Ever since the debt crisis broke out, the way Greece is viewed and the reactions which news about the country draw have undergone profound changes: the dreamy images of majestic monuments against dreamy sun-soaked landscapes have become hazy, as the country increasingly became a media toy. 

The "Letters from Greece" project, to be launched next month by Pigeonhole, a digital-only publisher in the UK, goes well beyond the daily media offerings, communicating an intimate and compelling insight into what it is really like to be living and working presently in Greece. Featuring an impressive line-up of writers and photographers, it focuses on diverse themes, ranging from the responses to the crisis from the perspective of Athenian artists, to the quirks and strains of rural life in northern Greece.

The project’s editor, and founder of "Ersilia Literary Agency", Evangelia Avloniti, explains how she worked on "Letters from Greece" in the midst of "Greece’s summer of discontent": "Greece was everywhere in the news, but, rather predictably, nearly no media story reflected accurately what it really meant to be living in Greece at that time… [But] there was the talented journalist who wanted to write about single motherhood in the age of capital controls, the cosmopolitan Greek poet emigrating to Oslo, the emerging Greek-Australian writer experiencing the quirks and paradoxes of life in northern Greece, the successful photographer humbly photographing the interiors of Greek ministries for posterity, the renaissance woman who would write about love in the city and beyond, the brilliant novelist and university professor who was exploring Athens’ apartment culture…"

The project’s contributors include Maria-Thalia Carras, Angela Dimitrakaki, Katerina Esslin, Krystalli Glyniadaki, Stella Kasdagli, Rachel Howard, Eirini Vourloumis and more.

"Letters from Greece" will be presented at the Greek Stand of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015 on Friday, Oct 16.

Evangelia Avloniti: Greek Literature Abroad: A Modern Odyssey (Part 1); (Part 2); Greek News Agenda: Narratives of Greece @ Frankfurt Book Fair 2015