Giannis Kalpouzos

Giannis Kalpouzos was born in 1960 in the village of Melates in Arta and has lived permanently in Athens since 1983. He made his debut in Greek literature in 2000 with the poetry collection "The Water of Dreams" and the novel "Drunken Road". This was followed by the short story collection "If Only I Could Touch Them", which was reissued in an expanded edition in 2017 under the new title: "Some Never Forget", as well as his poetry collections: "The Muttering of Dark Gods" and "Love Now and Forever". With the latter, he was shortlisted for the State Poetry Award, while the ballad "The Wolf" included in the short story collection was awarded at the International Poetry and Short Story Competition "Giorgos Seferis" of the University of Palermo, Italy. All his poetry collections, together with fifty unpublished poems, were published in a single volume in 2017 under the title "Poetry 2000-2017". He became widely known to the reading public with his novel "Imaret", which was honored with the Readers’ Award of the National Book Centre of Greece. "Imaret" has been translated into Polish, Turkish, Arabic, and English. "Imaret" is also available as a young adult novel in two volumes (for children over 10 years old), illustrated by set designer Antonis Chalkias. He has also written the novels: "Saos—Pantomime of Ghosts", "Saints and Demons—To the City", "Ouranopetra—Wherever I Step Is My Own Road", "Whatever I Love Is Yours", "Serra—The Soul of Pontus", which was translated into Albanian and was awarded the first Asia Minor-themed Novel Prize for the years 2016-2018, and "Ginati—The Sage of the Lake", which received the "Public Bookstores Award 2019". Giannis Kalpouzos has participated in collective works, adapted his novel "Serra—The Soul of Pontus" into a theatrical script, and has written the lyrics for 80 songs, including: "Whatever I Love Is Yours", "Ten Witches", "If Only You Were the Sea", "Because I Loved You So Much", and others. Currently, all his books are published by Psichogios Publications.