{{more citations needed, date=September 2012
Andreas Karavis is a non-existent
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...
created by
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
poet
David Solway
David Solway (born 8 December 1941) is a Canadian poet, educational theorist, travel writer and literary critic.
He is a member of the Jubilate Circle and formerly a teacher of English Literature at John Abbott College. He has spent most of his ...
.
In October 1999, ''
Books in Canada
''Books in Canada'' was a monthly magazine that reviewed Canadian literature, published in print form between 1971 and 2008. In its heyday it was the most influential literary magazine in Canada.
Foundation
One of the co-founders of ''Books in Ca ...
'' published an article titled "Modern Homer" about a supposedly newly discovered Greek poet Andreas Karavis, with an interview, a photograph, and an essay by David Solway. In the piece, Solway claimed that he had hunted the reclusive fisherman-poet for years until he had finally met him in 1991, and that he had begun to translate his poems in 1993.
Solway claimed that Karavis had been born in 1932 in
Chania
Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion.
The mun ...
,
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...
, and that he lived on the
Dodecanese
The Dodecanese (, ; el, Δωδεκάνησα, ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Turkey's Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited ...
island
An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...
of
Lipsi
Leipsoi ( el, Λειψοί, also: ''Lipsi''; anciently, Lepsia, grc, Λέψια) is an island south of Samos and to the north of Leros in Greece. It is well serviced with ferries passing between Patmos and Leros and on the main route for ferries ...
. After Karavis's education on
Serifos
Serifos ( el, Σέριφος, la, Seriphus, also Seriphos; Seriphos: Eth. Seriphios: Serpho) is a Greek island municipality in the Aegean Sea, located in the western Cyclades, south of Kythnos and northwest of Sifnos. It is part of the Milos ...
, disrupted by
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
and the
civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...
, he became a
fisherman
A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish.
Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recre ...
and settled on
Amorgos
Amorgos ( el, Αμοργός, ; ) is the easternmost island of the Cyclades island group and the nearest island to the neighboring Dodecanese island group in Greece. Along with 16 neighboring islets, the largest of which (by land area) is Nik ...
, selling his books of poetry in local harbors. Amongst his supposed collections was ''White Poems'' (1965). After having laboured in obscurity for the greater part of his life, he had become one of the country's most acclaimed and admired writers with the 1989 publication of ''The Dream Masters''.
In reality, Karavis was the creation of Solway. However, other people joined the joke. In the next issue there was a letter from a self-declared expert on Greek poetry, "Fred Reed". He did not dispute Karavis' existence, but claimed that Karavis was in fact a
smuggler
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are variou ...
, not a fisherman, and that the first poems were nothing else than pirated translations from a group of expatriate Canadians.
Later, press attaché Yiorgos Chouliaris of the Greek embassy wrote to Solway to congratulate him for "imaginative effort". Solway convinced him to join the hoax.
The fame of Karavis spread. There were reports of international conferences about his poetry in
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...
and
Coimbra
Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of .
The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...
. Solway met a writer who claimed that he had admired Karavis for many years, and someone who said that Karavis was more worthy of the
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...
than more famous Greek poets. He even received two postcards signed with Karavis's name.
In 2000, Chouliaris was one of the hosts at the launch of a translation of Karavis's poems, ''Saracen Island: The Poetry of Andreas Karavis''. Although Solway claimed to be the translator, the work was entirely his creation. A man who claimed to be Karavis appeared, wearing a fisherman's cap and speaking something that at least sounded like Greek.
Soon afterward Matthew Hayes, a columnist of '' The Globe and Mail'' in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...
, wrote an article entitled ''Karavis: Greek god of poetry or literary hoax?''. In a 2001 issue of ''Lingua Franca'' magazine, Solway finally confessed in public that he had invented the poet, and that the man who had appeared at the book launch, purporting to be Karavis, was actually Solway's
dentist
A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofacial co ...
.
Solway has said that he had created Karavis as an "
alter ego
An alter ego (Latin for "other I", "doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a differe ...
and heteronym" to gain new inspiration for his poetry.
Bibliography
* ''Saracen Island: The Poetry of Andreas Karavis'' (2000)
* ''An Andreas Karavis Companion'' (2000)