Makis Tsikas
WINNER
WINNER
Biography
Makis Tsitas was born in Giannitsa in 1971. He majored in journalism and worked for several radio stations in Thessaloniki. Since 1994 he has lived in Athens where he works in publishing. He has served as senior editor for the literary magazine Periplous (1994-2005), and was the co-publisher and director of the book journal Index (2006-2011). From 2012 to the present he has been directing Diastixo.gr, a website on books and culture.
He is a member of the Hellenic Authors’ Society.
Short stories and books for children have been translated into many languages.
Some of his works have also been staged and directed by Roula Pateraki (Pireaus Municipal Theater), Tatiana Lygari (Theater To treno sto Rouf, viva.gr), Ersi Vasilikioti (Theatro ton Keron), Sophia Karagianni (Vault Theater), Promitheas Aliferopoulos (Piraeus Municipal Theater), Taru Makela (Christine and Goran Schildt Foundation, Finland), Alexandru Mazgareanu (Nottara Theater, Romania).
His lyrics have been set to music by Giorgos Stavrianos, Takis Soukas, Tatiana Zografou and Nikos Vasiliou, and the songs have been performed by Nena Venetsanou, Vasilis Papakonstantinou, Pantelis Thalassinos, Miltos Paschalidis, Alex Sid, Dimitris Zervoudakis, Kostas Parissis, Sophia Papazoglou, Theodora Tzita, and Nephele Fasouli, Iro Bezou.
He has published 5 books for adults and 31 books for children, two of which won awards: Haralambia the Giraffe, was awarded with the National Award of Cyprus for Illustration and The giant is coming, that won the prize of the Greek section of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) – Greek Children’s Book Circle.
His novel God Is My Witness, earned him the 2014 European Union Prize for Literature and honors by the Municipalities of Athens, Pella, and Edessa, the Central Public Library of Edessa, as well as the Region of Central Macedonia. It was brought to the stage under the direction of Sophia Karagianni and starring Iosif Iosifidis. It had been played for five years in Athens and across Greece.
God Is My Witness is available in 12 European languages.
Nominated book : Μάρτυς μου ο Θεός (God Is My Witness)
Summary
The narrator of the story – a typical anti-hero of our times, a simple man whose only desire is to live his life with dignity but who finds himself in his fifties without a job and in failing health – discloses the woes inflicted upon him from early childhood as he confronts the harsh realities he faces. Everyone – the women he meets, his employers, even his own family – betray him, while all around him is the image of a society which, despite its superficial prosperity, is fast sinking into decay. Through his torrential monologue, the reader witnesses his struggle to persevere; armed with humor, imagination, and a unique verbal euphoria, he creates bit by bit his own universe.
Balancing between the comic and the dramatic, between the vital lie and the truth, Makis Tsitas’s hero acquires the universal symbolism of a man who, due to his naivety, is confronted with hostility and cynicism from every direction. At the same time, with his almost childish innocence, he becomes a mirror for reflecting the grotesque image of that selfsame society that has expelled him from its womb.
Related publications
EUPL Anthology 2014
Various authors