Like the song, Autumn Leaves is about longing and desire: the passing seasons, as summer turns into winter, permeate these lyrics with a finely tuned eloquence. Vibrant and radiant, the poems are inspired by a powerful and subtle music, becoming deeply embedded beneath the skin. Manolis, a prolific poet, possesses a distinctly Mediterranean flavour, as would a poet schooled on Cavafy or Elytis: aromatic, tangy, like freshness of an olive grove in the morning. The poems revel in the vitality of the sensuous motion of language on a sea of thought. In the fervid expression of Autumn Leaves Manolis forges a cogent alloy of mind and heart, flesh and spirit. Originally written in Greek, Autumn Leaves is presented in an elegant en face edition.

Manolis (Emmanuel Aligizakis) is a Greek-Canadian poet and author. He was recently appointed an honorary instructor and fellow of the International Arts Academy, and awarded a Master’s for the Arts in Literature. He is recognized for his ability to convey images and thoughts in a rich and evocative way that tugs at something deep within the reader. Born in the village of Kolibari on the island of Crete in 1947, he moved with his family at a young age to Thessaloniki and then to Athens, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Sciences from the Panteion University of Athens. After graduation, he served in the armed forces for two years and emigrated to Vancouver in 1973, where he worked as an iron worker, train labourer, taxi driver, and stock broker, and studied English Literature at Simon Fraser University. He has written three novels and numerous collections of poetry, which are steadily being released as published works. His articles, poems and short stories in both Greek and English have appeared in various magazines and newspapers in Canada, United States, Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Australia, and Greece. His poetry has been translated into Spanish, Romanian, Swedish, German, Hungarian languages and has been published in book form or in magazines in various countries. He now lives in White Rock, where he spends his time writing, gardening, traveling, and heading Libros Libertad, an unorthodox and independent publishing company which he founded in 2006 with the mission of publishing literary books. His translation George Seferis: Collected Poems was shortlisted for the Greek National Literary Awards, the highest literary recognition of Greece.