Drawing from his decades of experience creating some of the most iconic fragrances in the beauty industry, Mormoris authors over 50 poems in his first book.

The Oculus by Stelios Mormoris, a passion turned hobby, is now a debut collection of modern poetry from this beauty industry veteran, currently CEO of Scent Beauty, Inc.

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During his storied career, Mormoris has worked with celebrities including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, David Beckham, Kylie Minogue, Renée Fleming, Kate Moss, and Halle Berry—helping them find the notes to create fragrances that best express their unique personas. He now uses his olfactory gifts for creating award-winning fragrances to write in this new and highly acclaimed book of poems. The Oculus has received stellar reviews in literary and public circles alike. “As the title suggests, Stelios Mormoris’ The Oculus offers the reader a lush and vibrant view of the world,” says acclaimed poet Emma Bolden.

Informed by his experience as a child of Greek immigrants in New York, to pursuing a successful career in the beauty industry in Paris, with annual pilgrimages to his home island, Kythera, in Greece, Stelios’ poetry is an amalgam of these influences. His interest in sports, business, design, architecture, and writing found parallel paths, and Stelios attributes the style of his poetry to these multiple universes.

“The poems in Mormoris’ debut collection scintillate with light thrown out from the streets of Paris, the Aegean, Christmas comforting a boy at night. Through the “I” of the poet–the oculus–the past weaves through the eye of the present. These are exquisite poems, dense and light at the same, like mercury, infused with sharply observed places and studded with wit,” says renowned biographer and poet Nancy Schoenberger.

“I’ve lived my life finding beauty in small moments of family life, love life, and friendship, as well as in the physical beauty of the human form, and grand architecture. At Princeton, I studied with Maxine Kumin and William Meredith, who inspired me to develop a love for verse, and the beauty in the rich and mysterious poetic forms of the English language,” says Stelios.

“Throughout my intense career in business, poetry was my rudder and sail, and I stayed the course.”

Each in its own way, the neo-classic, aesthetic, and sonorous poems in The Oculus reveal the man behind some of the most iconic brands in the beauty industry. "How necessary it is/ to lose yourself/ in tangles....", excerpt from the poem "Kaiki Beach" in The Oculus.

The Oculus is available on Amazon [https://oculus.stelios-mormoris.com/amazon/Press] and in select bookstores including THE STRAND, New York City, NY; CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE, San Francisco, CA.; PARNASSUS BOOKS, Nashville, TN; EAST END BOOKS, Boston and Provincetown, MA; BUNCH OF GRAPES, Vineyard Haven, MA.

“Sun-dappled, yet clear-eyed, foliate yet spare, pensive yet erotic, Stelios Mormoris’s The Oculus binds together tense oppositions to create poems of nearly muscular power. They fill themselves with the vitality of a life lived fully, brimming with experience and rife with memory.” —Dan Beachy-Quick

“The poems in Mormoris’ The Oculus brim with evocative, wonderfully euphonious depth, that resonate long after their reading.” —Courtney Love Cobain

“Ever a colorful and compelling storyteller, Stelios Mormoris now reveals his world and beyond through poetry. The Oculus is a beautiful collection, and how lovely it is to discover more layers of Stelios.” —Kylie Minogue

“Fragrance guru and consummate executive Stelios Mormoris applies his powerful sensory gifts to his evocative, candid and intimate poetry. He epitomizes the creative imagination at work.” —Renee Fleming

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