Path of Thorns is a very powerful collection, addressing universal themes – childhood, love, exile, endurance, death – but grounded in Manolis' experience of civil war in Greece, and migration to Canada. He also explores the paradoxes underlying contemporary global suffering, epitomised in the floods of New Orleans. Yet the final sequence is a mythic celebration of our potential for self-transformation and creativity. In his intense lyricism Manolis pays homage to the Hellenic poetic tradition embodied in writers like Kazantzakis and Elytis, while reminding us of a common humanity that transcends cultures. These poems will resonate with many readers, at many levels.

Manolis (Emmanuel Aligizakis) was born in the small village Kolibari west of Chania on the Greek island of Crete in 1947. At a young age his family moved first to Thessaloniki and then to Athens where he was educated, achieving a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Sciences at the Panteion University of Athens. He served in the armed forces for two years, and emigrated to Vancouver in 1973, where he worked in several different jobs over the years. He attended Simon Fraser University for a year, taking English Literature in a non-degree program. He has written three novels and a large number of collections of poetry, which are slowly appearing as published works. Various articles, poems and short stories in Greek as well as in English have appeared in various magazines and newspapers in Canada, United States, Australia and Greece. After working as an iron worker, train labourer, taxi driver and stock broker, he now lives in White Rock where he spends his time writing, gardening and traveling. In 2006 he founded Libros Libertad, an unorthodox and independent publishing company in Surrey, BC with the goal of publishing literary books.

Manolis Aligizakis' profile page

I think Manolis is the best émigré Greek writer in Canada and I welcome his return to publishing.

J. Michael Yates