GEORGE ATHANASIOU George Athanasiou was born in Melbourne in 1966. He has been creative since childhood. His first poem ‘The School’ was published in the Maribyrnong High School magazine, in 1980. The wife of the Greek Counsel General gave him an award for the poem. Young George was also obsessed with science, science-fiction and fantasy. These themes would later make their way into his writing.   He put poetry aside during adolescence and young adulthood in favour of pursuing his love of music¾performance and song-writing. He was lucky in his teachers, having been tutored by the unforgettable Kostas Tsikaderis. Later he won a scholarship to study singing under Audrey Duggan, who had worked with Engelbert Humperdinck. George was a long-time member of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Choir of Melbourne under Stelios Tsiolas. His involvement with the choir gave him an opportunity to perform before the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, at the time of the Patriarch’s visit to Melbourne, in 1996.   George collaborated with musicians, over a long period of time, recording songs. One of his most memorable collaborations was with Polish composer, Joseph Miller, who had composed a musical piece for PolArt, the biggest Polish art festival celebrated outside of Poland, when the festival was held in Melbourne, in 2015. George wrote the lyrics to the 10-minute piece, which was performed to a full house at Deakin Edge, Federation Square, by two outstanding opera singers: soprano, Jolanta Mielczarek, and tenor, Alexander Murer. Both of those singers had had distinguished careers. Alexander Murer had even performed alongside the immortal Luciano Pavarotti.   George has been active in the Greek community from a young age. He was the representative of the Greek Organisation of Young Australians (GOYA) on the board of the Hellenic Youth Federation for many years. He has been a committee member of the Greek Australian Cultural League since 2005.   George has a Master of Education from The University of Melbourne. In a whirlwind of activism, he and fellow student, now Neos Kosmos columnist and renowned lawyer, Dean Kalimniou, attempted to save the department of Greek Studies from closure. During his wild uni days, George also dabbled in acting. He appeared in The Wog Boy as an extra.   His passion for poetry was reignited, after he attended the book launch of Dean Kalimniou’s collection of poems, Κῆπος Ἐσώκλειστος ("Garden Enclosed"). George had never completely stopped writing, but the excitement of the launch gave him wings. “While out on the town, I observed people, situations and confrontations and went home and wrote about them,” he says. This is how his first volume of poetry, An Observer’s Tales, published in 2005, came to be. Singer-songwriter, Anthea ‘Jewels’ Sidiropoulos, wrote music to one of the poems, ‘The Lucky Country’.   George set about putting together his second volume of poetry, Tales of Light and Darkness, published in 2008. In 2012 he completed the Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing at Victoria University. Since rekindling his love affair with writing, George has won many awards for his poems and short stories. His work has been published in a number of issues of the Antipodes periodical, as well as in the anthology, Southern Sun, Aegean Light (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2011). In 2018 George published the children’s book I Think I have Swallowed Butterflies authored by his wife, fellow writer Monika Athanasiou. The book was illustrated by artist Con Constantinou. George has a third collection of poems due out in 2019. He is also working on a chap book of science-inspired poems and a collection of short stories.