University of Michigan: Greek, Gifted, and Global series continues on March 8

The University of Michigan Modern Greek Program continues its interview series, Generation G: Greek, Gifted, and Global, with writer, translator, journalist, and playwright Christos Ikonomou speaking with Giota Tachtara on Monday, March 8.

Questions may be submitted in advance of the interview by Friday, March 5 via email: moderngreek-requests@umich.edu.

The work of Christos Ikonomou is integrally connected with people’s need to tell stories to confirm their existence. Ikonomou aspires to go beyond the walls of language, “I don’t want to write just about Greeks and Greece. I am trying to write about human beings, what it means to try to be human in an inhuman environment.”

His stories have been translated into twelve languages, with two books appearing in English translation. Κάτι θα γίνει, θα δεις (Something Will Happen, You’ll See) won Greece’s prestigious National Book Award for the Best Short-Story Collection and Prix Litt?raires des jeunes Europ?ens. It was the most reviewed Greek book of 2011.

More information about the interview series is available online: https://lsa.umich.edu/modgreek/window-to-greek-culture/generation-g.html.

Ikonomou’s books are Η γυναίκα στα κάγκελα (Woman on the Rails, 2003), Κάτι θα γίνει, θα δεις (Something Will Happen, You’ll See, 2010), Το καλό θα‘ρθει απ’ τη θάλασσα (Good Will Come from the Sea, 2014), and Οι κόρες του Ηφαιστείου (The Daughters of the Volcano, 2017).

Ikonomou’s books in English translation are available online: https://archipelagobooks.org/book_author/christos-oikonomou/.

Giota Tachtara has been writing, editing, and translating for numerous women’s magazines, newspapers, and websites since 2002. Her monthly column in VOGUE Greece explores feminism, style, inspiration, and women’s everyday lives through her generation’s nostalgic optimism for the future that is still yet to come.