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{{shortShort description|Greek writer and playwright (born 1966)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Dimitris Lyacos
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| image = File:Dimitris Lyacos (cropped)at Genova International Poetry Festival 2024. Photo by Rosanna Ponsano.jpg
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'''Dimitris Lyacos''' ({{lang-langx|el|Δημήτρης Λυάκος}}; born 19 October 1966) is a contemporary Greek poet and playwrightwriter. 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 and fifty 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 GarciaGarcía MarquezMárquez]] 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/ |access-date=26 September 2019 |archive-date=26 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190926063458/https://ralphkjones.com/2019/09/17/dystopian-literature-21st-century-2000-2010/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
 
Dimitris Lyacos is internationally considered as the best-known contemporary Greek author and the country's most likely candidate for a [[Nobel Prize in Literature]]<ref>https://www.thecommononline.org/violence-and-its-other-toti-obrien-interviews-dimitris-lyacos/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref><ref>https://litera.hu/irodalom/elso-kozles/dimitris-lyacos-poena-damni.html {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref><ref name="revistacult.uol.com.br">{{cite web | url=https://revistacult.uol.com.br/home/dimitris-lyacos/ | title=Estante Cult &#124; Dimitris Lyacos, profeta e passadista | date=18 July 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ilmattino.it/cultura/libri/dimitris_lyacos_poena_damni-7181250.html | title=Lyacos nella terra desolata | date=21 January 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ilmondodisuk.com/palazzo-reale-campania-festival-libri-torna-la-rassegna-internazionale-5-8-ottobre-tra-gli-ospiti-il-greco-lyacos-in-corsa-per-il-nobel/ | title=Palazzo Reale/ Campania Festival libri: Torna la rassegna internazionale (5 - 8 ottobre). Tra gli ospiti, il greco Lyacos in corsa per il Nobel | date=20 September 2023 }}</ref><ref name="americanlibraryinparis.org">{{cite web | url=https://americanlibraryinparis.org/event/lyacos-onwuemezi24/ | title=(Hybrid) Journeys in Sound and Sight with Dimitris Lyacos and Vanessa Onwuemezi }}</ref> and an entrant in Who’s Who, the database of the most prominent individuals across all fields of human activity.<ref name="americanlibraryinparis.org"/><ref>https://www.thecommononline.org/violence-and-its-other-toti-obrien-interviews-dimitris-lyacos/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref>
 
Lyacos's works are published exclusively in translation. As of 2024, his trilogy as well as its prequel [[Until the Victim Becomes our Own]] have not appeared in the Greek original.<ref>https://www.lafionda.org/2024/06/14/lettera-a-mattia-tarantino/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</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 |access-date=5 November 2016 |archive-date=12 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312132232/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/prospective-students/careers-destinations |url-status=dead }}</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 ==
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[[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 wasappearances guestin authorliterary atfestivals theinclude 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> Ritratti di Poesia, Rome<ref>https://www.raicultura.it/letteratura/eventi/Ritratti-di-Poesia-2023-6b647462-13a7-41e1-aca7-4765059b7de4.html {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref> and Campania Libri, Napoli<ref>https://campanialibrifestival.it/events/incontri-di-poesia-4/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</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 milleniummillennium. 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 – LeteratureLiterature 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|date=16 August 2017 }}</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/ |access-date=14 February 2017 |archive-date=21 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221105940/http://southernpacificreview.com/2017/01/26/z213-exit/ |url-status=dead }}</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 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002553/http://www.theadirondackreview.com/book122.html |url-status=dead }}</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 Journal of Modern Greek Studies|year=2001 |doi=10.1353/mgs.2001.0026 |access-date=27 July 2013 |s2cid=145014868|last1=Zaller |first1=Robert |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=283–286 }}</ref>
 
===Survey===
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===''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 |access-date=27 December 2018 |archive-date=11 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190611124317/https://themissingslate.com/2017/03/07/z213-exit/ |url-status=dead }}</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|date=23 February 2017 }}</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''===
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[[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 |volumeissue=Issue 26, Spring 2016, Leyburn, North Yorkshire UK. (Print Edition). |page=90 |access-date=24 January 2018 |archive-date=24 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924235557/http://www.tartaruspress.com/wormwood-26.html |url-status=dead }}</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''===
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===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> Chapter G from the book in English translation appeared in Mayday Magazine in March 2023<ref>{{cite web | url=https://maydaymagazine.com/an-excerpt-from-when-the-victim-becomes-our-own-by-dimitris-lyacos-translated-from-the-greek-by-andrew-barrett/ | title=An Excerpt from Until the Victim Becomes Our Own by Dimitris Lyacos, translated from the Greek by Andrew Barrett | date=27 March 2023 }}</ref> and chapter D in [[Image (journal)|Image]] in March 2024.<ref>https://imagejournal.org/article/from-until-the-victim-becomes-our-own/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</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 [[The Common (magazine)|The Common]] ([https://www.thecommononline.org/violence-and-its-other-toti-obrien-interviews-dimitris-lyacos Violence and its Other] - 2024), [[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 8084 international reviews until wintersummer 2023,<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>https://litera.hu/irodalom/elso-kozles/dimitris-lyacos-poena-damni.html {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref><ref name="americanlibraryinparis.org"/><ref name="revistacult.uol.com.br"/><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>
 
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*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/livros/poena-damni/ Relicario Edicoes], Belo Horizonte, 20222023.
*Poena Damni - Turkish Edition. Translated by Arzu Eker. [https://www.canyayinlari.com Can], Istanbul, 20222024 (forthcoming).
*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}}
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==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A67jbuIRqAs A video review of the trilogy by Chris Via/Leaf by Leaf channel] on YouTube.
* [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}}
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitris_Lyacos"