Kiki Dimoula

Kiki Dimoula was born on June 6, 1931, in Athens. She worked at the Bank of Greece for twenty-five years, from 1949 to 1974. She made her literary debut in 1952 with the poetry collection "Poems," which she later withdrew from circulation. In 1954, she married the poet Athos Dimoulas, and they had two children together. She published several poetry collections, including "Erebus" (1956), "Absent" (1958), "On the Tracks" (1963), "The Little of the World" (1971), "My Last Body" (1981), "Farewell Never" (1988), "The Adolescence of Forgetfulness" (1994), "One Minute Together" (1998), "Sound of Departures" (2001), "Greenhouse Chloe" (2005), "We Moved Next Door" (2007), "Meeting" (2007), "I Passed" (2010), and "The Finds" (2010). Her first seven collections are compiled in the edition "Poems" (1998, 6th edition 2005). Part of her work has been translated into French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish. Awards and Honors: - 1972: Second State Poetry Prize for the collection "The Little of the World." - 1989: First State Poetry Prize for the collection "Farewell Never." - 1995: Kostas and Eleni Ouranis Prize (Academy of Athens) for the collection "The Adolescence of Forgetfulness." - 2001: Academy of Athens Literary Award for her entire body of work. - 2002: Elected regular member of the Academy of Athens. - 2009: European Prize for Literature (Prix Européen de Littérature - Rencontres Européennes de Littérature, Strasbourg). - 2010: Grand State Literature Prize for her entire body of work. Upon her election to the Academy of Athens—the third woman in its history—the poet stated in an interview with Olga Bakomarou ("Eleftherotypia," 16.3.2002): "I applied, firstly, of course, for reasons that are not confessed. And then: perhaps to satisfy a delayed thirst for knowledge. Perhaps to find a more peaceful and therefore safer haven for the precarious and vulnerable type of speech I serve. Perhaps also in the hope that this type proves to be more broadly and steadily useful than it unstably serves me. Possibly, I also longed for discipline. I longed for the curtailment of free time, which at least for me offers quite a bit of disorder. [...]" She passed away on February 22, 2020, at the age of 89. (photo: Nikos Kokkalias)