Giannis Tzanis

Giannis Tzanis was born in 1943 in Gerakarou, Thessaloniki, to farmer parents who were refugees from Asia Minor. Since 1952, he has lived in Thessaloniki. He is married to philologist Maria Agorastou, and they have two children (Panagiota, Giorgos) and a granddaughter (Maria). He studied philology and holds a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Philosophy at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U.Th.). He has served as a school principal, Head of Secondary Education Directorate, Philology School Counselor, Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Regional Training Center (P.E.K.), Head of Scientific Pedagogical Guidance of Central Macedonia, and Deputy Regional Director of Education of Central Macedonia. He has taught at the Faculty of Philosophy at A.U.Th. and the University of Macedonia. He was a member of the Committee for the Evaluation of Secondary Education Textbooks, the School Counselors Selection Council of the Ministry of Education, and the Naming Committee of the Central Macedonia Region. He is a member of the State Literary Awards Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Sports (for the years 2012 and 2013), President of the Alumni Association of the Faculty of Philosophy A.U.Th. "Philologist," and Editor of the scientific journal "PHILOLOGIST" published by the association. He is Vice President of the Thessaloniki Writers' Society, General Secretary of the Southeast European Center for Culture and Books, a board member of the Friends of the Folklore and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia-Thrace, and a member of the Hellenic Historical Society, the Society for Byzantine Research, and the Editorial Board of the journal "Philologist." For ten years, he was responsible for a cultural television program (featuring books, authors, and artists). He has served on judging panels for several literary competitions and has presented the works of many authors through publications, presentations, lectures, and book reviews. He has participated in numerous conferences (scientific, pedagogical, and literary), seminars, and workshops as a member of the organizing committee, presenter, and delegate. He has published poems, short stories, novels, fairy tales, translations, anthologies, librettos for music, articles, reviews, columns, studies on literature and history, and historical maps. He has collaborated with various literary and philological journals and newspapers ("Philologist," "Philological," "Parafyada," "Hydria," "New Frontiers," "Northern Greece," "Phaethon," "Searches," "Trigonio," "Epirus Letters," "Student," "Foudulire," "Intervention," "New Thought," "Spiritual Life," "Evlogon," etc.), as well as with electronic journals, online media, and websites. Many of his presentations and scientific studies are included in Conference Proceedings, scientific Yearbooks, commemorative volumes, and journals. He has published 10 scientific books related to literature and history, 10 poetry collections, 6 prose books (short stories, novels, fairy tales), and 8 anthologies of student poetry. He has systematically studied poetry in Macedonia and Thrace during the ancient and Byzantine periods, and in 1997, two extensive books (each approximately 500 pages) on ancient and Byzantine epigrams in Macedonia and Thrace were published by the Cultural Capital Organization. In 2007, in collaboration with Petros Besparis, he published the extensive bibliographic work (712 pages) "The Literary Creation of Northern Greece (1875 - 2007)." An Attempt at Bibliographic Recording," a long-term study aimed at cataloging all individuals who have published literary books (approximately 2,300 entries with biographies, bibliographies, and references). His poems have been included in various anthologies and some have been translated into French, English, Serbian, Romanian, Albanian, and Italian. His maps, translations, and poems are featured in secondary education textbooks. Many of his poems have been set to music by composers such as Nikos Astrinidis, Lefteris Aeropoulos, Kampanis Samaras, and Dimitris Themelis, and are performed in concerts. He was honored with an award from the Academy of Athens in the Class of Letters and Arts in December 2010 for the book "The Literary Creation of Northern Greece 1875-2007: An Attempt at Bibliographic Recording" (co-authored with Besparis Petros), the Poetry Competition Award from the Faculty of Philosophy of A.U.Th. (1974), the First Alexandrian Poetry Competition Award (1975), the First Poetry Prize from the Hellenic Society of Christian Letters and the Lemos Foundation (1989), a Commendation from the Circle of Greek Children's Books (2004), the First Prize at the 2nd Thessaloniki Poetry Festival (2006), the Distinction from the Association of Publishers of Northern Greece for his overall intellectual contribution (1994), and the Distinction from the Municipality of Kalamaria (2001). In 2004, his novel "The Zealot of the Dream" was shortlisted (top 5 books of the year) for the awards of the magazine DIAVAZO. His work and contributions have received favorable reviews (through publications or letters) from some of the most important representatives of our letters and literature, and several honorary events have been organized by various institutions.