Open Daily 4:00 pm –8:00 pm
Stegi VITSENTZOS KORNAROS invites you to the presentation of the book “Difora – Volume II” by the distinguished Cretan poet Kostis Fragoulis (also known as Antaios), which will take place on Thursday 13 February 2025 at 7pm, at the Experimental Stage of the Cultural – Conference Center of Heraklion.
The book will be discussed by Tassoula Markomichelaki (Associate Professor of Modern Greek Philology, Philology Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and Antonis Kartsakis (PhD in Philology, University of Crete). Nikos Petrakis, former Mayor of Sitia and nephew of the poet, will share his memories of Kostis Fragoulis, while Mrs Eleni Plagiotaki – Saatsaki, representing the Friends of Kostis Fragoulis Association, and the teacher and well-known verse-maker Kostis Lagoudianakis will also address the public. The dentist, stage director and member of Stegi VITSENTZOS KORNAROS Managing Committee Nassos Zagotis will read excerpts from the book.
The discussion will be coordinated by Giannis Markakis, director of Lychnostatis Museum, with which the poet had special ties, while the renowned guitar soloist and maxillofacial surgeon George Mastorakis will perform during the event.
Kostis Fragoulis, also known by his pen name, Antaios, was born in the village of Lastros, Sitia, on 7 November 1905, and passed on in Heraklion, on 11 February 2005. Besides his profession as a printer, he was a well-loved traditional Cretan rhyme poet, as well as a writer and a chronicler, who wrote in the dialect of Eastern Crete. His two-volume poetic work “Diphora” was awarded the first prize by the Academy of Athens. His first poetry collection titled “Open Wings” was published in 1930. His second poetry collection, “Diphora”, was published in Heraklion 31 years later, in 1961. Its second edition followed in 1991, while the third one, published by Stegi VITSENTZOS KORNAROS in 2021, included a preface by Menelaos Parlamas as well as a note by Rea Galanaki. Main speaker at the book presentation in Heraklion, on 14 July 2021, was the recently deceased, a friend and a colleague of the poet in journalism and literature, Nikos Psilakis. Kostis Fragoulis’ third poetry collection “Diphora – Volume II” was published in Heraklion in 1988, reissued in 1997, and its third edition has been just released, in February 2025, by Stegi VITSENTZOS KORNAROS.
The poet has also written four short story collections, titled “In the Circle of the Knife” (1971), “The Katsifara” (1974), “Angry Birds” (1980), “The Russian Bell” (1982), as well as the novel “The Matchmaking of Polydoros” (2000).
