Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke by Dr Liana Giannakopoulou

Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke (1939-2020) is one of Greece’s leading female poetic voices with a work that spans over thirty years. She is also a linguist and an acclaimed translator. Her work is widely read in Greece and it has also received official recognition: it has been awarded the Greek National Poetry Prize in 1985 and the Greek Academy’s Poetry Prize in 2000. Although Anghelaki-Rooke lived in Athens it is the island of Aegina, where she spent her summers as a child and where she returned throughout her life, that holds a special place in her heart. The beautiful family home with its orchard of pistachio trees was a heaven of inspiration and a writing retreat. The body, myth and nature but above all language and its ability to convey emotions and experiences are central features of Anghelaki-Rooke’s poetry. This video presentation offers an introduction to her life and key themes of her work.

Liana Giannakopoulou teaches Modern Greek Literature in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics of the University of Cambridge.  She is the author of The Power of Pygmalion. Ancient Greek Sculpture in Modern Greek Poetry (Peter Lang 2007) and of The Parthenon in Poetry. An Anthology (in Greek, ELIA 2009). She has also co-edited Culture and Society in Crete. From Kornaros to Kazantzakis (Cambridge Scholars 2017), a selection of papers presented at an international conference held in Cambridge. She is the current Chair of the Society for Modern Greek Studies.

Greek Writers In English

A series of online talks in English, organised by The Hellenic Centre and The Society for Modern Greek Studies every Wednesday at 7pm from 10 February until 3 March.

See all the other lectures in this series here.