Collection Subject Type

Literary

Scope and Content 

This collection mostly contains typescripts and books by Vasso Kalamaras, as well as newspaper clippings on her work, reviews and papers

Date Range of Content 

1970-1990

Biographical Note

After completing her high school studies in Athens, Vasso Kalamaras studied painting during 1949 at The School of Fine Arts of the National Metsovion Polytechnic school. She published in Greek before arriving in Australia and continued to publish the Greek literature of Australia overseas during the 1950s in the London periodical Krikos for example. As well as grants to assist her in writing and translating, Kalamaras has received grants to assist in the staging of several of her plays. Settling in Australia, Kalamaras lived on a tobacco farm in Manjimup, Western Australia for many years, before establishing herself in Perth.

Kalamaras studied drama at the National Theatre in Athens during 1960 and 1961, she gained a Graduate Diploma in Education from Curtin University of Technology, a Diploma of Fine Arts from Claremont Technical College, Perth, and an Associateship in Fine Arts from the Western Australia Institute of Technology. For 20 years she was a lecturer in Modern Greek at Perth College of Technical and Further Education (TAFE).

Kalamaras won the Tsakalos Literature Prize for prose (Athens) in 1978 for her travel journal Impressions of a Journey. She has also won a number of prizes in literary competitions organised by Greek community associations in Australia, notably the Hellenism Award in 1992. Kalamaras has been a member of the National Institute of Greek Writers in Athens, the Australian Society of Authors, The Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW), the Poets' Union, The Society of Women Writers (Australia), other writers' associations and a founding member - together with Dame Mary Durack - of International PEN in Perth. She has participated in numerous literary conferences, both in Australia and in Greece.

Kalamaras has had her own programme, 'The Hellenism', with the Hellenic Radio Service, a Greek and English show informing listeners about Greek writers, their works and attributes. Her work is represented in the World Anthology of Short Stories and The World Anthology of Poetry, both published in Athens and many anthologies published in Australia and overseas.

References:

Author record, Vasso Kalamaras, AustLit (www.austlit.edu.au), St Lucia: The University of Queensland, 2002-. [Retrieved 8/11/2018].

Administrative Information

Access and Copying Conditions

Access: Open Access

This collection contains a variety of copyright material. Copyright is held by the creator of each item. Specific conditions for this collection are listed below. If no conditions are stipulated then the standard terms of the Copyright Act apply for published and unpublished items. Digitised material from manuscript collections is provided to clients by UNSW Canberra in good faith for private study and research only, and may not be published or re-purposed without the express and written permission of the individual legal holder of that copyright. Refer also to the UNSW copyright, disclaimer and takedown policy. 

Copying: Check with Curator

Preferred Citation

Papers of Vasso Kalamaras, Academy Library, UNSW Canberra, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, MSS 214, Box [Number], Folder [Number].

Provenance 

The collection was acquired in 1988, 1989 and 1997

Subject Keywords

Subjects

Australian literature, Australian writers, 20th century literature, plays, playwrights, poetry, poets

Personal Names

Vasso Kalamaras

Occupations 

Playwright, writer

Container List 

Box 1 

Typescripts, books, newspaper clippings, reviews, papers

Folder 1 

Typescript of Karagiozis the interpreter

Folder 2 

Annotated typescript of Impressions of a journey

Folder 3

Typescript of Karaghiozis the Rich Man. 5 January 1987

Typescript of Karagiozis Milkbarist. 16 March 1987

Photocopy of list of cast, etc. of Karagiozis Strikes It Rich

Photocopy of review ‘Exiles in Residence’ - The Herald, Melbourne, Friday, 22 July, 1988 (Kathy Kizilos)

Photocopy of Spoleto Melbourne Writers’ Festival - 1988 programme

Folder 4

1 signed copy of Bitterness (1983)

2 signed copies of Twenty Two Poems (1977)

2 signed copies of Genesis: Thirty-three Australian Poems [1993]

1 signed copy of Landscape and soul: Greek-Australian poems (1980)

1 signed copy of The Bread Trap (1986)

Folder 5

1 copy of People like cement

Typescript of The Bread Trap

Photocopies of newspaper clippings

•  ‘Women in the multicultur’[…]: Vasso Kalamaras. Macwa6news
•  ‘Memories’and ‘Windows’. WA Chinese Periodical, 1995 (in Chinese)
•   ‘Multicultural Writers Group’
•  ‘Home’ and ‘The Truth’
•  ‘Writers delight in diversity’. Subiaco Post, February 1-2, 1997

Photocopy of a Certificate of Merit, 15^th December 1996

Review of People like cement, by Helen Nickas (La Trobe University)

Invitation to a reading of The Bread Trap by Vasso Kalamaras