Nikos Fokas

Nikos Fokas was born in Kefalonia in 1927 and spent his childhood in Athens. He studied philology and history-archaeology at the University of Athens. Throughout his life, he pursued various professions. From 1962 to 1972, he served in the Greek Service of the BBC in London. Between 1972 and 1974, he worked as a freelance journalist in the English capital. Upon returning to Greece in 1974, he worked in secondary education and radio until 1982. That year, he traveled to the United States as a guest of the International Writing Program. Upon his return, he dedicated himself to writing and translating literature, as well as teaching creative writing. He made his literary debut in 1954 with the poetry collection "Hunts from Contemporary Events." This was followed by collections such as "Twice the Dream" in 1957, "Sole Witness" in 1961, "Projection on Blue" in 1972, "Condolences to a Bee" in 1976, "The Myth of the Perpendicular" in 1981, "Spotlight in the Eyes" in 1985, "Warm Gray Color" in 1989, "A Point of Focus" in 1993, "Little Shells" in 1995, "On the Kolyma River" in 1997, and "The Measure of Our Cry" in 2000. He also published the narrative poem "Orgy or A Wink" in 1991 and the prose work "The Fox's Call (a fairy tale)" in 1991. In 2002, the collected volume "Poetry Collections 1954-2000" (published by "Ypsilon") was released. He also published essays on modern Greek literature and translated works by authors such as Prosper Mérimée, Kay Cicellis, Janusz Głowacki, Thomas De Quincey, Charles Baudelaire, John Meyendorff, Thomas Hardy, Kostas Axelos, Jonathan Kariara, Amalia Fleming, Robert Frost, Selma Lagerlöf, among others. He participated in various Greek and international symposia and seminars on literature. In 2005, he was honored with the Grand State Prize for Literature for his entire body of work. (photo: Kostas Mitropoulos)