Anne Germanacos Presents Debut Collectioin

In her debut collection of stories, Anne Germanacos gives us stories that are highly concentrated, like poetry, and contain strong images. They are heavily influenced by her time in Greece, and they pack a hard punch:

•  A woman with a birthmark in the shape of a map has a penchant for risky travel.
• A contemporary Oedipus, living with his mother in a house full of cats, is cured of his blindness.
• A herd of goats gnaw on notepads stolen from a New York City hotel.
• Lightning strikes, minds are lost to disease, new languages are invented.

As in Jim Lynch's recent novel, Border Songs, the stories in In the Time of the Girls examine the existence and meaning of borders -- religious, cultural, sexual, social, generational, psychological, and moral -- and the act of crossing borders. 

Born in San Francisco, as were three generations before her, Anne Germanacos has lived in both Greece and San Francisco for more than thirty years. Together with her husband, Nick, she ran the Ithaka Cultural Studies Program on the islands of Kalymnos and Crete, and taught writing, literature, and Modern Greek.

Anne holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and has studied Greek, Turkish, Hebrew, Arabic, and Spanish. Her work has appeared in more than sixty literary reviews and anthologies. She and her husband have four children and five grandchildren. They live on the island of Crete and in San Francisco.

"I’ve always lived near large bodies of water, the Pacific Ocean and the Aegean," Anne says. "I left [San Francisco] at seventeen to study in Greece, married my teacher, and began a life—running a school, raising children—that continues to be lived in two cultures, two languages, and on two continents. For more than thirty years, I’ve had to leave someone I love in order to go to the others I love." In her stories, the reader isn’t spoon-fed, but rather is required to participate in the process: "I offer a pathway of stones, not a ride in a rowboat. My hope is to offer the reader a handful of gems."

Anne will read from her collection of stories at Broadway Books on Monday, November 8, at 7 pm. We invite you to join us!

Here is a video clip of an interview conducted with Anne: