greek journal for today's reader-voices of hellenism

8/12/2019 Greek Journal for Today's Reader-Voices of Hellenism

1/3

Curating her heritage

San Mateo writer creates aliterary journal on theGreek experiencePages 22

Sunday, January 26, 2014 | Section W P1 On the Peninsula FREE

Volunteers thrive at Monterey aquarium, Page4 Where to go this week, Page 13 Seamless meld of science and fiction, Page 20


2/3

W22 On the Peninsula | San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Sunday, January 26, 2014 P1 N

By Sophia Markoulakis

Anyone who thinks printedliterary journals are dead needonly spend five minutes chat-ting with Annamarie Buono-core.

At the age of 22, she is thepublisher and founder of Voic-es of Hellenism Literary Jour-nal or Voices. Not only willshe articulate the power of knowledge and the writtenword, but she will also in-troduce you to the world of contemporary Greek literaturethat is being written and read

both in the U.S. and in Greece.Published this month, Buo-

nocores second edition of Voic-es contains the writings andartwork of Greek Americansand Greeks living across theglobe.

For this young San Mateopoet and writer, the journalwas a natural extension of herfamilys publishing business,her creative writing endeavorsand her spiritual and culturalconnection to her church andGreek community.

Buonocore realizes thatpublishing a literary journal

will probably not earn hermuch money, but she has adesire to explore a collectivevoice for people to discuss the journey through life.

Any community can benefitfrom a literary journal as itprovides a place for their voices

to be heard, says Buonocore.As a member of San Joses St.

Nicholas Greek OrthodoxChurch, Buonocore came upwith the idea for the journalwhen she became involved inthe Hellenic Heritage Institute

and Museums efforts to ar-chive members immigrationstories and first-person ac-counts of settling in San Joseand the surrounding area.

When the project wasdropped by the museum due toinsufficient funding, Buono-core decided to continue col-lecting stories. She also decided

to enhance them with fiction,poetry and creative non-fictionand attempt to bridge the gap between Modern Greek acade-mia and Greek cultural writ-ings.

With encouragement from

family and guidance from theareas Greek-American aca-demics, she published the firstedition of Voices in January2013.

Angelos Sakkis, who is theassociate editor and an ad-visory board member of Voic-es, met Buonocore almost threeyears ago when the publication

Dan Evans / Special to The Chronicle

At 22-years old, Annamarie Buonocore published the second edition of Voices of Hellenism Literary Journal this month. The journal contains the writings andartwork of Greek Americans and Greeks living across the globe.

SAN MATEO

Finding her roots in a literary journalVoices of HellenismLiterary JournalFor more information or to ordera copy of Annamarie Buono-cores journal ($14), visitwww.voicesofhellenism.org.


3/3

P1 Sunday, January 26, 2014 | San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | On the Peninsula W23

ry reading at a colleaguesnewly opened coffee shop. Sheinvited all of her literaryfriends, including people shehad met at the Athens Centre,a creative writing space indowntown Athens.

The reading and subsequentvisits to the Athens Centre ledto an increase in submissionsfrom abroad.

There is definitely a morepoliticized tone to many of thepoems. .... One thing that is notsuffering in Greece is the cre-

ativity of the people, Buono-core said. John Steinbeck and Ray-

mond Carver are her favoritewriters for inspirational prose.For poetry, she favors the Beatpoets and sees a comparison between the eclecticism of Allen Ginsberg and contempo-rary Greek poets, which in-

was still an idea and she waslooking for guidance.

Since then, Sakkis, wholives in Oakland and is anauthor, poet and translator,helped shape the second edi-tions content, providing guid-ance about standards and acertain level of writing. He hasalso contributed poetry to botheditions.

Annamaries commitmentto modern Greek literature ismuch needed, he said. Wehavent had something like

Voices for a very long time.This months Voices is againfilled with the historical narra-tives of Greeks and Greek-Americans; but this editionhas a more political bentthanks to Greeces recent eco-nomic difficulties.

Last summer, Buonocorevisited Greece and held a poet-

cludes some of the poetry inthis edition.

Born and raised in San Ma-teo, she got her publishingDNA from her parents, who

met at the Millbrae Sun andstarted the Redwood CityWeekly News in the 80s.

She then watched her par-ents grow their own publish-ing business called In FlightMedia and has memories of helping out in the office.

Her fathers death when shewas 12 instilled a work ethic

and commitment to the fami-lys publishing legacy onethat she hopes to continuewith her mother, Victoria, whohas run the business for thelast 12 years.

Annamarie feels verystrongly about upholding herfathers legacy, says VictoriaBuonocore.

Annamarie Buonocore hasher hand in several of thecompanys publications in-cluding the aviation-focusedmagazines, In Flight USA, anda California wine publication,California Vine Times.

But her mom says that Voic-es is entirely Annemariespublication.

I only get a glimpse at theoccasional submission, Victo-ria Buonocore said.

Annamarie Buonocoresgrandparents, both in their80s, help her with distribu-tion, marketing and sales of Voices, and now that she hasreceived nonprofit status, sheis looking for grants.

Tracking the Greek diasporathrough modern literature andwritings might not have been

Buonocores intention whenshe first volunteered to helparchive her communitys oralhistory, but shes pleased withthe direction the project hastaken. Through it, she haslearned about publishing,obtaining nonprofit status, andeven her heritages most fa-mous writers.

I wasnt familiar with Mod-ern Greek writers like Kazan-tzakis before I became in-terested in publishing Voices.These writers arent part of thetypical high school readingcurriculum, she says.

Scoring a submission frompopular Greek-American au-thor Harry Mark Petrakis andleading academic scholars andethno historians were high-lights for Buonocore.

Now with Voices off theground, we are really lookingat forming a literary organiza-tion so we can sponsor poetryreadings and ongoing literaryevents, says Buonocore.

Sophia Markoulakis is a Peninsula freelance writer. E-mail [email protected].

Courtesy of Annamarie BuonocoreDan Evans/ Special to the Chronicle

Left: Buonocore flips through pages of the first Voices. Right: The second editions cover, which was published this month. Below: The first editions cover.

Courtesy of Annamarie Buonocore

Annamaries commitment to modern Greek literature is much needed. We havent hadsomething like Voices for a very long time. Angelos Sakkis, associate editor and an advisory board member of Voices

greek journal for today's reader-voices of hellenism

Documents