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The graphic novel ‘Democracy’, by Alekos Papadatos, Avraam Kawa and Annie Di Donna, has been selected for inclusion in the 2016 White Ravens international list, in the international children’s and young adult books category! The committee’s statement reads as follows: ‘This suspenseful, innovative graphic novel offers a historical and literary review of the difficult journey of democracy from its birth in Ancient Greece, through the eyes of Leander, an Athenian unknown at the time. The deeply human characters operate within a dense plot brimming with references to the present day. The interplay between text and images captivates the reader. The thorough research undertaken for the book, as well as its rich vocabulary, provide valuable support as the reader explores the historical events. ‘This prestigious award is presented annually by the International Youth Library in Munich, the largest and most important children’s library in the world, to books that deserve international attention due to the global themes they address or their exceptional and pioneering visual and literary approach.The books are selected each year by experts in the field of children’s literature—library staff as well as external consultants—who read the books in the exhibition in their original language of publication.This year, the White Ravens catalogue includes 200 book titles, in 42 languages, from 60 countries. From 18 October 2016, the 200 reviews of the books included in this year’s catalogue are available on the International Youth Library’s website [www.ijb.de], whilst the printed catalogue will be released on 20 October at this year’s Frankfurt International Book Fair. Democracy was also honoured with the:the Greek Children’s Book Circle Award – IBBY 2016 in the category ‘Award for an author of books for teenagers and young adults’, &the ‘Best Script’ and ‘Best Comic by Wacom’ awards at the 2016 Greek Comics Awards. The White Ravens distinction has also been awarded to the books Ships That Carried the Imagination (Maria Angelidou and Antonis Papatheodoulou) in 2015, and Just a Little More... a fairy tale inspired by the poems of Giorgos Seferis (Alexis Kyritsopoulos) in 2013.

Theodoros Papaioannou, author of the fairy tales Anapoda and Apenanti, spoke in the first person to diastixo.gr about his first steps in writing.His text is republished here: For as long as I can remember, I have been in a school. A pupil, a student, a teacher. Surrounded by pencils, erasers, pens, exercise books, books and notebooks. Well, you don’t need much else to start writing. I’ve been writing since I was a child. From little notes to stories, short stories, plays and poems. I started writing fairy tales when I was older. When I was little, they used to read them to me or tell them to me. Later, I read them on my own. I never wanted school to end. I don’t know why. I liked it when it stopped for the holidays, but I always wanted it to start again. So the only way for school to continue was to cross over to the ‘other side’, and go from being a pupil to becoming a teacher. ‘Upside-down’ things, in other words. I think that in the end things didn’t turn out quite like that, because most of the time when I go into the classroom I sit at a desk. I feel better at a desk with the children around me. Ah, the children. Without them, I probably wouldn’t write. I collect their sentences and words on scraps of paper, in diaries, in the palm of my hand... Their conversations are usually the starting point for a story or a fairy tale. Is that too much to ask? When I finally believed that my stories could be read by more children, I started knocking on the doors of publishing houses. I knocked with large mustard-coloured envelopes, but they wouldn’t open them. That’s when I remembered I had to be patient. (I’d been through the same thing with music, when I was learning the guitar.) Because I wasn’t patient; I wanted everything to happen straight away. In a flash, as they say. At some point, a man turned up – what we call a ‘sponsor’ – and so my first book, containing two plays for children, was published in a limited edition. It was black and white, but I didn’t care at all. I kept sending out those mustard-coloured envelopes in the hope that a door might open. The exercise in patience continued. ‘A good lesson, I won’t deny it, but how long will it last?’, I wondered. Eventually, I decided to put together a portfolio of my own, containing all the replies from the closed doors. They all said more or less the same thing. ‘Thank you, very nice, but we won’t be taking it because...’. The folder just kept getting thicker and thicker. After a few years, one folder made it through, the door opened, and it became a book! With its colours, its songs, everything about it. Such joy! That wait, with all its setbacks, gave birth to *Anapoda*, which is also my first book to be awarded by the Children’s Book Circle in 2015.With the colours of the rainbow adorning nature and Melios the beetle, it was now clear that, after patience and perseverance, the journey was changing course. The following year, *Apenanti* came along with its songs, won the booksellers’ award from Public, and it too boarded the ship. Well, then came more fairy tales, a teenage novel; some are on their way, some are on paper and others in my mind. I feel lucky because I have precious travelling companions: Viktoras, Sofia, Kostas, Leda, Irida, Marilena, Roula, Vicky, Christina, Myrto and, of course, my son Orestis, who writes the music for the songs in the fairy tales.When I perform or narrate a fairy tale and I’m surrounded by children, I feel that this is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. To be among children. I love that they speak the truth without a second thought, that they are spontaneous. That they laugh with all their hearts when something strikes them as truly funny. For children to let you share a story of yours with them is truly a great honour. When they actually enjoy it and have a good time, it’s magic. When I first started writing, I used to say that if even one child fell asleep reading one of my stories, I’d feel happy. Now that I’m sure that’s happened, I can say that I am. When friends ask me, ‘But how do you come up with them? Where do you find them?’ and things like that, I reply: Everywhere. In the trees, in the plants, on a walk in the mountains, in children’s laughter, in a photograph, on a journey... I try to look at the world around me as if I were seeing it for the first time every time.

Professor and author Charidimos K. Tsoukas was recently honoured with two prestigious international awards.On 8 July 2016, he was named the 18th honorary member of the European Group of Organization Studies (EGOS) for 2016. The EGOS award ceremony took place in Naples, Italy, during the 32nd conference of the international academic association. Each year, EGOS – the largest academic association for organisational and management studies in Europe – honours a scholar with the title of Honorary Member for their work and contribution to the development of the relevant academic field.In her speech honouring Professor Tsoukas, Professor Ann Langley noted, among other things: ‘Charidimos K. Tsoukas’s dedication to research and knowledge, his wisdom and his professional virtues far exceed the criteria of the EGOS Council. Mr Tsoukas is not only an outstanding researcher and a dedicated member of EGOS, but also a significant academic entrepreneur, an inspiring teacher and a responsible citizen with a keen interest in the common good. Charidimos is an original thinker who has made a significant and influential contribution to organisational studies and the EGOS community. We are proud to name him as our Honorary Member for 2016.”On 8 August 2016, he was awarded the Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award by the Organization and Management Theory Division of the American Academy of Management . The American Academy of Management is the world’s most authoritative and largest academic association for the study of management issues. The award was presented at its annual conference in Anaheim, California.Charidimos K. Tsoukas is the Columbia Ship Management Chair in Strategic Management in the Department of Business Administration and Public Administration at the University of Cyprus, and former Dean of the School of Economics and Management.Ikaros has published his book *The Tragedy of the Commons: Political Corruption, the Discrediting of Institutions and Bankruptcy*. This book is an anthology of the author’s political articles from 2007 to 2014, accompanied by an extensive introduction. The Tragedy of the Commons is, in essence, a chronicle of the descent into bankruptcy, a retrospective look at the political and institutional processes and decisions that led to the country’s widespread collapse. You can find more information about the book here. You can read more about Charidimos K. Tsoukas on his website: www.htsoukas.com

On this day, 20 September 1971, Giorgos Seferis, one of the greatest Greek poets, passed away. During the poet’s funeral, the human river that formed to honour him turned into one of the largest anti-dictatorship marches ever held.Giorgos Seferiadis, as was his real name, was born in Smyrna on 29 February 1900. He began writing his first lyrics in 1914, when, with the outbreak of the First World War, he emigrated to Athens with his family.He also lived in Paris and London, and subsequently, due to his diplomatic career, he was constantly changing his place of residence: Koritsa, Alexandria, South Africa, Ankara and Lebanon were among these places.One of the greatest moments in Greek literature is undoubtedly his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1963. The award was announced on 24 October, whilst the official ceremony took place on 10 December in Stockholm. ‘‘George Seferis laid the foundations for free verse,’ Odysseas Elytis would say of him. George Seferis had a close relationship with Nikos Karidis, founder of Ikaros. In 1945, *Deck Diary II* was published. This edition, in 313 numbered copies, marked the beginning of a collaboration that continued for fifty years. The poet’s poetic, essayistic and translational work has been published and reprinted without interruption throughout all these years. George Seferis’s way of thinking and expression remains highly relevant today and is remembered by readers young and old. George Seferis’s poem ‘Erotic Discourse C’: O dark shudder in the root and in the leaves!Stand tall and watchful amidst the crowd of silence; lift your head from your curved hands; let your will be born and tell me again&the words that touched and mingled with the blood like an embrace; let your longing lean, deep as a walnut’s shadow, and flood us with the profusion of your hair, from the down of the kiss upon the leaves of the heart. Your eyes lowered and you wore the smile that painters of yore humbly depicted. A forgotten passage in an old gospel, your words breathed life into the light voice: ‘The passing of time is silent and otherworldly; the pain gently glows within my soul; dawn caresses the sky, the dream remains absent; it is as if fragrant bushes were passing by. ”With the glint in my eyes, with the blush on my cheeks, they awaken and descend, doves of jade; their circling flutter entwines me low, a human touch upon my bosom, the stars. ”My hearing, as if a shell had shattered, the adversary’s wail resounds—distant and indissoluble, the world’s lament—yet these are moments and they fade, and the dual-edged logic of my longing reigns, alone. »As if I had been resurrected naked in a stolen memory, you came, familiar and a stranger, my dear, to grant me, an old woman, the boundless redemption I sought from the swift whispers of the wind...&The cracked sunbeam faded and vanished; it seemed a delusion to seek the gifts of heaven. Your eyes lowered. The moon’s thorn sprouted, and you feared the shadows of the mountain. ...In the mirror, our love, how it fades away; in sleep, dreams, the school of oblivion; in the depths of time, how the heart constricts and is lost in the rocking of a stranger’s embrace... You can read more about Giorgos Seferis’s books here: http://ikarosbooks.gr/authors/seferis