Vana ManasiadisVana Manasiadis

Vana Manasiadis is a second-generation Greek poet, translator and lecturer at AUT. As co-editor of the Seraph Press Translation Series, she has edited and translated from the Greek for Ναυάγια/Καταφύγια: Shipwrecks/Shelters (2016) and co-edited Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori Women Poets in Translation (March 2018). Vana was born in Wellington in 1973.

The Friday Poem: Having a few beers with my mate by Vana Manasiadis

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A new poem by Greek-New Zealand poet and translator Vana Manasiadis. Having a few beers with my mate My mate you think this is english but it’s not-english if it was english you might expect to hang at this dash – but instead I’m telling you that someone will start yelling. Alotta yelling happens in … Read more

I dive into grief: How giving in to anguish helps us make sense of mourning

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Vana Manasiadis wrote a collection of poetry in the wake of her mother’s death. In this essay, ahead of her appearance at the Going West festival, she argues that as a nation Aotearoa needs to learn to make space for mourning.  When Mum died in Athens, I cried loudly and publicly and was held up … Read more

Book of the Week: A manifesto for a true bilingual literature

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A new book of translated Māori verse joins Taika Waititi “in his calling out of language laziness”. So why were the authors ignored by a literary festival looking for new voices? An essay by the book’s co-editor, Vana Manasiadis. Tātai Whetū means constellation of stars. It also means tongue twister. In Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori Women … Read more