Greek-Australian poet (1935–2022)
Antigone Kefala (28 May 1931 – 3 December 2022) was an Australian poet and prose-writer of Greek-Romanian heritage. She was a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council and is acknowledged as being an important voice in capturing the migrant experience in contemporary Australia. In 2017, Kefala was awarded the State Library of Queensland Poetry Collection Judith Wright Calanthe Award at the Queensland Literary Awards for her collection of poems entitled "Fragments".
Life.
Born in Brăila, Romania in 1931, Kefala and family moved to Greece and then New Zealand after World War II. Having studied French Literature at Victoria University and obtained a MA, she relocated to Sydney, Australia in 1960. There she taught English as a second language and worked as a university and arts administrator. Her poetry and prose is written in both Greek and English, with "Absence: New and Selected Poems" reissued in a second edition in 1998.
Her work, written in free verse, has been described as having an almost metaphysical detachment. It is characterised by an austere allusiveness unusual in Australian poetry. Aside from Greek and English it has been translated into Czech and French.
In 2009, "Antigone Kefala: A Writer’s Journey", an anthology of reviews, essays and analytical writing of Kefala's works edited by Professor Vrasidas Karalis and Helen Nickas was published by Owl Publishing. In 2021, a collection of essays on her prose and poetry titled "Antigone Kefala: New Australian Modernities", edited by Elizabeth McMahon and Brigitta Olubas, was published by UWA Publishing.
In November 2022, Kefala won the Patrick White Award. A week later, she died on 3 December 2022, at the age of 91.