Stefanos Mpekatoros

Born in 1947 in Athens, with roots from Kefalonia and Constantinople, he pursued studies in chemistry, modern Greek literature, and library science. He began publishing poems in 1966 and released six poetry collections between 1968 and 1998, along with a comprehensive edition titled "Patridognosia 1969-1982" (first edition: 1982, second edition: "Patridognosia 1968-1998," Ellinika Grammata 1999). In 2002, he published the poetry collection "Misery at the Fingertips" (published by Patakis). In 1971, he co-published the poetry anthology "The New Generation, 1965-1970," featuring poems by several emerging poets of the time. In 1991, he co-edited the complete works of his friend, poet Alexis Traianos. Over the three decades from 1974 to 2006, besides poetry, he published studies and essays on literary figures, critical interventions and proposals on library issues in Greece, critical comments and interventions on literary, social, political, and cultural matters, as well as translations from English, in newspapers, magazines, and standalone editions. He curated books and radio shows (on poetry). For a period, he wrote book reviews for the newspapers "I Avgi" and "I Proti." In 1993, he released a comprehensive collection of his writings (published in magazines and newspapers) on phenomena of modern Greek decline and intellectual resistance ("The Spirit of Resistance: On Culture and Politics"). During the last two years of the colonels' dictatorship, he contributed to the compilation of the volumes "Testimony '73" and "Testimony '74" (published by Boukoumanis), considered expressions of collective intellectual resistance. From Patakis Publishers, his translations included T.S. Eliot's essay volumes "Poetry is Not the Priority: On Poetry and Poets" in 2003, "Dante: Divine Comedy and New Life" in 2005, and Edgar Allan Poe's narrative "The Gold Bug," with his own commentary and extensive afterword, in 2004. He passed away in Athens on June 26, 2006.