Alexis Stamatis has published nine novels and six poetry volumes; his latest novel, Kyriaki is being published this month. His second novel, Βar Flaubert (Kedros 2000), a critically acclaimed bestseller in Greece, has been published in the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Serbia; The Seventh Elephant was also published in the U.K. Stamatis has also written the libretti for two musical pieces by the composer Theo Abazis, performed at the Athens Concert Hall and the Chora theatre. His play Dakrygona was staged last fall at the Theater of Kefallinias Street. In 2004, he participated at the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa through a Greek Fulbright Artists & Art-Scholars Award. In 2007, the American publisher Etruscan received a National Endowment of Arts award to publish his American Fugue. In 2009, Stamatis was writer-inresidence in Shanghai, invited by the Shanghai Writers Association. He has represented Greece in various Book Festivals and seminars all over the world. His book Mother Ash will be published in 2011 by Red Hen Press, LA.

Where do you consider home?
My house, my neighborhood, my country, my continent, my planet, my universe.

What would cause you to stay away from home
for 10 years?
Something which I would strongly desire.

How do you define fidelity?
To be there.

Which idea are you most faithful to?
I donʼtʼ like ideas and I donʼt like faith as a concept.

Which modern figure, male or female, would
you identify with Penelope?
The ordinary Greek mother.

If you were casting The Odyssey today, which
real-life or literary figure would you choose for
the role of Antinous?
Silvio Berlusconi (with another facelift of course)

Is beauty like Calypsoʼs a trap?
Beauty is the fleeting hand of time

Whatʼs a modern-day equivalent of Circeʼs mesmerizing
powers?
The Net.

ʽAreteʼ is Greek for virtue. Which do you value most? Which is overrated?
Truth. Overrated? Money, wealth. Odysseus is both cunning and strong.

Which trait would you choose?
I donʼt believe people consist of traits. People are far more complicated matter. Words sometimes fail us.

Whatʼs your biggest temptation?
To live.

What disguise would you adopt if you wished
to pass unnoticed?
My ordinary self.

If eating a Lotus could make you forget just one thing, what would you want to forget?
The ability not to forget.

Greed prompts Odysseusʼ men to unleash the strong winds that blow their ship off course. If Homer were writing today, what would these
winds be a metaphor for?
Info, rumors, media, gossip, chat, all kinds of narratives.

Who are the Laestrygonians today?
Those "wolfing gobfuls of sloppy food, their eyes bulging, wiping wetted moustaches" as Joyce says in Ulysses.

What were the Sirens singing?
"Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave.

Which would you try to avoid, Scylla or Charybdis?
Neither.

Whatʼs The Odysseyʼs lesson for today?
I donʼt associate Odyssey with lesson. Odyssey for me is a narrative, a story.

What is your Ithaca?
Μy self and the people I love.

Which do you think is most important, the journey or the destination?
The journey, of course.