For the closing of the 2025 season, the American artist Michael McGregor joined us in the Museum. He was signing copies of his newest book - Hydra Memories, published this year by Hyper Hypo, Athens.

The poet Omar Mooro joined us in the bookstore to read from (and sign) copies of his newest book of poetic essays, Eureka!. Eureka! is the first set of these essays from “The Book and the Drum” - a series of loose acoustic sketches reflecting current crises into a philosophical and often mystical context. The artist Salma Barakat illustrated the book, and was present with her beloved textiles and prints.

We had the honor to welcome Antonis Mylonakis to the Book Club this Friday for a special reading. Antonis will present his newest book, Nine. The musical artist Thodoris Voutsikakis will read from the text.

Nine is a collection of stories that move along the edges of reality and imagination, circling around the deepest questions of human existence. Within its pages we encounter a boy pushed into violent adulthood, a mother who turns her pain into an act of vengeance, a musician who dares to organize a concert for the dead, and a stranger at a funeral who seems to know everyone’s secrets. A miracle demands to be tested, a woman reinvents herself digitally for love, an entire city of the homeless survives in yellow tents, and at the end a cat tells of its unlikely friendship with a dog—an epilogue of tenderness after darkness.

Antonis Mylonakis is the author of novels, short stories, poetry, and children’s books. His debut novel, The Mirror and the Prophecy of Greynorth (2016), won an award the following year, while Hippocampus (Kastaniotis, 2023) was widely praised and shortlisted for the “New Author” Prize of Klepsydra magazine. He also writes the Lily and Alex series for younger readers.

His latest book, Nine (Kastaniotis, 2023), is a bold collection of short stories—praised by critics for its originality and emotional depth.

On the occasion of the release of Sewer Lock, the first in a new series of daring new writing published by the Hydra Book Club, we welcomed the poet Peter Thickett to read and present the work.

We met Peter here on Hydra while he was on an Arts Council grant and writing the origin of what would become Sewer Lock. Friendship remains an anchor for the writers living and working here today, just as it was for those who first came nearly 100 years ago. It is a great pleasure to publish Peter’s work as the first in this new series.

Artworks by Grzegorz Polański enter the text as punctuation, creating visual space to further express Peter’s poetic intention. The book’s design by Anna Piwowar also reflects Peter’s text with an arresting, acidic cover and contrasting sleeve.

Hydra Book Club Editions is the result of our deepening commitment to supporting and preserving the literary culture of the Island.

For the opening of the 2025 Hydra Book Club, we hosted an evening of performance and music at the Historical Archives Museum of Hydra - our home for the past 5 years.

We were very honored to present a performative reading by the acclaimed writer, and Journal contributor, Amanda Michalopoulou and the curator and performer Klara Tsoumpleka. The singer, poet, composer Aistis joined the stage and shared a heartbreaking series of his poetic compositions.

In the bookstore we revealed the thematic curation, SUBLIME.

We celebrated the launch of Vol.3 of the Journal of the Hydra Book Club in Athens at Hyper Hypo. The evening featured performance readings by our friends and Journal contributors Nikos Erinakis, Melia Kreiling, and Amanda Michalopoulou.