Years of quiet steady work, and various fires (not the wildfire kind!) start blazing all at once: new book, music-theater, song premiere, and photo exhibit.
My forthcoming poetry collection Rush of Wingspan will be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in early 2026. I’ve just signed the contract. The production team is in motion, and I’ll have the book cover soon.
In an ancient Mediterranean city, music theater will be performed at the new music Subset Festival/Athens Epidaurus Festival. In a more recent city a new song will be performed at the Early Music Festival Vancouver. Both are based on my text.
If you understand Greek, the Field Guide [to the Lost Flower] is profiled in this article. You can read why the composer Michalis Paraskakis was inspired to create the work as a way to honour his lost sister. His sister’s name Anthie means flower in Greek. The work is based on text from Field Guide to the Lost Flower of Crete (MQUP). Next week I travel to Athens for the premiere.
Field Guide [to the Lost Flower]
A music-theatre work for 4 performers, 1 piano, electronics & visuals.
Premiere June 7, 2025
Subset Festival/Athens Epidaurus Festival
Michalis Paraskakis · composition, electronics, video, staging
Eleonore Schönmaier · text
Katerina Konstantourou · piano, performance
Stephanos Thomopoulos · piano, performance
Anastasia Kotsali · guest voice
Giorgos Chanos · electronics + visuals assistance
Eleni Choumou · lights
Eva Dimopoulou · costumes
The title of Dorothy Chang’s song cycle That Bare Light comes from a Jan Zwicky poem. The cycle also includes work by Miriam Dunn along with my poem “Knot” (from Wavelengths of Your Song, MQUP). Premiere is July 29, 2025 in Vancouver on the Pacific Coast.
I studied photography at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, and photographs are often the notebook for my poems. In the city of Halifax on the Atlantic coast, Viewpoint Gallery is preparing a 25th anniversary exhibit for this summer. I’m an alumni of the gallery, and they’ve asked me to contribute an image. A beloved friend will help with the printing and framing as I’m having trouble being in all these spaces all at once.
Thank you to all of you for all your support and encouragement through all these years.
Once again what good achievments Eleonore
Thank you Winnie!
Any one of these pieces of news would be thrilling! Congratulations on all of this success! And, as you say, all due to years of quiet, dedicated, largely invisible work.
Thank you Stephanie! It is all wonderful, and all rather overwhelming!