PANTELIS BOUKALAS

Pantelis Boukalas was born in Lessini, Missolonghi, in 1957. He graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Athens. Between 1987 and 1990 he was a book critic for the newspaper I Proti. From December 1990 and for the next twenty years he was editor of a weekly page on books for the daily newspaper Kathimerini, for which he also writes on a daily basis. He is a proofreader and editor of publications. He was a permanent contributor of the magazines O Politis and O Dekapenthimeros Politis. His articles and translations have also been published in the magazines I Lexi, To Dendro, Neo Epipedo, Technopaignio, Galera, Poetiki, The Books’ Journal, and in newspaper I Epochi. He has published the poetry books Αλγόρυθμος (Algorhythm), Η εκδρομή της ευδοκίας (The Excursion of Grace), Ο μέσα πάνθηρας (The Panther Inside), Σήματα λυγρά (Baneful Tokens), Ο μάντης (The Seer), Οπόταν πλάτανος (Whenever the Plane Tree), Ρήματα (Verbs, 2010 State Poetry Award) and Μηλιά μου αμίλητη (My Silent Apple Tree), as well as the play Το μάγουλο της Παναγίας: Αυτοβιογραφική εικασία του Γεωργίου Καραϊσκάκη (Virgin Mary’s Cheek: Autobiographic Assumption about Georgios Karaiskakis). He has also published a volume of book reviews titled Ενδεχομένως – Στάσεις στην ελληνική και ξένη τέχνη του λόγου (Perhaps – Milestones of the Greek and Foreign Art of Speech), two volumes titled Υποθέσεις (Hypotheses) –whose excerpts have also been published in Sunday edition of Kathimerini– and the first four volumes of the series Πιάνω γραφή να γράψω… Δοκίμια για το δημοτικό τραγούδι (Ready to write… Essays on Folk Songs): 1. Όταν το ρήμα γίνεται όνομα: Η αγαπώ και το σφρίγος της ποιητικής γλώσσας των δημοτικών (When Verbs Turn Into Names: “I Love”/Lover and the Vigour of Poetry in Folk Songs, 2017 State Essay Award); 2. Το αίμα της αγάπης: Ο πόθος και ο φόνος στη δημοτική ποίηση (The Blood of Love: Lust and Murder in Folk Poetry); 3. Κόκκιν’ αχείλι εφίλησα: Το ταξίδι του φιλιού και ο έρωτας σαν υπερβολή (I Kissed Red Lips: The Journey of Kiss and Love as an Exaggeration); 4. Ο Έρως και το Έθνος: Οι φυλές, οι θρησκείες και η δημοτική ποίηση της αγάπης. Α΄: Έλληνες, Βλάχοι, Μαύροι, Αρβανίτες, Τούρκοι (Love and Nation: Tribes, Religions and the Folk Poetry of Love. Part I: Greeks, Vlachs, Black, Arvanites, Turks). He has translated Bion the Smyrnean’s Epitaph of Adonis, the poems of the volume Επιτάφιος λόγος – Αρχαία ελληνικά επιτύμβια επιγράμματα (Epitaph – Ancient Greek Funerary Epigrams) and Συμποτικά επιγράμματα της Παλατινής Ανθολογίας (Symposiastic Epigrams of Anthologia Palatina). He has also translated into modern Greek The Acharnians (National Theatre, 2005), Agamemnon (Regional and Municipal Theatre of Agrinio, 2005), The Trojan Women (Theatre of Neos Kosmos, 2010), Euripides’ Cyclops and Theocritus’ idyll of the same title (Athens Epidaurus Festival, 2017), Thesmophoriazusae (Athens Epidaurus Festival, 2018), Iphigenia in Aulis (National Theatre of Northern Greece, 2019) and Helen (National Theatre of Northern Greece, 2021).