Vasiliki “Kiki” Dimoula (née Radou; el, Κική Δημουλά; 6 June 1931 – 22 February 2020) was a Greek poet. She was the first female poet ever to be included in the prestigious French publisher Gallimard’s poetry series.

Work

Dimoula's work is haunted by the existential dissolution of the post-war era. Her central themes are hopelessness, insecurity, absence and oblivion. Using diverse subjects (from a "Marlboro boy" to mobile phones) and twisting grammar in unconventional ways, she accentuated the power of the words through astonishment and surprise, but always managed to retain a sense of hope. Her poetry has been translated into

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, Spanish, Italian and many other languages. In 2014, the eleventh issue of

Tinpahar ''Tinpahar'' is a bimonthly, bilingual (English and Bengali) Indian online magazine that promotes art, literature, and culture with the motto, "Free and Fertile". History The magazine was established by Arkajit Mandal and Siddharth Sivakumar. ...

published 'Kiki Dimoula in Translation', which featured three English translations of her better known works.

Recognition

Dimoula was awarded the Greek State Prize twice (1971, 1988), as well as the Kostas and Eleni Ouranis Prize (1994) and the ''Αριστείο Γραμμάτων'' of the Academy of Athens (2001). She was awarded the

European Prize for Literature European Prize for Literature (Prix Européen de Littérature) is a European-wide literary award sponsored by the city of Strasbourg with support from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (France).Academy of Athens.

Life

Dimoula worked as a clerk for the

Bank of Greece The Bank of Greece ( el, Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος , ΤτΕ) is the central bank of Greece. Its headquarters is located in Athens on Panepistimiou Street, but it also has several branches across the country. It was founded in 192 ...

. She was married to the poet

Athos Dimoulas Athos Dimoulas ( el, Άθως Δημουλάς) (Athens, Greece, 1921–1985) was a Greek poet. He studied civil engineering at the National Technical University of Athens and abroad (in Belgium, England and France), and worked for the Hellenic S ...

(1921–1985), with whom she had two children.

Works

*''Ποιήματα'' (Poems), 1952 *''Έρεβος'' (Erebus), 1956 *''Ερήμην'' (In absentia), 1958 *''Επί τα ίχνη'' (On the trail), 1963 *''Το λίγο του κόσμου'' (The Little of the World),1971 *''Το Τελευταίο Σώμα μου'' (My last body), 1981 *''Χαίρε ποτέ'' (Farewell Never),1988 *''Η εφηβεία της Λήθης'' (Lethe's Adolescence), 1996 *''Eνός λεπτού μαζί'' (One Minute's Together), 1998 *''Ήχος απομακρύνσεων'' (Departure's Sound), 2001 *''Χλόη θερμοκηπίου'' (Glass-house lawn), 2005 *''Μεταφερθήκαμε παραπλεύρως'' (We moved next door), 2007 *''Συνάντηση'' (Meeting), 2007 (Anthology with seventy-three paintings by John Psychopedis) *''Έρανος Σκεψεων'', 2009 *''Τα εύρετρα'', 2010 *''Δημόσιος Καιρός'', 2014

Notes

External links

Kiki Dimoula in TranslationHer page at the website of the Hellenic Authors' Society (Greek)
an
English

Sound files of her reading her poetry at the Center for Neo-Hellenic StudiesThe website of her publishersEuropean Prize for Literature
1931 births 2020 deaths Greek women poets Modern Greek poets 20th-century Greek poets 20th-century Greek women writers Members of the Academy of Athens (modern) 21st-century Greek poets 21st-century Greek women writers {{Greece-poet-stub