Paros Symposium

' PAROS SYMPOSIUM ''

Symposium of poetry and translation of Greek and American poets.

The Paros Symposium was launched in 2004 by Susan Gevirtz and Siarita Kouka to meet Greek and English-speaking poets and in-situ translations. From 2004 to 2009, again in 2016, the symposium was hosted at the House of Literature in Paros, and in 2010 at the European Cultural Center of Delphi. From 2011 to 2015 he was hosted at the Hellenic Archaeologists' Association in Athens, in 2017 at Beton7, a center of art and culture in Athens, and in 2018 in Ysternia, Tinos, in the old elementary school.

The duration of the symposium, as it has been organized so far, is one week each summer. Poets, translators, publishers and teachers are invited from Greece, America and England. The details of the symposium program and its organization are shaped during the year and according to the potential of the poets. The poets and translators in the morning translate in situ their work from Greek into English and vice versa, and in the evenings readings, events, speeches with free entry are made. During the 15 years the symposium gained a dynamic and unexpected dispersal. It is difficult to perceive when an idea is born when the first word is given, what will be the shape of the project and its impact, especially when it is a collective work that reflects varied reports. The emergence of a new way of communication fifteen years ago through the internet has contributed to the dissemination of the poetry and translation works produced, creating an interactive way of writing and reading, which we gradually discovered.

The participating poets from Greece and abroad are over 500 during the 15 years. The collaboration with co-organizers has continuously extended the cycle of symposium on the contributions of poets, translators and scholars, as well as the different approaches to writing, translation, interpretation and ways in which poetry participates and shares. , in 2013 the collaboration of Harvard's Hellenic Studies Center with the '' Paros Symposium '' attracted readability to the symposium and was motivated and encouraged.

The symposium began as an idea of two poets and remains in this format without a framework of an academic or other official body that provides legal status and copyright. It is held annually, voluntarily by the organizers and the participants own money. The difficulties that arise in the absence of funding are many and it is paradoxical that it manages to survive in this scheme. I think the 15th year of the Paros Symposium will be a landmark. The dimensions of the symposium are difficult to appreciate - I believe that it will continue its course over and over - but its support by will give it an impetus to continue vigorously.

Siarita Kouka