Elena Georgiou

Writer, editor, and professor Elena Georgiou: author of Rhapsody of the Naked Immigrants and mercy mercy me; co-editor of The World in Us...

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    • The Immigrant’s Refrigerator
    • Rhapsody of the Naked Immigrants
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    • The World in Us: Lesbian and Gay Poetry of the Next Wave
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      • God is Merciful
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      • It Is Waiting For Us
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      • This Eternity, This Hour
      • A Week in the Life of the Ethnically Indeterminate
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mercy mercy me

georgiou-mercyPoetry. University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound, U. of Wisconsin Press.

The debut of a lucid, lusty new voice in American poetry. Honesty is her trademark, tempered by the rolling music of her voice. This book unveils the story of a vigorous soul’s journey in and out of love. Whether her speaker is buying lunch at a falafel stand or bumping into the ghost of Marvin Gaye in a supermarket, Georgiou’s zesty clarity prevails, sweetened by her impeccable ear and fired, as it always is, by her burning heart. A Cypriot by way of London, now happily a New Yorker, Georgiou fearlessly tackles the raw hungers of friendship and romance with a poetry of rare independence and vulnerability, sass, and sophistication.

— Molly Peacock

This girl rocks the poetry boat.

— Gerry Gomez Pearlberg

Recent Posts

Rain Taxi review of “The Immigrant’s Refrigerator”

My thanks to the very kind George Longenecker for his review of The Immigrant’s Refrigerator (GenPop Books 2018) in the current issue of In Rain Taxi. George writes: This is not the first time there has been racist, nativist backlash in this country and throughout the world, yet the U.S. remains a nation of immigrants, a place […]

New fiction in Cagibi

I’m thrilled to be part of Issue 5 — the first anniversary issue! — of Cagibi, whose editors were kind enough to publish my short story “Paradise, Undusted.”

The Immigrant’s Refrigerator reviewed in Sinister Wisdom

My thanks to Sara Gregory, who reviewed The Immigrant’s Refrigerator (GenPop Books, 2018) for issue 109 of Sinister Wisdom. Sara describes the collection as a “a multiply-voiced chorus spanning experiences of political upheaval, violence, sex work, death, scholarship, bread-baking, spirituality, physical and psychic hunger.” Elena Georgiou’s The Immigrant’s Refrigerator arrives at an important sociopolitical moment. Dominant opinion has […]

Letter to a Not-So-Young Writer

  I am happy to have been asked to blog at the Story Prize, where I’ve written a “Letter to a Not-So-Young Writer.” Here’s an excerpt: I know that writing advice is divided over “writing what you know” versus “writing what you don’t know.” Why this split? Why not both? How do I feel about […]

Bustle Magazine features The Immigrant’s Refrigerator, New American Voices Award

My thanks to Maddy Foley for interviewing me for Bustle magazine, spotlighting the finalists for the New American Voices award. Here’s an excerpt: At the heart of the United States’ current immigration firestorm lies the myth of the American identity, which certain factions claim to be stalwart, never-changing, never-shifting. But the finalists for a new literary award honoring […]

Publishers Weekly highlights The Immigrant’s Refrigerator, finalists for New American Voices Award

Finalist!

I’m excited and honored that my new book, The Immigrant’s Refrigerator, has been named a finalist for the Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award. My thanks to FallForTheBook.org and the judges, and congratulations to the other finalists. I look forward to attending the award ceremony in October. From the website: Hernán Díaz, Elena […]

“Best of a Flourishing Genre”: Library Journal review of The Immigrant’s Refrigerator

I am honored that The Immigrant’s Refrigerator is included in Barbara Hoffert’s article, “The Art of the Short Story: 16 New Collections Reveal the Best of a Flourishing Genre,” at Library Journal. Hoffert writes: A Lambda Literary Award–winning poet, Georgiou portrays immigrants to America, both legal and illegal, in heartfelt, no-nonsense prose. . . . It’s indeed […]

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