Koraly Dimitriadis’ second poetry book, Just Give Me The Pills, has won best book of narrative poetry at the 21st annual Best Book Awards as part of American Book Fest in Los Angeles, one of the world’s largest international book award prizes for mainstream indie and self-published titles which received thousands of entries.
The self-published poet, who started her own publishing company, Outside The Box Press, secured national distribution with Woodslane distributors over a decade ago when her first poetry book, Love and Fck Poems, became a bestselling poetry book in Readings books and other bookshops.
Dimitriadis, who recently launched her debut short story collection, The Mother Must Die, with Puncher and Wattmann in Melbourne at the Greek Community and in Sydney at the University of Sydney’s Chau Chak museum, said she found out about the award just as she was about to get on the plane to Bali to perform at the Ubud Writers Festival in Bali.
“I was really shocked to win,” Dimitraidis said. “I know it’s not like the Miles Franklin award, but it’s just nice when your poetry is recognised by the industry.”
Just Give Me The Pills is a story told through poetry of an unhappily married Greek woman finding the courage to leave her marriage in the face of cultural pressures to stay. It depicts her journey or having no idea who she is to claiming her feminist voice.
“Many people who have followed my journey know I married young and how much I struggled to leave my marriage. Writing the poetry was how I liberated myself, how I found the strength to leave and survive and thrive. I wanted Just Give Me The Pills to be the book I never had. I thought there was something wrong with me, that I wasn’t normal for wanting to leave. I want to help other women with my book, for them to know that it’s okay to leave if you want to,” she said.
Just Give Me The Pills includes Koraly’s poem “Yiayia mou” (My grandmother), which she turned into a film which was an official selection for the Multicultural Film Festival and is currently streaming on SBS on-demand for Australian viewers. It was also selected for various other festivals including the Cyprus International Film Festival – Golden Aphrodite CYIFF 2024 and WRPN Women’s International Film Festival in the USA.
