Thanasis Petrou: “Comics and Local History”
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Ioanna Lioutsia: “Our Poetry is Psychosomatic”: Verses with Body and Voice
12/02/2026
Αμάντα Μιχαλοπούλου
Amanda Michalopoulou was born in Athens. She studied French Literature in Athens and Journalism in Paris. For many years (1990–2008), she was a regular columnist for the newspaper Kathimerini. She made her literary debut with the short story prize from Revmata magazine and the collection Life is Colorful Outside (Exo i zoi einai polychromi, 1994).
She is the author of nine novels, three collections of short stories, a play, and a novella, with her most recent work being The Long Journey of One Inside the Other (To makry taxidi tis mias mesa stin alli, 2025). She has been honored with the Diavazo Magazine Novel Award for Jantes (1996), the NEA International Literature Award (USA), and the Liberis Liber Award from independent Catalan publishers for I’d Like (Tha ithela, 2005), as well as the Petros Charis Short Story Prize from the Academy of Athens for Bright Day (Lamperi mera, 2012).
Her works have been adapted for the stage and translated into twenty languages. She has taught creative writing at the National Book Centre of Greece, the British Council, Metropolitan College, the Herakleidon Museum, Pyrna, Artens, and Ianos. She has also edited the collective volumes The Secret and Literary Kazamias 2021, featuring works by her students. More information can be found on her website: http://amandamichalopoulou.com
Program Overview
How can a creative writing workshop guide children toward a new meaning of the world? And how, in an era of extreme utilitarianism, can we offer them a parenthesis of reflection, experimentation, and hope?
The first step is to demonstrate that words, when treated as living organisms, can lead to a new condition—a fresh perspective on the familiar. Starting with the empirical material at our disposal (e.g., personal narratives regarding our given names), we will proceed to more complex "Multiple Choice" exercises, inspired by Alejandro Zambra’s playful book of the same name, in order to describe our lives, our choices, and our dilemmas.
On the second day of the workshop, we will engage with something even more complex. We will practice epistolary writing, and by extension, the processing of emotions through the lens of narratology. Drawing inspiration from Franz Kafka’s Letter to His Father and a letter from a 20-year-old to her mother from the novel The Long Journey of One Inside the Other, we will enter into an imaginary dialogue with family members, friends, or even those who have passed away. We will also read two interviews from The Long Journey to observe how a narrative shifts when we actively listen to a person who is experiencing joy or suffering. Finally, we will use examples to demonstrate why this active listening—characterized by questioning and profound interest—renders us not only better chroniclers of others' lives but also better human beings: members of a society rooted in empathy.
Suggested Bibliography
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Amanda Michalopoulou, The Long Journey of One Inside the Other (To makry taxidi tis mias mesa stin alli), Patakis Publishers
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Franz Kafka, Letter to His Father, Metaixmio Publications
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Alejandro Zambra, Multiple Choice (Test dexiotiton), Ikaros Publishing
