Dimitris Lyacos in Conversation

Please join us for a conversation with acclaimed Greek writer Dimitris Lyacos, author of the Poena Damni trilogy. Lyacos’s works, known for their genre-defying form and avant-garde fusion of literature, philosophy, and myth, have been published exclusively in translation. Our discussion will explore the challenges and creative possibilities of translating, considering its fragmented narrative, intertextual depth, and multilingual influences. We will also examine how translation, including indirect translation, shapes the reception of work across cultures and literary traditions.

Tickets for this event are available both online and in person.

Dimitris Lyacos’s Poena Damni trilogy is a best-selling and highly regarded work of contemporary European literature. In its combination, in a genre-defying form, of themes from literary tradition with elements from ritual, religion, philosophy and anthropology, Poena Damni revisits some of the enduring literary motifs, most notably violence, mental illness, the scapegoat and the return of the dead. Developed over the course of three decades, the trilogy has been translated into over 20 languages and has given rise to musical, visual and theatre projects. Recent Lyacos’ publications include chapters from the trilogy’s prequel Until the Victim Becomes our Own published in Image, Chicago Review, MAYDAY and River Styx and interviews in The Common, Michigan Quarterly Review and Another Chicago Magazine. 

Andrew Barrett is a translator and musician, who lives in Detroit, Michigan. He translates from the ancient Greek and modern Greek. He is currently working with modern Greek poet and writer Dimitris Lyacos on Until the Victim Becomes our Own, the follow up to Lyacos’s Poena Damni trilogy. He is one of 42 translators who contributed to a new translation of the Dionysiaca of Nonnus, published by The University of Michigan Press in 2022. He attended the Banff International Translation Centre.