ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Effie Pasagiannis is a Greek-American lawyer and writer based in New York City. Her poems have been published in various journals and anthologies such as Snapdragon Journal, The Write Launch, Platform Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, the Raw Art Review, Pen + Brush In Print Issue 1, and Stanford University’s Mantis Press (Poetry & Protest, April 2019).
Anagnorisis (Greek: “Recognition”), published by Dancing Girl Press in 2020, is Effie’s first collection of poems focusing on universal themes of loss, alienation, struggle and transcendence. The book can be found via the publisher’s website and at Book Culture, an indie bookstore in NYC. Effie just completed two poetry chapbooks, Our Perfect Offering (a collection of villanelle poems) forthcoming by Dancing Girl Press in 2023, and The Passage (inspired by the life and paintings of American surrealist Kay Sage) forthcoming by Finishing Line Press in 2023. She is also writing a collection of short stories with female protagonists at a crossroads. One of these short stories, Sweet Nothings of a Foreign Exchange, was published in Feminine Collective’s September 2018 issue. Another short story, Fennec Fox on the Promontory, is being adapted into a feature length film by Nomadis Images.
Effie has performed in New York City venues including the Bowery Poetry Club, Arlo Hotels, The Assemblage, Pen + Brush, Powerhouse Books and Poets House. In February 2020, she curated a poetry micro-event and performed at the opening night of “Occupy Project #1" at the Greek Consulate in New York. Most recently in August 2022, she was invited to read poems with the theme memory in beautiful Elizabeth Street Garden as part of McNally Jackson Books summer poetry series.
THE PASSAGE
The Passage is an exquisite ekphrastic poetry chapbook inspired by American surrealist painter Kay Sage's transfixing paintings depicting barren landscapes and intricate architectural scenes. Each carefully crafted poem serves as a portal to Sage's masterpieces and an intimate exploration into her constant struggle to be recognized as a surrealist artist, in what was then an insular art world dominated by famous male figures such as Andre Breton, Max Ernst, and Sage's husband Yves Tanguy. Delving into the realm of surrealism, melancholy and untold narratives, The Passage is a poetic journey transcending time and space to embrace the transformative power of art.
“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.”
Virginia Woolf
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MANTIS (STANFORD UNIVERSITY)
Poetry + Protest
In April 2019, two of Effie’s political poems “Fine American Morning” and “On Mango Trees in the Dead of Night” were featured in Mantis (Stanford University), in their Poetry + Protest print issue.
ANAGNORISIS
Published by Dancing Girl Press in 2020, this was Effie’s first collection of poems encapsulating the journey through struggle to self concept clarity. It is equally applicable to our collective journey, moving from the experience of loss, to questioning the status quo, before all is revealed and we awaken to a transcendent and meaningful existence. The title Anagnorisis (Greek: “recognition”) in a literary work refers to the startling discovery that produces a change from ignorance to knowledge. It is discussed by Aristotle in “Poetics” as an essential part of the plot of a tragedy, although anagnorisis occurs in comedy, epic, and, at a later date, the novel as well. Anagnorisis usually involves revelation.
This collection is divided into three parts: Agonas (struggle); Aporia (questioning); and Anastasis (rebirth/transcendence). The book can be purchased directly through the author by sending a message on this site or via the publisher’s (Dancing Girl Press) website: https://dulcetshop.myshopify.com/products/anagnorisis-effie-pasagiannis-1
PUBLICATIONS & PRESS
FIELDFARE ISSUE 3 - SANCTUARY
Two of Effie’s poems “Vissino” and “Ode to Drunken Angels” were featured in Fieldfare Issue 3 in 2023. Fieldfare is an independent print journal published twice a year in the UK. It explores the idea of “a sense of place”—the things and people that make a place special or unique and that foster a sense of belonging. Through a series of photo essays, travel features, personal essays, interviews and profiles of artists, gardeners and beautiful homes, we take a longer, slower look at what connects us. The goal is to make a beautiful, inspiring magazine that looks and feels so good, you’ll want to keep it forever. What does fieldfare mean, anyway? “Fieldfare: a large migratory thrush with a grey head which breeds in northern Europe and winters in Great Britain. The Old English word feldefare perhaps meant ‘traveller through the fields’, from felde (field) + faran (to travel).”
