The grand celebration of Crime Fiction commenced on Wednesday, May 3rd, at the Swedish Institute in Athens with a Creative Writing Workshop titled "Guessing the Guilty," while the presentation of the new book by the internationally translated author Petros Markaris marked the end of the events on Thursday, May 25th.
During the multi-day Festival, the audience attended and participated in various activities throughout the city, including book presentations, creative writing workshops, children's events, speeches, debates, tributes to acclaimed foreign authors, theatrical performances, film screenings, videos, documentaries, storytelling workshops, and interactive games. As part of the Festival, numerous beloved authors signed their books and engaged in discussions with their audience.
This year, for the first time, the Festival organized a series of parallel activities and events in a festive three-day period (May 19-20-21) at the Serafio of the Municipality of Athens. Three days and one venue filled with activities, events, meetings, as well as music, food, and drinks!
Among the participating authors, the presence of Chris Carter stood out as he was introduced for the first time to the Greek audience, along with Arne Dahl, one of the most popular authors in Greece, who attended the events at the Serafio.
Additionally, within the framework of the Festival, the theatrical play "Moonlight" was presented, directed by Dimitris Kouroumpalis and based on the homonymous novel by Georges Simenon, published by Agora Editions.
Among other events, author Arne Dahl shared the secrets of his writing in a Creative Writing Master Class (conducted in English) with the participants.
Simultaneously, a photography exhibition titled "CLEANSING" by the Photographic Group of Arta "FotoArt" was presented at the Serafio.
As Ioanna Petridou, the Festival's organizer, says, "the festival started in a café six years ago, when I discussed with Grigoris Azariadis about the reluctance of people to read Greek crime fiction. We began with a few book presentations and now, in 2023, the festival aims to emulate the organization of major European countries and create a grand celebration for crime fiction."
