Kiki Dimoula Biography

Greek poet (1931–2020)

Vasiliki “Kiki” Dimoula (née Radou; Greek: 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 English, French, German, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Italian and many other languages.In 2014, the eleventh issue of Tinpahar 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 for 2009. Since 2002, Dimoula was a member of the Academy of Athens.

Life

Dimoula worked as a clerk for the Bank of Greece. She was married to the poet Athos Dimoulas (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 (Gl*-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 Translation Archived 2015-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
• Her entry for the 2001 Frankfurt Book Fair (Greek)
• Her page at the website of the Hellenic Authors' Society (Greek) and English.
• Sound files of her reading her poetry at the Center for Neo-Hellenic Studies
• The website of her publishers
• European Prize for Literature Archived 2014-11-27 at the Wayback Machine