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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It Is Waiting For Us

Below is a small excerpt from a book-length essay (still in progress) called It Is Waiting For Us. The essay is about Varosha—the place of my parents’ birth that has stood empty since 1974, partitioned from all humankind by a chain-linked fence, barbed wire, and armed Turkish guards.

 *

 

Twenty minutes ago the sky was not grey.  I had paid for a sunbed and an umbrella. He opened it for me, brushed the sand off the blue plastic.  My book is open on my lap, but instead I am watching the waves.   It is late afternoon and I am one of only three tourists left on this beach. I am stuck.  No car.  I have to wait for my father to pick me up.  I pray it does not rain.  The man whose job it is to sweep the sand off my bed, says, “The weather’s gone bad.”

“Yes.  But I can’t leave.  My father is picking me up.”

The man has the rich brown skin of people who spend their days working on the beach.  He body is lean and strong, much younger than his sixty or so years.  He stares at the sky,  “This morning promised such a good day.”  I ask him if he thinks it will rain.

“No,” he says, now staring at the sea.  Without taking his eyes off the waves, he asks, “Where are you from?

“America.”

“No, where is your family from?”

“Varosha.”

“They might give it back to us,” he says, “It’s been forty years, but you never know.”

He brushes the sand off the sunbed next to mine.  Stands behind it, and goes back to staring at waves.

“You know,” he says, “Our enemies are not the only ones to blame.  In my village, we lost eighty-three people.  One day, my neighbor came home to find his mother and his wife shot dead.

“A Turkish-Cypriot?”

“Yes.  He went through the village with a rifle, lined up all the villagers he could find, and shot them all.  Eighty-three dead.  Now, we call him our enemy.  But we would do the same, in his place, right?

He doesn’t wait for my answer. The back of his T-shirt says: Bring out the Beast.  He walks to the next empty sunbed.  Brushes the sand off the blue plastic, & begins to close another umbrella.

 

~ * ~

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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