I cannot recommend ‘In the Garden of Absence‘ by Stella Pierides highly enough. A great Afterword too by Michael Dylan Welch. … The book is entrancing.”

Sheila Windsor, Worcester, UK

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An informative, literary, well-written essay, “Presence in Absence” by Michael Dylan Welch, first written in October of 2012 and included in In the Garden of Absence as an afterword, can be read at Graceguts, by clicking here

Available from:

Print edition:

Amazon.co.uk

The print edition can also be ordered from your local bookshop: ISBN: 978-3-944155-00-5  (Germany) Fruit Dove Press, Paperback, 76 pages.

-Price: USD: 10.00 + p&p; GBP 6.50 + p&p; EUR 8.00 + p&p

e-editions:

e-editions are now available from Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/263461

(Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others), PDF and kindle

Publication information: – ISBN: 9783944155012 e-book

– Published by Fruit Dove Press at Smashwords. Price: USD 5.99

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Feeding the Doves – Available to order

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Feeding the Doves: 31 Short and Very Short Stories, and Haibun

by Stella Pierides

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Available to order in Kindle format from Amazon.co.uk, and in print from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, and in Germany, through your local bookstore (via vlb.de).

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

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Patty Apostolides on Amazon.com:

“Lyrical and Concise”: “… well written and full of beautiful, touching, and sometimes haunting, melodic stories.”

Read the review by author of Greek Novels Patty Apostolides here 
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Dr. Joseph Berke on Amazon.co.uk:

“Feedings the Doves = feeding the soul”:  “This is a wonderful, evocative book, rich in imagery…”

The review by author and psychotherapist  Dr. Joseph Berke on Amazon.co.uk
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Katie Low in Sabotage Reviews:

“…characters recall how that sad event shaped their own histories, but the tone is one of hopefulness, of looking to the future and making the best of situations that will always be imperfect.”
“This sparseness extends to the stories individually, which do not waste their limited word-count on scene-setting or extraneous characterisation; each one evokes a mood, makes a point, or charts a phase in an individual’s development without telling us anything more than we need to know.“

Read the whole of what Katie Low has to say here
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Marjory McGinn on Amazon.co.uk:

“Stunning insight into the Greek experience”
“… each story is poet gem, offering … moments of revelation and introspection”

Read the whole of Marjory McGinn’s review here
Marjory McGinn is the author of “Things Can only Get Feta”

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Blogcritics Review: Daniel Burton:

“…references to Greece and its geography and culture, ancient and modern, pepper Pieride’s stories. It’s a wonderful setting for her flash fiction, and I found her writing a refreshing and unique collection.

“Each feels like an intimate glimpse into someone’s life, a brief moment in time. And given that each is so quick, so fast, and yet so personal, it’s saying something that Pieride is able to levy language to create this impact in such sort space.”

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Neos Kosmos Review by Helen Velissaris (Australia’s leading Greek community news source):

“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 the book.

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Amazon.co.uk Review by Mia Avramut:

“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.

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Goodreads reviews: Please see here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18360726-feeding-the-doves

About the Author:

Stella Pierides is a writer and poet born in Athens, Greece. She now divides her time between Neusaess, Germany and London, England. In her heart, she lives somewhere on the Aegean coast. She is married and has two adult daughters. Stella trained as a psychotherapist and worked at a crisis center and in private practice in London, UK for many years. More recently, Stella gained an MA in Literature, with Distinction, from the Open University, UK. For the last few years, she has been focusing on writing prose and poetry.

Stella has had work published in numerous print and online journals and anthologies. She has coedited and contributed to Even Paranoids Have Enemies (Routledge, 1998) and Beyond Madness (JKP, 2002). Recent book:  In the Garden of Absence (Fruit Dove Press, 2012 – poetry).

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Fruit Dove Press

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

ISBN: 978-3-944155-03-6

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Price: £8.00 UK, EUR 9,00

Available through Amazon.co.uk, Amazon Europe and the author.

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Press Release: BriefingWire (13 August 2013)