Giannis Kalifatidis

Giannis Kalifatidis was born and raised in Athens. He graduated from the German School of Athens in 1982 and studied mining engineering in Germany at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He served as a scientific associate at the Hessian State Museum in the fields of modern art (Joseph Beuys Wing), paleontology, and mineralogy, as well as at the Historical Museum of the city of Darmstadt (Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism, Jugendstil). He was also actively involved in contemporary alternative music and English-language lyrics, contributing articles to the German music press. After returning to Greece, he attended the German department of the Hellenic Centre for the Study of Literature and Culture (EKEMEL), from which he graduated in 2005. Since then, he has worked as a translator of German literature for publishers such as Agra, Smili, Nefeli, Scripta, Plethron, among others. He also collaborates with the Athens Concert Hall, the Hellenic Festival, and the Onassis Cultural Centre. He is the recipient of the 2007 State Prize for Literary Translation for W.G. Sebald's book "The Emigrants" (published by Agra) and the 2010 EKEMEL German Literature Prize for Georg Heym's book "The Thief: Seven Stories" (published by Nefeli). Since the academic year 2010-11, he has been teaching literary translation in the German department of EKEMEL.