Giorgos Koutouvelas

- Greece -

George Koutouvelas was born and raised in Athens (1986). He introduced his poetry early on at the age of nineteen.  Until now he has published six poetic works: “dreamwalkers” (2005), “acts” (2006), “vagrancy in writersland” (2009), “shadow with bones” (2011), “recipes for raw realism” (2014), “fragment of western civilization” (2019) and one theatrical play: “fire” (2007). For seventeen years now he publishes at regular intervals poems, articles and essays in literary magazines. He has taken part in the most distinguished poetry festivals in Greece. His poems have been included in many anthologies and studies in Greece and abroad.

 

Regarding his education he studied in the fields of theology (BS University of Athens), pedagogics (M.Ed. University of Athens) and psychology (MSc University of Strathclyde). His research in all fields (including his Ph.D.) focuses on the various applications of poetry in education and psychotherapy. Currently he is professor and a researcher in the field of comparative literature. Particularly he studies the concept of literary generations and the impact of religion in modern poetry.


Abstracts from studies and reviews about his poetry:

 

[…] There are verses that can demolish the perceptions most well-grounded in a mind, others still have the courage to build with, offered to humanity from the unknown that we all spring from, new emotions of whole ideological states except the ink-written laws, and some weaken the mighty “deities” of each era simply by satirizing them. There are very rare cases where we come across poetic texts in which all the above are brought together […] I would say that Mr. George Koutouvelas has a peculiar, refreshing and at the same time pernicious “erotic” relationship with his art. It reminds me of the old “craftsmen” of speech […], (Alexandros Damoulianos)

 

[…] poetry of social sensitivity and political action. With vivid examples of a realistic, once rebellious writing […], (Kostas Kremmydas)

 

[…] His Poetry is narrative, lyrical, thoughtful, His speech, is sculpted, colorful, allegorical, with original shapes and a subtle sarcasm that emphasizes the meanings. He is concerned about relationships, everyday life, and social “thorns”. His pen is sharp and bold, denounces the wrongs of the society […], (Aggeliki Karapanou)

 

[…] The aesthetic choice of embellishment of each one is judged by everyone, and somewhere there begins, among other things, the discussion about the qualitative meaning of life, an answer that everyone claims, stubbornly usually, different. But realism in the end, raw and relentless, manages to return us to our place […] The harsh, sharp and accusatory speech of the young and prolific poet George Koutouvelas comes not dishearten us, of course, but perhaps (and without a mood of didacticism) to shake us up and suggest his own prospects, (Antonis Psaltis)

 

[...] His Poetry is direct, stormy and aggressive; he is in harmony with the absurdity and cruelty of our time […], (Eleni Polymatidou)