Welcome
BOOK NOW FOR CHARMIAN CLIFT’S KALYMNOS: A Workshop for Readers and Writers.
To be held on the island 03-12 June 2026.
Bookings are open for this ten-day workshop, operated by Limelight Arts Travel and led by Clift’s biographer, Nadia Wheatley. You can find the itinerary and booking information at: https://www.limelight-arts-travel.com.au/charmian-clifts-kalymnos-june-2026
Join a small group of like-minded ‘Clifties’ on 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 you discover the island and its unique culture of matriarchs and sponge-divers, you will also discover your own writing voice through on-site journaling and in twice-daily workshop sessions that will enable you to produce short passages of creative writing that express what you have seen and experienced on the island.
There is no need to have published anything previously in order to take part.
For information or to secure your place on the tour, email info@limelight-arts-travel.com.au
HONOUR’S MIMIC is headlining the 2026 GREEK AUSTRALIAN WRITERS’ FESTIVAL on 19 April.
Where: Prince Henry Centre, Little Bay, Sydney.
When: 10.00 am to 11.00 am,
What: Festival Director Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos and Nadia Wheatley will be In Conversation about Honour’s Mimic, Clift’s novel that is set on the sponge-diving island of Kalymnos.
Program and booking:
https://greekfestivalofsydney.com.au/program/event/greek-australian-writers-festival-3
THE KALYMNOS WORKSHOP JOURNAL
In one of the photos on this page you can see some of the group gathered for a workshop on the terrace at the Villa Melina, in the main town of Kalymnos.
MEDIA
This article in the Greek- Australian newspaper Neos Kosmos descrives the Gleebooks launch (24 August 2025) of Honour’s Mimic and of the 2026 Kalymnos Workshop program. (See photo at right, Helen Vatsikopoolos and Nadia Wheatley.)
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/ 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.
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.)
