«Literature in Community: Writing, Memory and Public Narrative in the Mediterranean»
Radamanthys Editions is an independent publishing house based in Chania, Crete. We have been running Creative Writing and Self-awareness workshops, which have been running for ten years in Chania and Rethymno. Our goal is to create a working environment where writers come to produce new work, not to present finished work.
Radamanthys is not mainly a publisher that also does activities — it is a creative environment that also publishes books. During the last ten years Radamanthys Editions has grown beyond a publishing house and has become a continuous creative environment for writers. Alongside our publications, we run weekly Creative Writing and Self-awareness workshops in Chania and Rethymno. These workshops bring together young and experienced writers and are based on mentoring, feedback and group discussion. Through this long experience we are used to guiding authors through the writing process and supporting the development of new texts.
We work in close contact with the local community, schools and cultural associations, and we cooperate with public institutions such as the Region of Crete and the cultural organization “Esaei en Roi”. Our aim is to connect literature with everyday life and public participation. Our space also includes an Experimental Stage, where literature meets performance. We organize staged readings and theatre adaptations of literary works, allowing texts to move from the page to a shared public experience. Four productions have already been presented and this March we will stage a performance dedicated to the poet Kostas Karyotakis.
Publishing remains an important part of our activity, but it functions as the continuation of the creative process: new voices are developed in the workshops, refined through mentoring and dialogue, and eventually some of these works become books.
Based on this experience, we propose a residency project titled:
“Literature in Community: Writing, Memory and Public Narrative in the Mediterranean”.
The aim of the residency is not simply to invite writers to give talks, but to create a working environment where international authors can write new texts while living and working inside a local cultural community. We plan to invite three to four writers from European countries. These regions share common history and cultural memory, but have different literary voices. Our goal is to bring these voices into dialogue.
The residency will have three main parts.
First, creation. Each writer will work every day on a new writing project. There will be mentoring, feedback meetings and discussions about the texts. The focus of the residency is writing and creative process.
Second, exploration. The writers will explore the place. They will meet local people, listen to stories, visit archives and experience the cultural life of Crete. The island itself will become inspiration for new literary work.
Third, connection. Literature will be shared with the public. The residents will collaborate with actors and facilitators in public readings, small performances and open workshops with participants from our community. In this way literature becomes a shared experience.
The results of the residency will include a collective multilingual publication with texts written during the residency, a public staged reading, and open community activities for local audiences and young writers. We plan the residency for January–February 2027. This period allows better contact with the local community because it is outside the tourist season. With this project Radamanthys Editions wishes to act not only as a publisher but as a meeting place — a small international center for literary creation where writers and community can meet and exchange ideas.
email: ekd.radamathys@gmail.com
+306983091058
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