Editing Dimitris Lyacos

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{short description|Greek writer and playwright}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Dimitris Lyacos
| awards =
| image = Dimitris Lyacos (cropped).jpg
| image_upright = 0.9
| caption =    
| pseudonym =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1966|10|19|df=y}}
| birth_place = {{nowrap|[[Athens]], [[Greece]]}}
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Poet, playwright
| nationality = Greek/Italian
| period = Contemporary
| genre = Cross-genre
| subject =
| movement =[[World Literature]], [[postmodern literature]]
| notableworks = ''[[Z213: Exit]]'' (2009)
| spouse = <!-- Notable only see [[:WP:Notable]] -->
| children =
| relatives =
| signature =
| website = {{URL|lyacos.net}}
}}

'''Dimitris Lyacos''' ({{lang-el|Δημήτρης Λυάκος}}; born 19 October 1966) is a contemporary Greek poet and playwright. He is the author of the ''Poena Damni'' trilogy. Lyacos's work is characterised by its genre-defying form<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ezzine |first1=Kheira Yasmine |last2=Roubai-chorfi |first2=Mohamed El Amine |date=8 December 2020 |title=La littérature algérienne contemporaine à l'ère de l'intermédialité |url=https://www.asjp.cerist.dz/en/article/137226 |journal=أفكار وآفاق |language=fr |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=419–434 |issn=2170-144X}}</ref> and the avant-garde<ref name="asiancha1">{{Cite web |title=Cha: An Asian Literary Journal - The Precarious Destitute: A Possible Commentary on the Lives of Unwanted Immigrants |url=https://www.asiancha.com/content/view/2105/505/ |website=Cha: An Asian Literary Journal}}</ref> combination of  themes from literary tradition with elements from ritual, religion, philosophy and anthropology.<ref name="hartmanii">{{Cite web |last=Hartman |first=Chris |date=July 2019 |title=Dimitris Lyacos: Poena Damni: I: Z213: Exit; II: With the People from the Bridge; III: The First Death |url=https://www.pangyrus.com/review/dimitris-lyacos-poena-damni-i-z213-exit-ii-with-the-people-from-the-bridge-iii-the-first-death/ |access-date=25 December 2022 |website=Pangyrus |location=Cambridge, MA.}}</ref>

The trilogy interchanges [[prose]], drama and poetry in a fractured narrative that reflects some of the principal motifs of the [[Western Canon]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Barrett |first=Andrew |date=August 2019 |title=Melting Among Echoes: The Elusive Narrative Voice of Z213: Exit |url=https://floridareview.cah.ucf.edu/article/melting-among-echoes-the-elusive-narrative-voice-of-z213-exit/ |access-date=25 December 2022 |website=The Florida Review |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="asymptotejournal1">{{Cite web |title=Grab the Nearest Buoy: On Dimitris Lyacos' Poena Damni |url=https://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2019/03/27/grab-the-nearest-buoy-on-dimitri-lyacos-poena-damni/ |access-date=25 December 2022 |website=Asymptote Blog |language=en}}</ref><ref name="worldliteraturetoday.org">{{Cite web |date=15 February 2017 |title=Nota Benes, March 2017 |url=https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2017/march/nota-benes-march-2017 |website=World Literature Today}}</ref> Despite its length - the overall text counts no more than two hundred pages - the work took over a period of thirty years to  complete,<ref name="worldliteraturetoday.org" /><ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |last=Roth |first=Paul B. |date=Spring 2016 |title=Preface to Dimitris Lyacos, Special Feature |location=Fayetteville, NY |volume=22 |issue=1 |website=The Bitter Oleander Journal}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Ofi Press Magazine |url=https://www.ofipress.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040403174357/https://www.ofipress.com/ |archive-date=3 April 2004 |access-date=27 December 2018 |website=The Ofi Press Magazine}}</ref> with the individual books revised and republished in different editions during this period and arranged around a cluster of concepts including the scapegoat, the quest, the return of the dead, redemption, physical suffering, mental illness. Lyacos's characters are always at a distance from society as such,<ref name="asiancha1" /> fugitives, like the narrator of [[Z213: Exit]], outcasts in a dystopian hinterland like the characters in [[With the People from the Bridge]],<ref name="Schneider" /> or marooned, like the protagonist of [[The First Death]] whose struggle for survival unfolds on a desert-like island. Poena Damni has been construed as an "allegory of unhappiness" together with works of authors such as [[Gabriel Garcia Marquez]] and [[Thomas Pynchon]]<ref name="hartmanii" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Williams, Mukesh. Representations of Self-Actualizing Women in Haruki Murakami and Leo Tolstoy. Studies in the English Language & Literature No. 77 2015 page 34 |url=http://libir.soka.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10911/4568/1/ebk401-029.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812215058/http://libir.soka.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10911/4568/1/ebk401-029.pdf |archive-date=12 August 2016}}</ref> and has been acknowledged as an exponent of the [[postmodern]] [[sublime (literary)|sublime]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shaw |first=Philip |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XA-9DgAAQBAJ&q=dimitris+lyacos+postmodern&pg=PT206 |title=The Sublime |date=21 April 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317508861 |via=Google Books}}</ref> as well as one of the notable anti-[[utopian]] works of the 21st century.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Widdicombe |first1=Toby |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LQolDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Z213:+Exit%22&pg=PR31 |title=Historical Dictionary of Utopianism |last2=Morris |first2=James M. |last3=Kross |first3=Andrea |date=21 June 2017 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9781538102176 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=16 September 2019 |title=Dystopian Literature 21st Century – 2000 -2010 |first=Ralph K |last=Jones |url=https://ralphkjones.com/2019/09/17/dystopian-literature-21st-century-2000-2010/}}</ref>

== Life ==
Lyacos was born and raised in [[Athens]], where he studied law. From 1988 to 1991 he lived in [[Venice]]. In 1992 he moved to London. He studied philosophy at [[University College London]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 July 2018 |title=Careers & Destinations |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/prospective-students/careers-destinations |website=UCL Philosophy}}</ref> with analytical philosophers [[Ted Honderich]] and [[Tim Crane]] focusing on [[Epistemology]] and [[Metaphysics]], [[Ancient Greek philosophy]] and [[Wittgenstein]]. In 2005 he moved to Berlin. He is currently based in [[Berlin]] and [[Athens]].

== Career ==
In 1992, Lyacos set about writing a trilogy under the collective name ''[[Poena Damni]]'', referring to the hardest trial the condemned souls in Hell have to endure, i.e. the loss of the vision of God. The trilogy has developed gradually as a work in progress in the course of thirty years.<ref name="auto" /> The third part ([[The First Death]]) appeared first in Greek (Ο πρώτος θάνατος) and was later translated into English, Spanish and German. The second part under the title "Nyctivoe" was initially published in 2001 in Greek and German, and came out in English in 2005. This work was substituted in 2014 by a new version under the title [[With the People from the Bridge]].<ref name="shoestring-press.com">{{Cite web |title=With the people from the bridge |url=http://www.shoestring-press.com/2014/10/with-the-people-from-the-bridge/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006025708/http://www.shoestring-press.com/2014/10/with-the-people-from-the-bridge/ |archive-date=6 October 2014}}</ref> 
[[File:Dimitris Lyacos by Walter Melcher.jpg|thumb|Dimitris Lyacos by Walter Melcher]]
Various artists have brought Lyacos' work in different artistic media. Austrian artist Sylvie Proidl presented a series of paintings in 2002 in Vienna. In 2004, a sound and sculpture installation by sculptor Fritz Unegg and [[BBC]] producer Piers Burton-Page went on a European tour. In 2005 Austrian visual artist Gudrun Bielz presented a video-art work inspired by Nyctivoe. The Myia dance company performed a contemporary dance version of Nyctivoe in Greece from 2006 to 2009. A music/theatre version of [[Z213: Exit]] by Greek composers Maria Aloupi and Andreas Diktyopoulos, performed by Das Neue Ensemble and Greek actor [[Dimitris Lignadis]] was presented in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Z213: Exit - Chapter 8 [part 33-end] |url=https://soundcloud.com/adiktyopoulos/z213-exit-chapter-8-part-33 |via=soundcloud.com}}</ref> Two contemporary classical music compositions inspired by the trilogy, "Night and Day in the Tombs"and "The Un-nailing of our Childhood Years",<ref>{{Cite web |title=The un-nailing of our childhood years (Music inspired by the Poena Damni trilogy from Dimitris Lyacos) |url=https://open.spotify.com/album/5ImR8EJHkFLK9jOIDzOtPe |website=[[Spotify]]}}</ref> by [[The Asinine Goat]] were released in February and June 2022 respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Night and Day in the Tombs (Music inspired by the Poena Damni trilogy from Dimitris Lyacos) &#124; Oscilación |url=https://oscilacion.bandcamp.com/album/night-and-day-in-the-tombs-music-inspired-by-the-poena-damni-trilogy-from-dimitris-lyacos |access-date=4 May 2022 |publisher=Oscilacion.bandcamp.com}}</ref>
Dimitris Lyacos was Guest International Poet with [[Les Murray (poet)|Les Murray]] in 1998 Poetryfest International Poetry Festival, [[Aberystwyth]], Wales. Henceforth he has conducted readings and has lectured on his work at various universities worldwide, including Oxford, Trieste, Hong Kong and Nottingham. In 2012 he was Writer in Residence at the [[International Writing Program]], University of Iowa.<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 July 2013 |title=Dimitris Lyacos &#124; International Writing Program |url=http://iwp.uiowa.edu/writers/dimitrios-lyacos |access-date=27 July 2013 |website=Iwp.uiowa.edu}}</ref> He is one of the most recent Greek authors to have achieved international recognition,<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=King |first=Mark |date=April 2017 |title=A review of Z213: Exit |magazine=The Literary Nest |issue=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Taylor |first=John |date=Spring/Summer 2016 |title=Interview of Dimitris Lyacos |magazine=New Walk Magazine |location=Leicester UK |issue=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Sakellis |first=Eleni |date=20–26 Feb 2016 |title=Some works of world-renowned poet Dimitris Lyacos |page=9 |work=The National Herald |location=New York}}</ref> Poena Damni being the most widely reviewed Greek literary work of the recent decades<ref name="criticalflame.org">{{Cite web |date=7 March 2016 |title=Eucharist: Dimitris Lyacos's "With the People from the Bridge" |url=http://criticalflame.org/eucharist-dimitris-lyacoss-with-the-people-of-the-bridge/}}</ref> and [[Z213: Exit]], arguably, the best-selling book of contemporary Greek poetry in English translation.<ref name="auto" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=19 January 2017 |title=Dimitris Lyacos &#124; Levure littéraire |url=http://levurelitteraire.com/dimitris-lyacos/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119053718/http://levurelitteraire.com/dimitris-lyacos/ |archive-date=19 January 2017}}</ref> Lyacos was guest author at the International Literature Festival of [[Tbilisi]] in 2017<ref>{{Cite web |title=Participants of the Tbilisi 3rd International Festival of Literature |url=http://tbilisilitfest.ge/EN/index.php?do=full&id=5427 |website=tbilisilitfest.ge}}</ref> In 2018 he represented Greece in the Transpoesie Festival, [[Brussels]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Transpoesie - Poets |url=http://transpoesie.eu/poets/801 |access-date=4 May 2022 |publisher=Transpoesie.eu}}</ref> He was guest author at the 2020 International Literary Festival of [[Prishtina]]<ref name="wordpress1">{{Cite web |date=October 2010 |title=Authors 2021 |url=https://polipfestival.wordpress.com/authors/}}</ref> and at the 2022 Bucharest International Poetry Festival.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bine ați venit |url=https://fipb.ro/ |website=Festivalul International de Poezie}}</ref>
Until autumn 2022 Lyacos's work was translated in 21 [[languages]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dimitris Lyacos |url=https://www.lyacos.net/ |website=lyacos.net}}</ref><ref name="wordpress1" /> with the full trilogy having appeared in 7 languages, being thus the most extensively translated work of [[Modern Greek|contemporary Greek Literature]] in the new millenium. The Italian version of the trilogy was voted by Indiscreto Journal among the ten most important poetry books published in Italy in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 December 2022 |title=Quality Ranking – Leterature in Translation 2022 |url=https://www.indiscreto.org/classifica-di-qualita-dicembre-2022/}}</ref>

==''Poena Damni''==
===Summary/Context===
The trilogy would appear to belong to a context of tragic poetry and epic drama, albeit distinctly [[postmodern]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 December 2015 |title=Poena Damni Trilogy by Dimitris Lyacos reviewed by Justin Goodman |url=https://www.cleavermagazine.com/poena-damni-trilogy-by-dimitris-lyacos-reviewed-by-justin-goodman/ |website=Cleaver Magazine}}</ref><ref name="compulsivereader.com">{{Cite web|url=http://compulsivereader.com/2017/08/16/a-review-of-z213-exit-poena-damni-by-dimitris-lyacos/|title=A review of Z213: EXIT by Dimitris Lyacos – Compulsive Reader}}</ref> at the same time. It explores the deep structure of tragedy instead of its formal characteristics, having thus been called a post-tragic work.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ilias Bistolas, Poena Damni - Z213: Exit. Southern Pacific Review, January 2017. |url=http://southernpacificreview.com/2017/01/26/z213-exit/}}</ref>  [[Homer]], [[Aeschylus]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Verlagshaus J. Frank: Quartheft 08 &#124; Dimitris Lyacos |url=http://www.belletristik-berlin.de/der-erste-tod/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130714071424/http://www.belletristik-berlin.de/der-erste-tod/ |archive-date=14 July 2013 |access-date=27 July 2013 |publisher=Belletristik-berlin.de}}</ref> and [[Dante]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Z213: Exit by Dimitris Lyacos |url=http://www.theadirondackreview.com/book122.html |access-date=27 July 2013 |website=Theadirondackreview.com}}</ref><ref name="compulsivereader.com" /> as well as the darker aspects of romantic poetry together with symbolism, expressionism,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zaller |first=Robert |year=2001 |title=Recent Translations from Shoestring Press |journal=The Journal of Modern Greek Studies |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |volume=19|issue=2 |pages=283–286 |doi=10.1353/mgs.2001.0026 |s2cid=145014868 }}</ref> and an intense religious and philosophical interest permeate the work. Poena Damni has thus been related, despite its postmodern traits, more to the High Modernist tradition of [[James Joyce]]<ref>{{Cite web |title="Review of Dimitris Lyacos' With the people from the bridge" by Katie Bodendorfer Garner &#124; Packingtown Review - A journal of literature and the arts |url=http://www.packingtownreview.com/issues/7/katiebodendorfergarner/review.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816223603/http://www.packingtownreview.com/issues/7/katiebodendorfergarner/review.html |archive-date=16 August 2016 |website=packingtownreview.com}}</ref> and [[Virginia Woolf]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 August 2015 |title=From the Ruins of Europe: Lyacos's Debt-Riddled Greece |url=https://www.tikkun.org/newsite/from-the-ruins-of-europe-lyacoss-debt-riddled-greece |website=Tikkun}}</ref> The first of the three pieces, ''Z213: Exit'' ({{Lang|el|Z213: ΕΞΟΔΟΣ}}), accounts a man's escape from a guarded city and his journey through dreamlike, sometimes nightmarish, lands.<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 July 2011 |title=A Review of "Poena Damni, Z213: EXIT" by Dimitris Lyacos, Translated by Shorsha Sullivan " |url=http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=378 |access-date=27 July 2013 |website=Decompmagazine.com}}</ref> In the second book, [[With the People from the Bridge]] ({{Lang|el|Με Τους Ανθρώπους Από Τη Γέφυρα}}) the protagonist of Z213: Exit becomes a first-degree Narrator appearing as one spectator in a makeshift play performed under the arches of a derelict train station. The third book, [[The First Death]] ({{Lang|el|Ο Πρώτος Θάνατος}}) opens with a marooned man on a rocky island and details his struggle for survival as well as the disintegration of his body and the unrolling of its memory banks.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Project MUSE - Robert Zaller. Recent Translations from Shoestring Press |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mgs/summary/v019/19.2zaller.html |journal=Muse.jhu.edu |doi=10.1353/mgs.2001.0026 |access-date=27 July 2013 |s2cid=145014868}}</ref>

===Survey===
[[File:POENA DAMNI THE TRILOGY (3-Book Box Set, English Edition).jpg|thumb|Poena Damni the Trilogy (3-Book Box Set, English Edition)]]
The work is hard to classify since it crosses the usual boundaries of genre.<ref name="compulsivereader.com" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=31 May 2013 |title=Dimitris Lyacos – Mediterranean Poetry |url=https://www.odyssey.pm/?p=2464}}</ref> Z213: Exit re-contextualizes elements from the greater Greek canon – including the escaped hero and the devote wanderer.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Oehle |first=Peter |date=July 2020 |title=Flucht als Heiligenpassion |url=https://www.fixpoetry.com/feuilleton/kritik/dimitris-lyacos/poena-damni-lyrik-trilogie |website=Fixpoetry}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite journal |last=Carter |first=Will |date=Spring 2017 |title=Review of Z213: Exit |journal=Ezra Journal of Translation |volume=12}}</ref> It often takes narrative form, mixing poetry and prose.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 February 2017 |title=Z213: Exit: Poena Damni |url=https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/z213-exit-poena-damni/}}</ref> The trilogy moves into dramatic representation of character and situation in [[With the People from the Bridge]], and subsequently to a hard lyrical kind of poetry used to depict the break-up and eventual apotheosis of the body in [[The First Death]]. The possibilities of divergence between the perceived and the objective outside world are exploited; the reader follows the irregular flow of internal monologues stemming from events in the external world but ultimately viewed as reflected onto the thinking and feeling surfaces of the protagonist's mind. On the other hand, an alien setting and the unfolding, dreamlike occurrences are presented with impressive solidity,<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Max Goodwin |date=26 October 2017 |title=Z213: Exit (Poena Damni) by Dimitris Lyacos |url=https://www.writing.ie/readers/z213-exit-poena-damni-by-dimitris-lyacos/ |access-date=2022-12-25 |website=Writing.ie |language=en-US}}</ref> pointing to an alternative reality, or, unveiling a hidden dimension of the world. From that perspective, the work has been interpreted as a kind of [[surfiction]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 April 2008 |title=Surfiction |url=http://archives.evergreen.edu/webpages/curricular/2007-2008/monstrouspossibility_wiki/index-38812.php.html |website=archives.evergreen.edu}}</ref> whereby the world depicted within the trilogy  allows an open space for the reader to contribute his own internalized version.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mason |first=Fran |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/959698473 |title=Historical dictionary of postmodernist literature and theater |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-4422-7620-8 |edition=2 |location=Lanham |pages=276–277 |chapter=Dimitris Lyacos |oclc=959698473}}</ref>

===''Z213: Exit''===
{{Main|Z213: Exit}}
Z213: Exit uses the device of the [[palimpsest]] to present a fictional tissue combining elements of both ancient and modern sources as well as the "dialogue" of its two protagonists.<ref name="auto1" /> It is composed of a series of fragmented entries<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 February 2017 |title=Review: Z213: Exit (Poena Damni) by Dimitris Lyacos |url=http://www.yourimpossiblevoice.com/review-z213-exit-poena-damni-dimitris-lyacos/}}</ref><ref name="franks1">{{Cite web |last=Franks |first=Talia |date=July 2020 |title=Book Review: Poena Damni Trilogy by Dimitris Lyacos (Translated by Shorsha Sullivan) |url=https://wordforsense.com/2020/07/10/book-review-poena-damni-trilogy-dimitris-lyacos-translation-shorsha-sullivan/ |access-date=2022-12-25 |website=Word-for-Sense and Other Stories |language=en-US |location=Boston USA}}</ref> in a fictional diary recording the experiences of an unnamed protagonist during a train journey into an unknown land.<ref name="auto3">{{Cite magazine |last=King |first=Mark |date=April 2017 |title=A review of Z213: Exit |magazine=The Literary Nest |volume=3 |issue=1}}</ref> The man has been released - or escaped - from some time of confinement elliptically described in his journal<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 March 2017 |title=Z213: Exit |url=https://themissingslate.com/2017/03/07/z213-exit/ |website=The Missing Slate}}</ref> and reminiscent of a hospital, prison, ghetto or [[enclave]] of some sort.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Dew |first=Spencer |date=July 2011 |title=Dimitris Lyacos' Z213: Exit |magazine=Decomp Magazine}}</ref> His subsequent wanderings among desolate landscapes on the verge of reality<ref>{{Cite web |title=Z213: EXIT by Dimitris Lyacos (Second Edition). Review by C.L. Bledsoe. Free State Review, October 2017, Maryland USA. |url=https://freestater.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/z213-exit-by-dimitris-lyacos-translated-by-shorsha-sullivan/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004191736/https://freestater.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/z213-exit-by-dimitris-lyacos-translated-by-shorsha-sullivan/ |archive-date=4 October 2017 |access-date=4 October 2017}}</ref> are set in a closely detailed, and somehow [[Kafkaesque]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cha: An Asian Literary Journal A Philosophy of Exits and Entrances: Dimitris Lyacos's Poena Damni, Z213: Exit |url=http://www.asiancha.com/content/view/778/115/ |access-date=27 July 2013 |website=Cha: An Asian Literary Journal}}</ref> atmosphere, underlining the point that the most dreamlike occurrences are also the realest.<ref name="auto2" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Rivieccio |first=Genna |date=12 February 2017 |title=Poena Damni Z213: Exit by Dimitris Lyacos Gets Worthy Translation from Shorsha Sullivan |url=https://theopiatemagazine.com/2017/02/12/poena-damni-z213-exit-by-dimitris-lyacos-gets-worthy-translation-from-shorsha-sullivan/ |website=theopiatemagazine.com}}</ref> Along the way, the protagonist delves deeper in what seems like a quasi-religious quest while, at the same time, his growing impression of being stalked<ref>{{Cite web |title=Review: Dimitris Lyacos's Z213: Exit, a world gone mad |url=http://www.liminoidmagazine.com/blog/2017/2/23/review-dmitri-lyacos-z213exit-a-world-gone-mad |website=Liminoid Magazine}}</ref> introduces an element of suspense and a film noir-like quality. Thus, the text hinges on the metaphysical but is also reminiscent of an L.A. private eye in a 1940s detective novel closing upon an extraordinary discovery. Z213: Exit ends with a description of a sacrifice where the protagonist and a "hungry band feasting" roast a lamb on a spit, cutting and skinning its still bleating body and removing its entrails as if observing a sacred rite.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Sullivan |first=Michael |date=February 2011 |title=A philosophy of exits and entrances: Dimitris Lyacos' Poena Damni, Z213 Exit |journal=Cha an Asian Literary Journal |issue=13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Brien |first=Toti |date=May 2019 |title=Poena Damni/Poetry Review |url=https://www.ragazine.cc/poena-damni-poetry-review/ |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=Ragazine |language=en-US |location=Los Angeles}}</ref>

===''With the People from the Bridge''===
{{Main|With the People from the Bridge}}
[[With the People from the Bridge]] is fragmentary, hallucinatory, at once firmly rooted in a complex webwork of allusions and drifting free of referentiality, evading attempts to pin it down.<ref name="Schneider">{{Cite web |last=Schneider |first=Aaron |title=Dimitris Lyacos' With the People from the Bridge |url=https://www.thetemzreview.com/schneider-lyacos1.html |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=The Temz Review |language=en}}</ref> The plot hinges on the story of a character resembling the Gerasene demoniac from [[St. Mark]]'s gospel, living in a cemetery, tormented by demons, and cutting himself with stones. He enters the tomb of his dead lover attempting to open the coffin in which she seems to lie in a state not affected by decomposition and the urgency of his desire reanimates her body whose passage back to life is described.<ref name="shoestring-press.com" /> The grave becomes a "fine and private place" for lovers still capable of embracing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chris Duncan |url=http://raysroadreview.com/book-review-with-the-people-from-the-bridge/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622161318/http://raysroadreview.com/book-review-with-the-people-from-the-bridge/ |archive-date=22 June 2015}}</ref>

The story recounts a multiperspectival narrative based on the theme of the [[revenant]] through the first-person embedded accounts of four characters: a man possessed by demons attempts to resurrect the body of his lover but ends in joining her in the grave.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lyacos, Nyctivoe Libretto 5 |url=http://www.ctl-presse.de/buecher/25ly.htm |access-date=27 July 2013 |publisher=Ctl-presse.de}}</ref> The action is enveloped in a context reminiscent of a festival for the dead  as well as that of a [[vampire]] epidemic. There are clear references to Christian tradition<ref>{{Cite journal |title=With the People from the Bridge by Dimitris Lyacos. Review by John Howard. |url=http://www.tartaruspress.com/wormwood-26.html |journal=With the People from the Bridge. Review by John Howard. Wormwood, I |volume=Issue 26, Spring 2016, Leyburn, North Yorkshire UK. (Print Edition). |page=90}}</ref> and [[eschatology]] and the piece results in a joint contemplation of collective [[salvation]] which is ultimately left unresolved after a final narrative twist.<ref name="criticalflame.org" />

===''The First Death''===
{{Main|The First Death}}
[[File:Poet Lyacos with a beater.tif|thumb|Poet Lyacos with a beater. Yiannis Melanitis, oil painting on prepared wooden panel, 104 x 39,2 cm, 2012-13]]
In [[The First Death]] a place is denied to the mutilated body which grinds against the rocks and suffers continuing degradation,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Malone |first=Tony |date=September 2019 |title='Poena Damni – The First Death' by Dimitris Lyacos (Review) |url=https://tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2019/09/19/poena-damni-the-first-death-by-dimitris-lyacos-review/ |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=Tony's Reading List |language=en |location=Melbourne}}</ref> physical and mental, as even the mechanisms of memory are dislocated.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NonFiction |url=http://www.thewritingdisorder.com/nonfictionsullivan.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060322/http://www.thewritingdisorder.com/nonfictionsullivan.html |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=27 July 2013 |publisher=The Writing Disorder}}</ref> Yet the bond between person and body that ensures life still persists, and, "at that point without substance/ where the world collides and takes off",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lyakos |first=Dēmētrēs |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/990849551 |title=Poena damni : the first death |date=2017 |others=Shorsha Sullivan |isbn=978-1-910323-87-8 |edition=2 |location=Beeston, Nottingham |oclc=990849551}}</ref>{{rp|32}} the mechanical instincts of the cosmos rumble into action and sling this irreducible substance again into space - prompting, perhaps, a future regeneration.

===From trilogy to tetralogy: ''Until the Victim Becomes our Own''===
In an interview with Lyacos for [[3:AM Magazine]], translator Andrew Barrett announced that he is in the process of translating the author's new work-in-project, titled [[Until the Victim Becomes our Own]], which is conceived as the "zeroth" book that will convert Poena Damni into a tetralogy. According to Barrett, the new book explores bloodshed as the building-block in the formation of society and the eventual place of the individual in a world "permeated by institutionalized violence."<ref name="ammagazine1">{{Cite web |date=18 September 2020 |title=Entangled narratives and dionysian frenzy: An interview with dimitris lyacos - 3:AM Magazine |url=https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/entangled-narratives-and-dionysian-frenzy-an-interview-with-dimitris-lyacos/}}</ref>

==The interviews==
Lyacos's literary output is complemented by a series of interviews that aim to function as a conceptual companion to his work and, at the same time, informally expand on a variety of literature-related subjects as well as philosophy, religion, cinema and the arts. These interviews have appeared on an annual basis in outlets including [[World Literature Today]] ([https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/interviews/world-be-repaired-conversation-dimitris-lyacos-toti-obrien A World to Be Repaired] - 2021), [[3:AM Magazine]] (Entangled Narratives and Dionysian Frenzy - 2020), [[Los Angeles Review of Books]] (Neighboring Yet Alien - 2019), [[BOMB (magazine)|BOMB]] (A Dissociated Locus - 2018), Berfrois ([https://www.berfrois.com/2018/11/berfrois-interviews-dimitris-lyacos/ Controlled Experience] - 2018), [[Gulf Coast (magazine)|Gulf Coast]] (An Interview with Dimitris Lyacos - 2018).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Interviews &#124; Dimitris Lyacos |url=https://www.lyacos.net/interviews |website=lyacos.net}}</ref> and The Bitter Oleander (2016)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dimitris Lyacos Special Feature &#124; Dimitris Lyacos |url=https://www.lyacos.net/media-appearances/dimitris-lyacos-special-feature |website=lyacos.net}}</ref>

==Critical reception==
Poena Damni is, arguably, one of the most widely and best reviewed<ref name="asymptotejournal1" /><ref name="auto3" /> work of contemporary Greek literature in translation<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dimitris Lyacos - Dimitris Lyacos - Greece/Italy |url=http://tbilisilitfest.ge/EN/index.php?do=full&id=5432 |website=tbilisilitfest.ge}}</ref> with its various editions having received 75 international reviews until autumn 2022,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Reviews &#124; Dimitris Lyacos |url=https://www.lyacos.net/reviews |website=lyacos.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dimitris Lyacos - A Compendium of Information and Resources on the Contemporary Poet: Reviews & Articles |url=http://www.lyacos.net/reviews-articles/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819145243/http://www.lyacos.net/reviews-articles/ |archive-date=19 August 2017 |access-date=19 August 2017}}</ref> and mentioned as "one of the most-discussed and most-lauded pieces of contemporary European literature".<ref name="asymptotejournal1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Book Review: A Column of Cloud and a Column of Fire Dimitris Lyacos Poena Damni |url=https://www.academia.edu/43930302 |journal=Journal of Critical Studies in Language and Literature |issn=2732-4605}}</ref> It has been noted for creatively surpassing the distinction between modernism and postmodernism while, at the same time, being founded on a large variety of canonical texts of Western Literature.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 November 2018 |title=Berfrois Interviews Dimitris Lyacos |url=https://www.berfrois.com/2018/11/berfrois-interviews-dimitris-lyacos/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Barrett |first=Andrew |title=Melting Among Echoes: The Elusive Narrative Voice of Z213: Exit |url=https://floridareview.cah.ucf.edu/article/melting-among-echoes-the-elusive-narrative-voice-of-z213-exit/ |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=The Florida Review |language=en-US}}</ref> Most critics comment on the use of an intricate network of textual references and paraphrases of classical and biblical works, in tandem with the work's unconventional<ref>{{Cite web |title=10 Unconventional Books Worth Checking Out |url=http://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/58128/10-unconventional-books-worth-checking-out |website=SPOT.PH}}</ref> style and character.<ref name="compulsivereader.com" /> On a different note, one critic, pointed out that "despite it being beautifully written and heart-wrenching, the gruesome detail of some passages filled [her] with a sense of dread at the turning of every page" and issued a content warning for readers.<ref name="franks1" /> In the light of the COVID-19 [[pandemic]], Poena Damni has attracted attention as "a vertiginous work that is at once archetypal, transcendent, and uniquely suited to this particular moment in time".<ref name="Schneider" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Literaturhaus Wien: Dimitris Lyacos ins Deutsche übersetzt von Nina-Maria Wanek - VERSCHOBEN AUF 2021 |url=https://www.literaturhaus.at/index.php?id=205&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=3162&cHash=96f48cca42dc3582886c02194c0851d2 |website=literaturhaus.at}}</ref>
The trilogy has given rise to scholarly criticism and is also part of various university curricula on postmodern fiction,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Heß |first=Jonas |title=16:15-17:45 Experimental Literature Seminar: Topic: Dimitris Lyacos With the people from the bridge |url=https://www.studium.uni-mainz.de/komparatistik-europaeische-literatur-wdot/}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="asymptotejournal1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=hec.gov.pk (pp. 187-188) |url=http://hec.gov.pk/english/services/universities/RevisedCurricula/Documents/2016-2017/ENGLISH.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180414010325/http://hec.gov.pk/english/services/universities/RevisedCurricula/Documents/2016-2017/ENGLISH.pdf |archive-date=14 April 2018 |access-date=13 April 2018}}</ref> while Lyacos has been mentioned for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 August 2019 |title=The Birdcage: Nobel Prize for Literature 2019 Speculation list |url=https://morose-mary.blogspot.com/2019/08/nobel-prize-for-literature-2019.html}}</ref><ref name="wordpress1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Lyacos, Dimitris &#124; KLAK VerlagKLAK Verlag |url=https://www.klakverlag.de/author-biography/lyacos-dimitris/ |website=klakverlag.de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=27 May 2020 |title=Dimitris Lyacos 'Poena Damni' (Trilogia) - Dimitri Lyacos |url=https://www.rivistaclandestino.com/poena-damni-estratti-di-dimitri-lyacos/}}</ref><ref name="ammagazine1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=critiquesLibres.com : critiques de livres |url=https://critiqueslibres.com/i.php/forum/sujet/13607 |website=critiqueslibres.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=6 January 2021 |title=וּבְעִבְרִית {{!}} משך של גפרור דולק |url=https://blog.nli.org.il/mussach-91-ubeivrit/}}</ref>
<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 February 2021 |title=Dimitris Lyacos |url=https://revistaechinox.ro/2021/02/dimitris-lyacos/}}</ref>

==Further reading==
;Selected criticism
*[https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/8456199 A 6000 words essay by Robert Zaller, analyzing Lyacos's trilogy in the Journal of Poetics Research]

;Selected interviews
*[https://bombmagazine.org/articles/dimitris-lyacos/ A Dissociated Locus: Dimitris Lyacos Interviewed by Andrew Barrett.]  ''[[BOMB (magazine)|BOMB]]'', November 2018, New York, USA. 
*[https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/interviews/world-be-repaired-conversation-dimitris-lyacos-toti-obrien// A World to Be Repaired: A Conversation with Dimitris Lyacos]  ''[[World Literature Today]]'', October 2021, Oklahoma, USA.
*[http://writingdisorder.com/dimitris-lyacos/ An interview with the author in ''The Writing Disorder Magazine'']
*[https://www.berfrois.com/2018/11/berfrois-interviews-dimitris-lyacos/ Callie Michail interviews Dimitris Lyacos in Berfrois, November 2018, London, UK.]
*[https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/entangled-narratives-and-dionysian-frenzy-an-interview-with-dimitris-lyacos// Entangled Narratives and Dionysian Frenzy: An interview with Dimitris Lyacos.]  ''[[3:AM Magazine]]'', September 2020, UK.
*John Taylor interviews Dimitris Lyacos. ''[[Gulf Coast (magazine)|Gulf Coast]]'', Issue 30.1, Winter/Spring 2018, Houston USA, (pp.&nbsp;277–286)<ref>{{Cite web |title=An Interview with Dimitris Lyacos - Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts |url=http://gulfcoastmag.org/journal/30.1-winter/spring-2018/an-interview-with-dimitris-lyacos/ |website=gulfcoastmag.org}}</ref>
*John Taylor interviews Dimitris Lyacos. [[New Walk]], Issue 12, Spring/Summer 2016, Leicester UK.
*[https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/neighboring-yet-alien-an-interview-with-dimitris-lyacos// Neighboring Yet Alien: An interview with Dimitris Lyacos.]  ''[[Los Angeles Review of Books]]'', September 2019, Los Angeles, USA.

== Bibliography ==
*Poena Damni - German Edition. Translated by Nina-Maria Wanek. [https://www.klakverlag.de KLAK Verlag], Berlin 2020.
*Poena Damni - Italian Edition. Translated by Viviana Sebastio. [https://www.ilsaggiatore.com Il Saggiatore], Milan 2022.
*Poena Damni - Portuguese/Brazilian Edition. Translated by Jose Luis Costa. [https://www.relicarioedicoes.com Relicario Edicoes], Belo Horizonte, 2022.
*Poena Damni - Turkish Edition. Translated by Arzu Eker. [https://www.canyayinlari.com Can], Istanbul, 2022.
*Poena Damni Der erste Tod. German edition. Translated by Nina-Maria Wanek. Verlagshaus J. Frank. First edition 2008. Second edition 2014. {{ISBN|978-3-940249-85-2}}
*Poena Damni Nyctivoe. English edition. Translated by Shorsha Sullivan. Shoestring Press. 2005. {{ISBN|1-904886-11-6}}
*Poena Damni Nyctivoe. Greek - German edition. Translated by Nina-Maria Jaklitsch. CTL Presse. Hamburg. 2001.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lyacos, Nyctivoe Libretto 5 |url=http://www.ctl-presse.de/buecher/25ly.htm |website=ctl-presse.de}}</ref>
*Poena Damni O Protos Thanatos. Odos Panos. Athens. 1996. {{ISBN|960-7165-98-5}}
*Poena Damni [[The First Death]], Second Edition (Revised). Translated by Shorsha Sullivan. Shoestring Press, Nottingham 2017. {{ISBN|9781910323878}}
*Poena Damni [[The First Death]]. English edition. Translated by Shorsha Sullivan. Shoestring Press. 2000. {{ISBN|1-899549-42-0}}
*Poena Damni [[With the People from the Bridge]], Second Edition (Revised). Translated by Shorsha Sullivan. Shoestring Press, Nottingham 2018. {{ISBN|9781910323915}}
*Poena Damni [[With the People from the Bridge]]. Translated by Shorsha Sullivan. Shoestring Press, Nottingham 2014. {{ISBN|978 1 910323 15 1}}
*Poena Damni [[Z213: Exit]], French Edition. Translated by Michel Volkovitch. Le Miel des Anges, 2017. {{ISBN|9791093103235}}
*Poena Damni [[Z213: Exit]], Second Edition (Revised). Translated by Shorsha Sullivan. Shoestring Press, Nottingham 2016. {{ISBN|9781910323625}}
*Poena Damni [[Z213: Exit]]. English edition. Translated by Shorsha Sullivan. Shoestring Press 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-907356-05-6}}
*Poena Damni Z213: ΕΞΟΔΟΣ. Greek Edition. Dardanos Publishers, Athens 2009. {{ISBN|960-402-356-X}}
*POENA DAMNI: THE TRILOGY. 3-Book Box Set Edition (English). Translated by Shorsha Sullivan. Shoestring Press, Nottingham 2018. {{ISBN|9781912524013}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCx6wh9s6UY&t=3s A video reading with the author (Greek subtitled in English)] on YouTube
* {{official website|http://www.lyacos.net}}
* {{Cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Shorsha |title=Results for 'lyacos' |url=http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=lyacos&qt=owc_search |access-date=27 July 2013 |website=Worldcat.org}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyacos, Dimitris}}
[[Category:1966 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Writers from Athens]]
[[Category:Greek dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Postmodernists|Writers]]
[[Category:Postmodern writers]]
[[Category:Modern Greek poets]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:International Writing Program alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century Greek poets]]