Welcome
CHARMIAN CLIFT’S KALYMNOS: A Workshop for Readers and Writers is underway!!
Read the journal passages produced by Clifties taking part in the 2026 workshop in the The Kalymnos Workshop Journal.
Held on the island 03-12 June 2026, this ten-day workshop is operated by Limelight Arts Travel and led by Clift’s biographer, Nadia Wheatley. You can find the itinerary at: https://www.limelight-arts-travel.com.au/charmian-clifts-kalymnos-june-2026
A small group of ‘Clifties’ is exploring the island where Charmian Clift and her family made their first home in Greece, and where Clift found her unique literary voice, expressed in her timeless travel memoir Mermaid Singing. Kalymnos also provided the author with the setting for her novel Honour’s Mimic!
As we discover the island and its unique culture of matriarchs and sponge-divers, participants are also discovering their own writing voice through on-site journaling and in twice-daily workshop sessions and individual mentoring sessions with Nadia..
THE KALYMNOS WORKSHOP JOURNAL
Read the journal passages produced by Clifties on Kalymnos in 2025 and 2026 in the The Kalymnos Workshop Journal.
MEDIA
In this article in the Greek-Australian newspaper, Neos Kosmos describes the Gleebooks launch (24 August 2025) of Honour’s Mimic, by Nadia Wheatley and Helen Vatsikopolous. (See photo at right.) Here is the link: https://neoskosmos.com/en/2025/08/25/life/books/honours-mimic-charmian-clifts-novel-set-in-greece-celebrated-60-years-on-from-release/
In this Substack, Charmian Clift’s translators discuss the joys and challenges of translating Mermaid Singing and Peel me a Lotus into Greek and Spanish.
https://nadiawheatley.substack.com/p/the-joys-and-challenges-of-literary
On 1 June 2024 there was a terrific piece in the SMH about the documentary Life Burns High, including an interview with film-maker Rachel Lane. https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/charmian-clift-radicalising-force-for-feminism-finally-gets-to-shine-20240529-p5jhlp.html
A recent radio interview celebrating Clift and her essay collection, Sneaky Little Revolutions:
And here is a wonderful review of the Spanish translation of Peel me a Lotus. The Clifties are growing in number, across the world!
Send an email if you would like to add something to the Readers Comments’ page. This might be your response as a reader, either to Clift’s life and work in general, or to a particular book, essay or idea. (200 words maximum.)
Photo top: Clift at work in Greece, c. 1956.
Photo below: Clifties on Kalymnos, April 2025
Photo below: Clift on Kalymnos, 1955: ‘looking for a mermaid’.
Photo below: Helen Vatsikopoulos and nadia Wheatey at launch of NewSouth edition Honour’s Mimic 2025.
Bottom: The yellow house’ on Kalymnos where Charmian Clift wrote Mermaid Singing in 1955.(Photo 2022.)
