PRESS RELEASE
Last Wednesday, 12th of June, the Cyprus High Commission – Cultural Section organised a cosy poetry night at the events hall of the High Commission, presenting the work of Cypriot poet Sotirios Varnavas.
The event opened with a welcoming note by the Cyprus High Commissioner Mr Euripides L. Evriviades, who welcomed an international audience of diplomats, directors and representatives of cultural organisations, academics, students, as well as members of the Cypriot and Greek communities in London, before introducing the special guest.
The poetry of Sotirios Varnavas was introduced to the audience by Dr Petros Karatsareas, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Westminster. Drawing on a selection from various reviews by distinguished philologists in Cyprus and Greece, Dr Karatsareas offered to the audience a well-informed overview of Varnavas’s work. Then followed a series of readings from Varnavas’s poetry collections “Psigmata Apirou” (2006), “Echogrammata” (2008), “Chreografo” (2013), “Grammata Empragmata” (2015), and “Diastaseis tou Chorochronou” (2018). The audience was moved by the poet’s serene reading in Greek and captivated by the animated performance of the poems’ English translations by UK Cypriot writer and actor Lorna Vassiliadou.
Photos by Tas Anastasi
