Eleni Kefala is a poet and academic from Cyprus. Her debut poetry collection Memory and Variations (Μνήμη και παραλλαγές, 2007) was shortlisted for the prestigious Diavazo First-Time Author Award, while Time Stitches (Χρονορραφία, 2013) received the State Prize for Poetry in Cyprus. Her third book Direct Orient appeared in 2024.

Time Stitches, translated by Peter Constantine, was published in English by Deep Vellum/Phoneme in November 2022. The book was a New York Times “Globetrotting” pick and featured on the list of “8 Poetry Collections in Translation to Read in 2022” by Words Without Borders. Peter Constantine’s English translation of Time Stitches won the 2022 Elizabeth Constantinides Prize of the Modern Greek Studies Association.

Kefala’s poetry has also been translated into Bulgarian, French, Italian, Turkish, and Spanish. She was born in Athens, grew up in Cyprus, studied in Nicosia and Cambridge, and currently makes her home in Scotland, where she teaches Latin American and comparative literature at the University of St Andrews.

Published with Freigeist Verlag: