A Bouquet of Fish Bones

The unhappy narcissist is threatened by the loss of beauty. The sophisticate takes reward from the geometry of desires. The eccentric form defective passions. The restless spirit seeks out a series of liberating falls. The daydreamer is charmed by planetary coincidences. The womanizer falls victim to fatal attractions. The loner finds amusement feeding his inflated imagination with scenes of mystery. The awareness of mortality leads them to the expression of passions, and mistakes.

The carousels of all these people’s little panics perpetually rotate, each circle closes for another to open and the tyranny of existence continues to be summed up in the agonizing question: the eternality of the temporary or the temporary eternity?

Against a background of the universe’s vast mirror, to what extent can the instantaneous, the insignificant and the random leave any trace on time’s relentless flow, giving another dimension to eternality?

Active in organising readings and events with other poets, Elsa Korneti was born in Munich (1969), Germany, but grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece and still lives there.

She is a poet, essayist and poetry translator from English, German and Italian. Her career has been similarly diverse: studies in finance were followed by work as a journalist for well-known newspapers and magazines. She has published poetry, short stories, essays, book reviews and translations. Her screenplay under the title White Cherry has been distinguished and projected at the Museum of Cinematography in Thessaloniki, Greece. She organised several successful poetry slams in her city and in Athens, she inspired, organised events and brought on stage original poetic performances. She has published 15 books of poetry, short stories, essays and translations.

Her poems, short stories, book reviews, essays and translations have appeared in numerous well-known literary magazines. Part of her work among all books have been translated and published in foreign anthologies and literary magazines in ten European languages and Chinese.

2021. Ο ήρωας πέφτει [The hero is falling] (2021). Athens: Ekdoseis ton Filon.

2021. Ξύλινη μύτη τορνευτή [Wooden nose turned] (2021). Thessaloniki: Saixpirikon.

2016. Αγγελόπτερα [Angelwings] (2016). Athens: Μelani.

2014. Κανονικοί άνθρωποι με λοφίο και μια παρδαλή ουρά [Normal people with a plum and a brindled tail] (2014). Athens: Gavriilidis Edition.

2013. Ο επαναστατικός κύριος Γκιούλιβερ [The revolutionary Mr Gulliver] (2013). Thessaloniki: Saixpirikon Edition.

2012. O λαίμαργος αυτοκράτορας κι ένα ασήμαντο πουλί [The insatiable Emperor and an insignificant bird] (2012), Thessaloniki: Saixpirikon.

2011. Κονσέρβα μαργαριτάρι [Tin Pearl] (2012). Athens: Gavriilidis.

2009. Ένα μπουκέτο ψαροκόκκαλα [A Bouquet of Fish Bones] (2009). Athens: Gavriilidis.

2007. H αιώνια κουτσουλιά [Eternal Bird Droppings] (2007). Gavriilidis Edition, Athens: Gavriilidis.

2007. Στην σπείρα του κοχλία [In the Shell’s Spiral] (2007). Thessaloniki: Malliaris.

2017 Eine halbe Frau? (2017), [traslated into German by Niki Eideneier]. Frankfurt am Main: Größenwahn Verlag.

Essays

2013. Ημερολόγιο φιλοσοφικής ήττας [Diary of philosophical defeat]. Athens: (2013), Koukoutsi Pbl. Edition, Athens

Translations

2011. Homero Aridjis, Original title [The sun’s and other poems]. (2011), Koinonia Dekaton Edition, Athens: Koinonia Dekaton [translated from English-Spanish].

2020. Alda Merini, Follia divina [The Divine madness]. Thessaloniki: (2020), Romi Edition Pbl., Thessaloniki [translated from Italian].

Fiction – Prose

2020. Το νησί πάνω στο ψάρι και άλλες ευφάνταστες ιστορίες [The island on the fish and other imaginative stories] (2020), Athens, Melani