Ntinos CHristianopoulos

Dinos Christianopoulos (the pen name of Konstantinos Dimitriadis) was born in Thessaloniki on March 20, 1931. He studied at the Department of Philology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and worked as a librarian at the city's Municipal Library from 1958 to 1965. In 1958, he founded and directed the magazine "Diagonal," which was published until 1983 with brief interruptions. In 1962, he established "Diagonal Publications," and from 1965, he worked as a proofreader and editor. In 1974, he founded the Small Gallery of Diagonal, which operated until 1995, aiming to promote new artists from Thessaloniki, with close collaborators Karolos Tsizik and Nikos Nikolaidis. His literary debut was in 1949 with the publication of the poem "Biography" in the Thessaloniki magazine "Morfes." The following year, his first poetry collection titled "Era of Lean Cows" was released. Dinos Christianopoulos is considered one of the most important poets of the group known as the "Diagonal Circle," which was associated with the magazine he founded (poets Nikos-Alexis Aslanoglou, Vasilis Karavitis, Tasos Korfis, prose writers Nikos Kahtitsis, Tolis Kazantzis, Giorgos Ioannou, Periklis Sfyridis, critics Ilias Petropoulos, X.A. Kokolis, among others). His poetry is characterized by influences from the work of Konstantinos Kavafis, with themes of erotic desire and its unfulfilled aspect, erotic rejection or annihilation, Christian humility, as well as the political dimension of love and social critique. He published poetry collections such as "Era of Lean Cows" (1950), "Foreign Knees" (1957), "Defenseless Sorrow" (1970), "The Cross-eyed" (1970, a collected edition of four collections titled "Poems," Diagonal 1986, third edition 1998; Ianos 2004; ninth edition 2018), "The Body and the Worm" (1998, expanded edition with the new title "Small Poems," Ianos 2004; eighth edition 2016), "Dead Market" (1999), "The Deepest Wound" (1999), "Strange, How It Finds Courage and Blooms" (2010), and a collected edition of the collections titled "Prose Poems" (Ianos 2004; 2010; sixth edition 2016). He also published short stories ("The Downward Path", Diagonios 1963, 1991; Janos 2004; 2016), short prose ("The Rebetes of the World", Diagonios 1986; Janos 2004; 2016), translations of ancient lyrical works (Diagonios 1966, 1989; Bilieto 1993, 2005, later as "Entefktirio I", Janos 2007), works of foreign authors ("Entefktirio", Diagonios 1989, later as "Entefktirio II", Janos 2007), the Gospel of Matthew ("The Holy and Sacred Gospel According to Matthew", To Rodakio, 1997, Janos 2012), lyrics and song recordings ("Dinos Christianopoulos Sings His Songs", 1982, "Vardari and Egnatia", 1990, "The Eternal Complaint", 1994, "With Art and Passion", 1998, "The Songs of Dinos Christianopoulos" - re-release of the two cycles, Janos 2012), studies ("Filling in the Gaps", 1988; "Introduction to Rebetiko", 1991; "Vassilis Tsitsanis and His Early Songs 1932-1946", Diagonios, 1994; "Rebetiko and Thessaloniki", Entefktirio, 1999; "The Old Bookstores of Thessaloniki", Raya, 1999; "Literature in Thessaloniki 1850-1950: A Brief Outline", Raya, 1999; "The Greek Printing Houses of Thessaloniki During the Ottoman Rule 1850-1912", Raya, 2000; "Studies on Solomos", Raya, 2001; "Poetry in Thessaloniki During the Last Years of the Ottoman Rule", Raya, 2003; "Pavlos Melas in Poems by Macedonian Poets", Kyromanos, 2004; etc.), essays ("Essays", Bilieto 1999; "Against", Agra, 1986; Diagonios, 1993; Janos 2012, etc.), book reviews ("Warehouse A", 1978), bibliographic works ("Literary Publications of Thessaloniki 1850-1950", 1980, Diagonios 1997; "Literary Magazines of Thessaloniki 1889-1945", Thessaloniki Municipal Library 1996; "Literary Publications of Macedonian Cities Except Thessaloniki 1879-1950", INVA 1998; etc.), anthologies ("Army Verses", Bilieto 2004), interviews, autobiographical texts. In 2011, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In the same year, he was honored with the Grand State Prize for Literature for his entire body of work, which he declined to accept, consistent with his belief that a spiritual creator should remain distant from awards. He passed away in Thessaloniki on August 11, 2020, at the age of 89. He was buried at the expense of the Municipality of Thessaloniki at the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos (Forty Churches) and interred at the Resurrection Cemetery in Thermi. For more biographical details on Dinos Christianopoulos, see Alexis Ziras, "Christianopoulos Dinos", in "World Biographical Dictionary", vol. 9b, Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon, 1988, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, "Christianopoulos Dinos", in "Dictionary of Modern Greek Literature", Athens: Patakis, 2007, pp. 2381-2; his participation in ERT's television programs "Monogramma" (1991), "Night Visitor" (1996), and "To the Extreme" (2011); as well as the autobiographical texts "Behind Hagia Sophia" (Janos, 1997), "Thessaloniki, Where I Was Destined" (Janos 1999), and "Me, a Soldier in Khaki..." (Bilieto, 2003).