ARRESTED SONG
Irena Karafilly
(Legend Press, 28 March 2023)
Authorlink® Interview by Anna Roins
ARRESTED SONG is everything: the mundanity of Greek village life, a WW2 story of occupation, resistance, espionage, and survival. It’s a love story many times over, and it is a journey of self-discovery and purpose in the face of change and encroaching modernity. It is a saga. Readers of historical fiction will love the breadth and depth Irena Karafilly has articulated in this 400-page story. Her vivid, evocative writing was next only to visiting the actual Greek island.
Irena Karafilly is an award-winning Montreal writer, poet, and aphorist. She is the author of several acclaimed books and numerous stories, poems, and articles, which have been published in both literary and consumer magazines and in various North American newspapers, including the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. In addition, her short stories have been anthologized and broadcast, winning literary prizes such as the National Magazine Award and the CBC Literary Award.
She talks to Authorlink’s Anna Roins about her road to success, her writing journey, and ARRESTED SONG.
AUTHORLINK: Ms. Karafilly, thank you for joining us today at AUTHORLINK! It’s lovely being able to discuss your beautiful novel, ARRESTED SONG, and your writing journey in general. We understand you were born in the Russian Urals, and you and your family crossed several borders while learning “to walk, talk, read, and write.” How fascinating!
Let’s take it from the top! Most of your life has been spent in Canada. You obtained three university degrees, including an M.A. in English from McGill University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? What was the first book you ever wrote?
“…I have always loved words and stories…”
KARAFILLY: Years ago, I took a Creative Writing course at university and, though English was not my mother tongue, I began to write – and publish – while I was still a student. The course had not been very good, but I never quite stopped writing, partly because I have always loved words and stories, but possibly, too, because I had always wished to have at least nine lives.
“…an editor’s mood on a given day may have as much to do with your literary future…”
NIGHT CRIES, my first book, was a collection of Greek village stories, focusing on both natives and the foreigners in their midst. I was still living on Lesvos when I sent it to a Canadian publisher, who rejected it. Some months later, I decided to move back to Canada and, while my trunks were still on their way to Montreal, I started sending the manuscript out again. I did not have my files yet and could not remember where I had sent them in the first round. Unintentionally, I sent it to the same literary press, the same editor, who this time around, accepted the same book she had earlier rejected! In other words, an editor’s mood on a given day may have as much to do with your literary future as your native talent.
AUTHORLINK: Too true! Thank you for sharing that. After discovering Lesvos Island in Greece on a summer holiday, you applied for and won, a writing grant and decided to return to the island that you fell in love with. This way, the grant money would go further, and your writer’s life idyllic with tasty seasonal fruit and vegetables, freshly caught fish and the endless supply of summer!
Since that time, you have made Greece your second home. Tell us about the writing grant. What were the conditions an applicant had to meet, and what did you submit to support it? How would your life have gone on a different trajectory had you not won it?
KARAFILLY: Canada is very supportive of its artists, offering substantial grants through the Canada Council for the Arts and also through provincial governments. I was at the time living in Toronto and that particular grant had come from the Ontario Arts Council. One had to be a published writer to be eligible. I had not yet published a book but had published stories and poems in various magazines. Had I not received this grant, I would not have returned to Greece that winter and would not have married a Greek. In other words, I would not have lived in the country long enough to be able to write about it as I have throughout my life. My friends like to refer to me as an Honorary Greek.
AUTHORLINK: How wonderful. When you were living in beautiful Molyvos, you first heard about Stella Ioannou, a recently deceased village woman. As a young widow, she had an affair with the famous Greek writer, Stratis Myrivilis, who fictionalized their relationship in his Greek classic, The Schoolmistress with the Golden Eyes and was eventually nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. You wrote a short story inspired by Irving Layton’s poem about Stella’s life and tragic death.
Eventually, the short story evolved into an ambitious novel about a strong-willed Greek iconoclast, a young village schoolmistress recruited by the Germans during the Occupation to act as their liaison officer – thus giving birth to the first incarnation of ARRESTED SONG.
We understand Stella Ioannou tragically immolated herself upon learning plans for her to be moved to a retirement home. Indeed, for an elderly matriarch to be placed in a retirement home is rather unusual in Greek families. Are you able to share more details about this woman’s life and why she might have been compelled to end her life in this awful and drastic manner?
KARAFILLY: She was by then in her 80s and suffering from dementia. She lived alone, unable to care for herself, and increasingly paranoid.
AUTHORLINK: Poor woman. We understand it took you seven years to write ARRESTED SONG to better research the socio-political background alongside a personal story.
KARAFILLY: Since I am not Greek, and did not live through either the German occupation or the civil war, I had to do a great deal of reading, watch historical documentaries and interview people who could tell me things I had not been able to find in books.
It seemed like a worthwhile project because, though millions of foreigners visit Greece, few of them seem to know much about Greece’s historical ordeals. Some people know about the occupation but not about the subsequent civil war. Incredibly, though, more Greeks died during the civil war than during the German occupation!
AUTHORLINK: Your fictional schoolmistress, Calliope is a member of the local Resistance Movement, but, against all odds, an intense friendship develops between her and the German commander in charge of the village. Their complex relationship survives the Occupation and continues through several tumultuous decades as Greece is ravaged by civil war, oppressed by a military dictatorship, and finally liberated in the mid-1970s.
How did the original story evolve and change as you wrote and revised it? Are there any characters or scenes lost in the process that you wish had made it to the published version? For example, were you tempted to give Calliope the same fate as poor Stella? Do her relatives know she was the inspiration behind ARRESTED SONG?
“Yes, I originally set out to write a much longer novel…”
KARAFILLY: Yes, I originally set out to write a much longer novel, starting with Calliope’s childhood but the realities of the marketplace eventually persuaded me to start the story just before the Germans’ arrival. Virtually to the end, though, I thought my fictional heroine would immolate herself while protesting the Junta’s brutality. Calliope Adham, though, resisted this tragic ending. I realized that the character I’d created would not have done this, under any circumstances.
After one of my FB posts, one of Stella Ioannou’s relatives, a niece, I believe – wrote to thank me and correct the surname. Recently, the journalist who interviewed me for the Athens Insider magazine, told me that she knew Myrivilis’ daughter, who was interested to hear about my novel.
AUTHORLINK: How brilliant! What writing tips can you offer struggling writers on how to seamlessly weave a personal story with historical events, condensing several remarkable decades into an accurate and marketable narrative?
KARAFILLY: Read, read, and read. Also don’t bite off more than you can chew. I wrote the original as a story because I knew I was not up to the challenge of writing such an ambitious novel early in my career. I’d been writing for many years before I attempted it and would not recommend it to ‘struggling writers’. For more about writing a historical novel, please see, https://www.writing.ie/interviews/mastering-art-and-life-arrested-song-by-irena-karafilly/ and for tips for writers, please see, https://irenakarafilly.com/top-tips-aspiring-writers/
AUTHORLINK: Thank you. You share your time between Canada and Greece and have also worked as a creative writing teacher. Do you hold or participate in any writing retreats in Greece? Can you suggest any writing groups in Greece that may help struggling writers who are also Digital Nomads looking to live in beautiful Greece? If so, can you share their names and websites?
KARAFILLY: I know there is one
on Andros. It’s the Aegean Arts Circle run by Amalia Melis.
AUTHORLINK: Thank you. You’ve received excellent reviews for ARRESTED SONG, especially from one of our favorite authors, Louis de Bernieres, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
He said, “Karafilly succeeds brilliantly where I had decided not to try. A very accomplished novel.”
What an accolade! How did that feel?
Have any film production companies approached you to create this beautiful historical novel into a movie or a series? We would love to see it come to life! The world is currently enamored with Netflix’s Maestro in Blue, and we would love to see this happen to ARRESTED SONG, too! Thoughts?
KARAFILLY: I was very grateful to have Louis de Bernieres’ endorsement. The reference to his decision “not to try” had to do with the civil war, which was indeed very difficult to write about fairly and accurately. A Greek journalist told me that no Greek could have written my novel because no Greek could have been so objective about it.
Several readers have suggested that Arrested Song would make an excellent Netflix series and I, of course, was quick to agree. If you can make it happen, please go ahead and you will find me eternally grateful.
AUTHORLINK: I’ll do my best! Going back to the early days again, what challenges can you share with our readers on your path to publication? What were your obstacles, if any? How did you overcome them? Who was your biggest supporter?
KARAFILLY: The only challenge, in those early days, was to keep writing while raising a child on my own, and learn to do it better. This required a lot of reading and writing and not much partying. Taking creative writing courses is useful for most aspiring writers. Today’s obstacles have to do with increasingly bleak publishing realities. My own supporters were: Clark Blaise, my mentor, then Bob Weaver at the CBC and Robert Fulford at Saturday Night Magazine. I was very lucky to find supporters in such high places.
AUTHORLINK: Bravo! How did you convince your agent to represent you? The life of a writer is a sack full of rejection letters. Did you have any? How did you land your first publishing deal and subsequent others to be able to have published seven books (Οι Δρόμοι της Μοίρας (The Roads of Fate) Night Cries, Ashes and Miracles: A Polish Journey, The Stranger in the Plumed Hat, Η Ασυμβίβαστη Μούσα, The Captive Sun, The House on Selkirk Avenue) before shortly releasing ARRESTED SONG?
KARAFILLY: One did not need an agent to get published by a literary press and, even today, most small publishers will consider un-agented submissions if they like your letter and writing sample. A literary agent will kiss your feet if s/he thinks there might be gold dust between your toes.
“A literary agent will kiss your feet if s/he thinks there might be gold dust between your toes.”
AUTHORLINK: Tell us about your writing process in short answers: –
- How many hours do you try to write each day? FROM 4 TO 14.
- How many hours do you research? IMPOSSIBLE TO ANSWER.
- What would you say is your interesting writing quirk? I CAN’T START ANYTHING IF I KNOW I’M GOING TO BE INTERRUPTED. I TURN OFF THE PHONE AND IGNORE THE DOORBELL WHILE I AM WRITING.
- How often do you proofread, edit, and review your work before giving it to your first reader? THERE ARE ALWAYS THREE PRELIMINARY DRAFTS (WRITTEN BY HAND), THEN COUNTLESS MINOR DRAFTS IN THE DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS THAT FOLLOW. IF I WERE PAID BY THE NUMBER OF WORDS FED INTO MY COMPUTER, I MIGHT BE AMONG THE WORLD’S RICHEST WRITERS.
- Who is your first reader? IT DEPENDS ON THE WORK. SOMETIMES IT’S MY DAUGHTER; OTHER TIMES SOMEONE WHO HAS WRITTEN SOMETHING SIMILAR OR IS LIKELY TO HAVE A PARTICULAR INTEREST IN WHATEVER I HAPPEN TO BE WORKING ON.
- Does your agent then go through a round of edits? NOT IN MY CASE.
- Do you have to go through many improvements even after selling to a publisher? BECAUSE I PUT MY WORK THROUGH SO MANY EDITS, THERE IS ONLY MINOR EDITORIAL INTERVENTION, THOUGH THE GENERAL RESPONSE TO THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF MY NOVEL WAS THAT IT WAS TOO LONG FOR THE ENGLISH MARKET.
- What is the relationship between you and your agent? Your Editor? I SOLD ARRESTED SONG TO LEGEND PRESS ON MY OWN AND ADORE MY EDITOR THERE.
KARAFILLY: See above in Capitals
AUTHORLINK: And now for a bit of fun…Say you are organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, would you invite? And why?
KARAFILLY: Louis de Bernieres, Sofka Zinovieff, and Nadia Marks – three authors who know Greece and its history well and who responded enthusiastically to the work of a perfect stranger they had never heard of.
AUTHORLINK: Lovely! Do you have any comfort reads to which you return, time and time again?
KARAFILLY: Not really.
AUTHORLINK: That’s interesting. You once said, “Talking to non-Greeks, I discovered that most people knew very little about modern Greek history, so I set out to depict one woman’s lifelong struggle against social and political tyranny while simultaneously chronicling her nation’s historical hardships. Social realities have changed considerably since Calliope’s time, but women’s struggle for social justice continues. Calliope starts as a schoolmistress but eventually becomes a celebrated champion of Greek women’s rights. She devotes much of her life to promoting village girls’ education and founding shelters for women fleeing domestic abuse.” (Greek News Agenda, 9 April 2020).
This is so inspiring. Will you write more historical fiction novels set in Lesvos? What are you working on now? Please tell us a bit about it.
KARAFILLY: I am hoping to publish a second collection of Greek village stories, but my new novel is completely different (though it does have a few chapters set in Molyvos). ‘The Patron Saint of Travelers’ revolves around a Canadian travel journalist’s mysterious disappearance during a research trip to Europe. When the police come up empty-handed, her daughter sets out to find out what happened to her mother. The quest leads her to fascinating islands around the world, and to many surprising discoveries. The novel offers both mystery and suspense, as well as the pleasures of vicarious travel. At its heart, though, is a complex mother-daughter relationship. A perfect Mother’s Day gift.
AUTHORLINK: Oh, that sounds wonderful. You had me at ‘fascinating islands’! Ms. Karafilly, chatting with you about ARRESTED SONG and your writing process was great. We thank you for your time and wish you continued success!
KARAFILLY: Thank you. I appreciate your interest and your kind words.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Irena Karafilly was born in the Urals but crossed several borders while learning to walk, talk, read, and write. She has lived in five countries, most recently in Greece, where some of her plots are set. She speaks several foreign languages badly, swears perfectly in Polish and Greek, and writes in English about immigrants and other outsiders.
She has been largely educated in Canada, the most generous of countries, where the lack of a high-school diploma proved to be no impediment to obtaining three university degrees. While still an undergraduate, Karafilly sold a short story to Bob Weaver at the CBC and has ever since been trying to write an international bestseller so she could devote herself full time to her writing.
She has worked as a secretary, administrator, editor, businesswoman, journalist, university lecturer, and writer, publishing dozens of poems and stories, while trying to survive as a single mother.
Though fame and fortune remain somewhat elusive, her work has won several literary prizes, including the National Magazine Award and the CBC Literary Award. Her short stories have been broadcast, anthologized, and published in both commercial and literary magazines, in Canada and abroad.
Author of seven books (five English, two Greek), Karafilly has also written book reviews and other articles, which have appeared in numerous newspapers, including the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. She currently divides her time between Canada and Greece, still looking for Home.
You can find out more about Irena Karafilly at https://irenakarafilly.com/, https://www.facebook.com/irena.karafilly/.
