Delving into Manolis' Rendition takes one on an emotional adventure of heartache and joy guided by the steadying hand of Nature, herself. The images are raw and infused with the blackest of humanity's pain juxtaposed by the brightest joy of life. The images are vivid and startling, speaking to one's very soul. Raw sexuality is intermingled with the most tender of emotions: a true kaleidoscope of life moments woven together beautifully. The mystical and the mundane skip through the pages to rest in the fullness of being. Rendition is as vivid as a painting, brightness and darkness intermingled in a story that tells the very core of life experience itself.

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

Delving into Manolis' Rendition takes one on an emotional adventure of heartache and joy guided by the steadying hand of Nature, herself. The images are raw and infused with the blackest of humanity's pain juxtaposed by the brightest joy of life. The images are vivid and startling, speaking to one's very soul. Raw sexuality is intermingled with the most tender of emotions: a true kaleidoscope of life moments woven together beautifully. The mystical and the mundane skip through the pages to rest in the fullness of being. Rendition is as vivid as a painting, brightness and darkness intermingled in a story that tells the very core of life experience itself.

Cathi Shaw