Time Stitches: Poems

by Eleni Kefala, Peter Constantine (Translator)

Winner of the State Prize for Poetry in Cyprus and the Elizabeth Constantinides translation Prize of the Modern Greek Studies Association, these experimental linked poem-threads move across time, linking a young Cypriot to ancestors, contemporaries, and descendants through striking, disparate polyphony.

In this bilingual collection of linked poems, Kefala creates a tapestry of motifs that transcend time and identity across early 20th Century Cyprus, 16th Century Scotland, a sailor on Christopher Columbus' ship La Pinta, and more. As the poem threads draw together, it is as if the protagonist, in his travels through the twentieth century, encounters Odysseus, Cervantes, Columbus, Rembrandt, and others, all moving in multidimensional synchronicity. In this way, the readers take part in the production of meaning by pulling the threads together, stitching together their own reading of the story. Through the reading of these threads, time remains fluid, creating a masterful declaration about the function of poetry: perhaps history is nothing more than the presence of innumerable human voices, some more and some less powerful, coexisting in an eternal present.

Genres: Poetry

216 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2022

About the author

A poet and academic from Cyprus. She has authored three poetry books, four monographs, one edited volume, and several refereed articles. Her monograph The Conquered was awarded the 2022 Edmund Keeley Prize. She is also the recipient of the State Prize for Poetry in her home country for her book Time Stitches (2014). The English translation of Time Stitches by Peter Constantine (Deep Vellum 2022) won the Elizabeth Constantinides Prize of the Modern Greek Studies Association and was a New York Times Globetrotting Pick. She served on the jury of the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Her latest poetry book Direct Orient was published in 2024. Her research offers cultural analyses of modernity across different periods, cultures, and disciplines. 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.

Reviews

[Nicolas Duran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never read a book of poetry that made me feel like I was reading the best kind of novel, but this book made me feel that way. I had to reread it immediately with all the themes and resonances fresh in my mind. My copy is highly annotated, reflecting the swirling nature of this meditation on time, water, and encounter, with various other resonances bubbling up everywhere. Each poem so deftly fits into the patchwork of the collection, and there is some startlingly beautiful standalone verse as well. So glad I read this!