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Reflections
PROLOGUE

The purpose of this Anthology is to present selected works&emdash; published and unpublished&emdash; of the most significant Greek Australian writers, and, with the opportunity offered by the celebration of the bicentenary of Australia, to highlight the contributions of the Greek Australian writers to Australia's Multicultural Literature.

In recent years, great activity has been noted in Multicultural Literature, and particularly in the Greek Australian area from the decade of the 50's to the present a large number of books has been published containing the works of Greek Australian writers. During the last two years (1986-1988) over ten books have been published. Although quantity does not always guarantee quality, quantity itself does not play a negligible role in ensuring attention to a literature.

On the other hand, many works which have been written in Greek are being translated into English for the benefit of the English speaking reader, and a number of these are studied in the tertiary institutions of this country and overseas. This again shows that within this quantity there is also quality.

Another aim of our bilingual Anthology is for it to inform the Australian Community &emdash; both Greek and English speaking &emdash; of the existence of Greek-Australian Literature, presenting examples of works of the Greek-Australian writers, while simultaneously emphasizing their literary activity.

During the selection of writers and of their works which we present here, we decided to include only prose and verse, inspite of the fact that noteworthy plays have also been published. Where it was possible, we selected and presented unpublished works, such as the poetry of A. Kefala and A. Paradissis.

The basic criteria which we adhered to in the selection process of writers were: 1. To have had works published in book form during their stay in Australia regardless of whether their works were published in Australia or abroad. 2. To have had favorable literary criticism of their works by authoritative critics in Australia or abroad. 3. To have had Australian based themes in keeping with the celebratory character of this Anthology.

It must be noted that the personal opinion of the selectors of this Anthology, with regards to the quality of each writer and his work, has naturally affected the choice. Further, the selection was limited by the writers permitting us to choose from only a set number of their works &emdash;as in the case of V. Kalamaras and S. Harkianakis.

The writers are presented in chronological order, according to the date of publication of their first work in book form. It is worth noting that a clear distinction can be seen with regards to the style of writing: the earlier writers, up to N. Ninolakis, have based their work on the "traditional" style of writing, whereas A. Paradissis and the others have based themselves on a more "modern" approach.

In order to facilitate the reader, in the first section we present the selected works in English followed by a short biographical note, and certain major references to which the reader may turn. In the second section, we present only the texts translated into the Greek language and a synoptic biographical note. This is done in order to avoid presenting two books in the one volume.

Finally, it must be pointed out that this Anthology is part of a greater Anthology, which we are in the process of preparing, and in which the works of other Greek-Australians authors will also be represented.

Thanasis Spilias
Stavros Messinis
Melbourne, 1988

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