Kyriakos CHaralampidis

Kyriakos Charalambides was born in Achna (1940) and grew up in Famagusta. He studied History and Archaeology at the University of Athens. He attended Theater courses in Athens and specialized in Radio Broadcasting in Munich. He worked as a philologist in Secondary Education and for three decades at the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, from which he retired as Director of Radio Broadcasting. He published the poetry collections: "First Source" (1961), "The Ignorance of Water," with a preface by T. K. Papatsonis (1967), "The Vessel with the Shapes" (Nicosia 1973), "Achaeans' Coast" (Nicosia 1977; Agra, 2003), "Famagusta, the Queen" (Hermes, 1982; Agra, 1997) - the last three collections were awarded the Cyprus State Prize for Poetry -, "Dome" (Hermes, 1989; Athens 1998, Academy of Athens Award), "Metahistory" (Agra, 1995, Greek State Prize for Poetry), "Dokimin" (Agra, 2000), "Achaeans' Coast" (2003), "Visit of the Seashore" (2003), "Quince Apple" (Agra, 2006), "Desire" (Metaichmio, 2012), "In the Language of Weaving" (Metaichmio, 2013). In 1997, he released (translation and introduction by himself) the book "Romanos the Melodist: Three Hymns" (Award of the Hellenic Society of Literary Translators). In 2009, two volumes of his essays, articles, and interviews were published by Agra, titled "Slippery Web" (essays, studies, articles, interviews), and in 2010, from Metaichmio in the series A City in Literature, the selection of texts he edited with Nicosia. In 1998, he was honored with the International Cavafy Prize in Egypt. In 2003, the Academy of Athens awarded him the Kostas and Eleni Ouranis Prize for his entire poetic work. In 2006, he received the Teucer Anthias - Thodosis Pierides Award for Cultural Contribution. In 2007, he was honored by the Republic of Cyprus with the Excellence in Letters, Arts, and Sciences Award. In 2013, he was declared an Honorary Doctor of the Department of Philology at the University of Athens and was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Athens in the field of Literature (Poetry) in the Class of Letters and Fine Arts. Translations of his work are available in standalone editions in English, French, German, Swedish, Bulgarian, and Albanian.