In 2024, in addition to our extraordinary Authors XI speakers, we are so looking forward to welcoming the following guest presenters
Maria Chalkou is an assistant Professor at the Department of Audio & Visual Arts of Ionian University and the principal editor of Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Film Theory and History (University of Glasgow), sponsored by the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y.), and an MA in Film and Art Theory (University of Kent).
Her research interests focus on film cultures of the 1960s, Greek Cinema, contemporary
European cinema, film censorship, film criticism, film genres and the cinematic representations of the past.
​
Sarah Churchwell is Professor in American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, where she directs the Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities. She is the author of The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and The Lies America Tells; Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and The Invention of The Great Gatsby; Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream; and The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, most recently adapted into a 2022 CNN/BBC series narrated by Jessica Chastain. Her journalism has appeared widely in international newspapers and periodicals, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian and many others, focusing especially upon American culture, history, and politics. She has also frequently contributed to television, documentary film, and radio, with appearances including Question Time, Newsnight, Sky News, BBC Breakfast and numerous appearances across all channels. She was co-winner of the 2015 Eccles British Library Writer’s Award, named by Prospect magazine one of the world’s Top Fifty Thinkers in 2020, and longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2021.​
​
Jonathan Coe English novelist and writer, Jonathan's work has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically. Best
selling author throughout Europe, he has written 14 novels, three non-fiction and two
children's book, winning several awards, he is also a musician and has had a lifelong love affair with cinema, sitting on the judging panels of both the Edinburgh and Venice Film Festivals.
His 2020 book, Mr Wilder & Me, is the story of Billy Wilder making his last movie, Fedora, much of which is set on Corfu. His latest book, The Proof Of My Innocence, is due out in November 2024.
​
Danai Dragonea is an awarded author, journalist, and co-founder of Kathe Mia Istoria (Every Single Story), an NGO dedicated to women empowerment through storytelling. Writing has been her passion since childhood, while she loves writing about strong female characters and their adventures. She has given speeches on female identity and gender stereotypes and also conducts Creative Writing Workshops for children and teenagers. Her first book, The Island of Rain - A Secret Diary, published by A.A. Livani Publishing, received the IBBY Award for Best Newcomer YA Author in Greece, from the Greek section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). She was also honoured with the Teen Literature Award at the Public Book Awards. Writing stories for children and teenagers allows her not to forget what it feels like to face life believing that all possibilities still remain open and equally probable.​​
David Evan Giles is an Australian Academy Award- nominated screenwriter and has written, produced and directed feature films and festival-winning short films, starring Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Cate Blanchett and, for those mature enough to remember her luminous performances in The Draughtman’s Contract and Picnic At Hanging Rock, Anne Louise Lambert. He has written articles and short stories for publications in the UK and Australia. David is also a published poet and is honoured to participate in this wonderful festival in the company of such an array of talented and deeply knowledgeable speakers.
Sebastian Faulks worked as a journalist before becoming a full-time writer. His French trilogy - The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray (1989-1997) - established him in the front rank of British novelists. UK sales of Birdsong exceed 2,500,000 copies. Charlotte Gray has also sold over a million copies and was filmed with Cate Blanchett in the main part. His later novels include A Possible Life, Human Traces, On Green Dolphin Street, Engleby, A Week in December, Where My Heart Used to Beat, Paris Echo and Snow Country. Sebastian's most recent book, The Seventh Son, was published in 2023. Sebastian has a weakness for retsina - what a man.
Stephen Fry is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator, quizmaster and writer. And cricket nut. Stephen came to the attention of the public as half of Fry and Laurie and has won over the hearts of the many as Lord Melchett, and Oscar Wilde, as an enthusiastic companion on various travel and natural world documentaries, a writer of witty and honest autobiography, a passionate advocate of those suffering from mental health issues, a reassuring debunker of technological and scientific fears, the kindly host of the always puzzling show, QI, and interpreter and narrator of some of the most loved and popular books in the English language. Stephen's trilogy of books Mythos, Heroes and Troy has welcomed a new and revitalised audience to the ancient myths of Greece and in 2021, Fry was appointed a Grand Commander of the Order of the Phoenix by Greek president Sakellaropoulou for his contribution in enhancing knowledge about Greece in the United Kingdom and reinforcing ties between the two countries.
Julian Hoffman is a writer and naturalist, and is the author of Irreplaceable, The Small Heart of Things and Notes from Near and Far, his blog on the nature of place. Born in northeast England, he grew up in Ontario and moved with his wife in 2000 to a mountain village beside the Prespa Lakes in northwestern Greece, a trans-boundary Balkan park whose lake basin is shared with Albania and North Macedonia. Home to a remarkably rich range of people, birds, wild flowers, languages, mammals and habitats, including the world's largest colony of Dalmatian pelicans, Prespa is a place that has taught Julian a great deal about our complex yet indelible connections to landscape and the natural world. Irreplaceable: The Fight to Save Our Wild Places, celebrates those imperilled places that are increasingly vanishing from the world, exploring treasured woodlands, prairies, marshlands, urban allotments and coral reefs, along with the many species under threat in them. Just as importantly though, it’s a book about resistance to loss and the countless stories of local communities and conservationists as they set about to protect and preserve what is not only of crucial importance to the fabric of human life but irreplaceable as well. Irreplaceable was a Royal Geographical Society Book of the Year and the Highly Commended Finalist for the 2020 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation.
​​
Dr Simon Karythis is a Corfiot ecologist, who after spending his formative years on the island, moved to theUK where he studied Zoology as an undergrad, before working in related industries for nearly a decade. After spending three years working at a marine ecology research centre in Chile, where he developed a passion for understanding the complexities of ocean systems, he returned to the UK to complete his postgraduate studies. Attending Bangor University, he first completed a MSc in Marine Ecology with a focus on how species interact with each other and their environment, he then completed his PhD with a similar focus. His postdoctoral research focused on the impacts of non-native species on invaded environments and the potential for human structures to facilitate their negative impacts. He has a broad understanding of the mechanisms that underpin many ecological processes which informs his passion for the protection and conservation of the environment around Corfu and the
broader Ionian.
Socrates Kabouropoulos (Volos, 1962) studied cinema and has held positions at the National Book Centre of Greece (1996-2014) and at the Greek Culture Ministry (2026-2028), while also writing poetry, essays, translating poets such as Theo Dorgan, John Tripoulas, Seamus Heaney, Brendan Kennelly, Ciaran Carson, John Montague, Derek Mahon, Paula Meehan, Harry Clifton, Joseph Woods, et. al. Between 2009-2012 he coordinated an international poetry
workshop in Paros and in Delphi. He joined the production team of the feature documentary by Alan Gilsenan, Kathryn Baird and Theo Dorgan An Buachaill Gáireach/To Gelasto Paidi/The Laughing Boy (2022), as the Greek consultant. His poetry and translations have been featured in journals such as Poiitiki, Ta Poiitika, Oropedio, frear.gr, poets.gr, New American Writing, Little Red Leaves, parentheses, The Poetry Review. His first book of poetry, titled Μετείκασμα, appeared in 2024.
Stavros Katsios is Professor of International Economic Relations and International Economic Crime at the Ionian University, Corfu, Greece and Director of the Laboratory for Geocultural Analyses (Geolab), Chair Holder of the UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage and Cultural Heritage-related Activities at the Ionian University Coordinator of the Yellow Tourism Research Consortium and Deputy Head of the Department of Foreign Languages Translation and Interpreting. He has studied law at the “Albertus Magnus” University, Cologne, at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. (scholarship for attending courses in International Law and Policy) and at the Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece.
David Olusoga OBE is a British historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and filmmaker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester, considered an expert on military history, empire, race and slavery. David has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contributed to The One Show and The Guardian and his series of films A House Through Time introduced a cohort of new viewers to review and consider their own neighbourhood's past in a human and intimate way. David has been included in Powerlist, a ranking of the most influential Black Britons and in the 2021 edition he made the Top 10 most influential, ranking eighth. In November 2020, the BBC announced that it had commissioned Barack Obama Talks To David Olusoga, a special programme in which Barack Obama discussed the first volume of his presidential memoirs, A Promised Land
Ruth Padel FRSL is a British poet, novelist and non-fiction author, known for her poetic explorations of migration, both animal and human, and her involvement with classical music, wildlife conservation and Greece, ancient and modern. She is Trustee for conservation charity New Networks for Nature, has served on the board of the Zoological Society of London and was Professor of Poetry at King's College London from 2013 to 2022. Her second novel, Daughters of the Labyrinth, set in London and Crete 2019-20, looks back to the Second World War and the little-known Holocaust of the Jews of Crete - where Padel has lived on and off since 1970.
