Nikos Katsalidas

Nikos Katsalidas was born in Ano Lesinitsa, in the Theologos region of Agioi Saranta, the son of folklorist Grigoris Katsalidas. He currently resides in Athens. He pursued higher philological studies in Tirana. Katsalidas is a poet, prose writer, translator, and essayist, with numerous honors and awards to his name. He is a member and honorary member of various literary associations and societies. He served as a philology professor in his hometown and, during the post-dictatorship years, as a literary editor for the press of the National Greek Minority. His representative poems are included in various global anthologies in English, French, German, Italian, and Bulgarian, while he himself translated forty Greek poets and prose writers into Albanian. He is one of the founders of the Democratic Union of the National Greek Minority "Omonia." From 2001 to 2002, he served as Minister of State (under the Prime Minister) for Human Rights in Albania. From 2004 to 2008, he was a diplomat, serving as Cultural Counselor at the Albanian Embassy in Athens. In 2001, he received the Balkan award "Aimos" in Sofia for his poetry collection "The Hundred Petals of Poulia." In 2002, he was awarded the "Silver Pen" by the Albanian Ministry of Culture for translating the poetry of Odysseas Elytis. Nikos Katsalidas is included in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Albanian Academy and the 2012 World Encyclopedia Who is Who among famous personalities. In 2012, he was decorated by the President of the Albanian Republic with the highest medal of the order of letters, "Great Artist." Nikos Katsalidas is a regular member of the Society of Authors.