The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Konstantina Sozou-Kyrkou

The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Konstantina Sozou-Kyrkou

Summary: Sue enjoyed Black Greek Coffee, a series of short stories which look at the darker side of Greek domestic life and had quite a few questions when Konstantina popped into Bookbag Towers.

Date: 31 October 2014

Interviewer: Sue Magee

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Sue enjoyed Black Greek Coffee, a series of short stories which look at the darker side of Greek domestic life and had quite a few questions when Konstantina popped into Bookbag Towers.

• Bookbag: When you close your eyes and imagine your readers, who do you see?

Konstantina Sozou-Kyrkou: I see people from all walks of life, women mostly, readers with various ethnic, educational or social backgrounds and cultures, who will empathize and identify with the characters. These are stories dealing with the human condition, arousing different feelings and reactions, challenging the readers’ intellect.

• BB: What inspired you to write Black Greek Coffee?

KS-K: What inspired me was human pain, loneliness, injustice and prejudice. Some of the stories are semi-autobiographical, others are real-life stories narrated to me and there are two belonging to the supernatural genre. Most characters are based on people around me, relatives, neighbours, people I’ve met. Life in a Greek village in the 20th century was hard in many respects, harrowed by ignorance and narrow-mindedness, which complicated things more. I wanted to tell the stories of the victims of such conditions, mostly women and children, who couldn’t defend themselves. Of course, there were many other themes that inspired me such as war, the Colonels’ coup, gender issues, personal dilemmas, the economical depression, the fears and aspirations of the young.

• BB: I sensed a real empathy with the people - particularly the women - in the domestic situations in your stories. Have you had experience of these situations yourself?

KS-K: I grew up in a small Greek village, in a male-dominated society with an oppressive and misogynistic father and very superstitious, though very affectionate grandparents. Even today, I catch myself feeling guilty whenever I cut my nails at night or cup both cheeks with both hands. Grandma said these bring bad luck. The notion that I could never achieve in life as much as a man could, though utterly infuriating, was deeply rooted in me.

• BB: I'm impressed that you write so fluently in English. Why did you decide to write in English rather than Greek?

KS-K: For some weird reason, I don’t think I can write anything in Greek though it is my native language. I feel it is the English language that frees me from restrictions and fears. It gives me the necessary distance that allows me to express myself without any convictions or remorse. I find the English language very rich and poetic in some way and since I studied English Literature and came to know it better, I want to convey messages through it, acquaint the English speaking world with a different but very similar in some respects reality.

• BB: Where and how do you write? How long did it take you to write Black Greek Coffee?

KS-K: It took me two years to write Black Greek Coffee and that’s because I don’t write every day. I have to have a deadline looming in front of me in order to be spurred into action or be strongly inspired by something. I’m a slow coach otherwise. I only write when my husband is at work and the kids at school. I need total silence in the house and any neat table or desk would do. I mime a lot and speak words out loud so that I can simulate a dialogue, which has led the neighbor opposite my flat believe I’m a lunatic. My pages are full of blotches as I revise and edit all the time, never being satisfied enough with my drafts.

• BB: When you read for pleasure, do you read in Greek or English?

KS-K: I read in both Greek and English for pleasure though it has become a habit of mine to read mostly in English these days as I’m still (and always will be) in the process of discovering the language, which is necessary if I want to write in it.

• BB: Which writers have inspired you?

KS-K: There are lots of them. I first got inspired by the Greek writer Georgios Vizyenos and his lyrical short stories, then by Nikos Kazantzakes’s insightful novels and Konstantinos Kavafes’s poems. I also love reading Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Chekhov, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nino Ricci, Katherine Mansfield, Tobias Wolff and Raymond Carver.

• BB: If you could only take three books to a desert island, which would they be?

KS-K: I would definitely take with me Katherine Mansfield’s eloquent selected short stories, Alice Walker’s ‘The Colour Purple’, full of bitter truths, so unobtrusively told and Nigel Slater’s Toast, so subtle and yet so compelling.

• BB: You've got one wish. What's it to be?

KS-K: What I pray for everyday is for my family’s and everybody’s health. We often say here in Greece: ‘When there’s health, everything else is attainable.’

• BB: What's next for Konstantina Sozou-Kyrkou?

KS-K: I am on my way through the fifth chapter of a novel set in Greece during the Colonels’ coup in 1973. My two protagonists, two teenage sisters deal with the chronic illness of one of them and their oppressive parents, who support the Dictatorial regime. I’m also flirting with short stories and flash fiction ones in the meantime.

• BB: There's a lot to look forward to there, Konstantina! Thanks for chatting to us.

You can read more about Konstantina Sozou-Kyrkou here.

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