Haris Vlavianos was born in Rome in 1957. He studied economics and philosophy at the University of Bristol and political science and history at the University of Oxford, yet language, heritage, and his present home make him a Greek author. He now lives in Athens, where he teaches history and history of ideas at the American College and translation theory at the European Centre for Translation (EKEMEL). He is the publisher of the acclaimed literary journal »Poiisi« (Poetry).
Readers with an interest in the field cannot fail to notice Vlavianos’s interest in the poetry of classic contemporary Greek writers such as Konstantinos Cavafis, Giorgos Seferis and Nikos Karousos. Parallels between his verse and the work of American language poets like Wallace Stevens and John Ashbery are just as evident, if not more so. Like the works of these writers, Vlavianos’s verse is also engaging at an intellectual level. In his poems he is always able to maintain a balance between abstraction and sensuality, between rational reflection and creating of a suggestive atmosphere. Another defining characteristic of Vlavianos’s poetry is his attachment to particular thematic constellations, the most important of which is history (both as concept and as a string of events). Vlavianos’s poems also frequently deal with the twists and turns in his family’s fortunes, which he consciously treats as archetypical examples of emotional dependency, loss and betrayal. Eroticism and love, on the other hand, appear in his work both in their ambivalence and as the elemental root of happiness. Poetry itself, and its endangered status, is also a source of inspiration for Vlavianos. Indeed some of his poems refer directly to current philosophical discourse.
Haris Vlavianos expresses himself through a rare elegance of language, combining a basic commitment to formal transparency with a few selectively used syntactical and lexical violations. It is the individual tone of this language that, despite the structural variety in Vlavianos’s verse, gives one the impression of reading a stylistically uniform body of work. Perhaps it is this individuality of tone that best attests to the view that Vlavianos qualitatively enriches European poetry.
To date Vlavianos has written eight books of poetry such as »O aggelos tis istorias« (1999; t: The angel of history) and »Meta to telos tis omorphias« (2003; t: After the end of beauty), both nominated for the Greek State Prize. He has also published numerous translations, most notably of American and English poets (T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, e.e. cummings, Wallace Stevens, John Ashbery, William Blake), and essays. His latest book is a volume of selected essays, entitled »Poion aphora he poiese? Skepseis gia mia techne peritte« (2007; t: Does poetry matter? Thoughts on a useless art).

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P
Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X
Y	Z