The first book launch for Rush of Wingspan will be Poetry in Concert. Greek composer and pianist Panos Gklistis will perform music in conversation with my poetry from my newly released collection Rush of Wingspan. The event will take place on Sunday June 14 at 2 pm in the Haagse Pianohuis (Piano House Den Haag). You’ll find the ticket link here. All are welcome.
A dynamic sound space will be created where poetry shapes an atmosphere in which music can resonate and vice versa. Works by Hadjidakis, Gklistis, Janáček, Shostakovich, Cage, and Debussy will be performed.
After the performance drinks and snacks will be available in the bar with a beautiful skylight ceiling. You’ll of course be able to chat with Panos and I. Copies of Rush of Wingspan will be available for purchase and I’ll happily sign your copy for you.
As guest blogger for McGill-Queen’s University Press I wrote about some of the inspiration behind Rush of Wingspan. In the MQUP blog you’ll also find two poems from the book, plus some photos. Enjoy.
In the following few days I’ll also release the poetry film that I created for Rush of Wingspan which is both a preview of the book, and a taste of the Poetry in Concert.
Eleonore Schönmaier explores three great forests of her life through the lens of experiential environmentalism. Along woodland trails and on the shores of essential bodies of water, she reveals beauty and loss in equal measure in these poems.
Panos Gklistis is a Greek composer, pianist, and performer currently based in the Netherlands. His musical journey began in early childhood, experimenting with piano and composition before enrolling in music school. In 2009, he located to the Netherlands, where he studied composition with Luc Brewaeys and classical piano with Hans Eijsackers, Bart van de Roer, Håkon Austbø, Jelena Bazova, and Ellen Corver. Panos has been active internationally as a pianist, composer, and stage performer in solo and chamber concerts, theater and film productions, installations, and recordings. His artistic focus lies in creating a direct and intimate relationship with the audience through sound and performance. His interest in music theater has led to staged works such as A Bloody Fruity Opera, Dale the Snail (a children’s opera for six singers and six puppets), When Green Turns to Grey, and Exciting Chaos (an operatic experiment).
Eleonore Schönmaier’s newest collection is Rush of Wingspan (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2026). Field Guide to the Lost Flower of Crete (MQUP, 2021) was presented in collaboration with Greek composer Michalis Paraskakis as music theater at the Athens Epidaurus Festival, 2025. Wavelengths of Your Song (MQUP) was published in German translation as Wellenlängen deines Liedes (parasitenpresse, 2020). Dust Blown Side of the Journey (MQUP) was a finalist for the Eyelands Book Awards 2020 (Greece). Eleonore has won the Alfred G. Bailey Prize, the Earle Birney Prize, the National Broadsheet Contest, and was a finalist for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation Poetry Prize 2024, among others. Her poetry has been widely anthologized in the United States and Canada including in Best Canadian Poetry. Dutch, American, Scottish, Greek, and Canadian composers have all written music based on Schönmaier’s poetry including Michalis Paraskakis, Dorothy Chang, Panos Gklistis, Carmen Braden, and Emily Doolittle.