Greeklit – HFBC

Connecting Greek Books to the world

The programme aims to support the dynamic Greek book production and the promotion of Greek authors abroad through translations and continuous updates on activities and news related to Greek literature.

The Ministry of Culture, as part of its policy to promote the Greek language abroad, launched the GreekLit programme in 2021 to subsidize the translation of titles in all categories of Greek book production into other languages.

These are works of modern and ancient literature, literary, scientific and artistic creation in the Greek language that can penetrate foreign book markets and contribute to the dissemination of both Greek cultural heritage and contemporary creation.

The GreeekLit programme is implemented by the Hellenic Foundation for Books and Culture (HFBC) with funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, combining several actions.

Indicatively, the following actions are included

Translation of works

Grants for the translation of entire works up to 75% of the total translation cost, as well as samples of each category of Greek book production for promotional material.

Promotion and publicity

Conferences, workshops, seminars, lectures, publications for the promotion of the programme as well as for translation and networking issues.

Promotion on the HFBC website

Creation of a database listing translated titles and all bibliographical data.

The publishing of a catalogue of translated books

Publishing of a bilingual (Greek-English) printed and electronic catalogue of all books translated as part of the programme during 2022-2024.

Evaluation Committee

The translators Rita Kolaiti and Krystalli Glyniadakis, along with the literary critic Elisavet Kotzia are members of the Evaluation Committee for all applications submitted to the GreekLit translation program.

Rita Kolaiti

Rita Kolaiti was born in Patras in 1956. She studied Economics in Athens, History of Cinema in London and History of Literature in Paris and Brussels. She has worked as a translator for the European Commission in Brussels, as well as for state institutions. She has translated a variety of books (literature, essays, children’s books, books on cinema, etc.). For her work she has been honoured with the following awards: Award for Literary Translation of French Literature of EKEMEL 2010 (Pointe rouge by Maurice Attia, Polis Publishing), Translation Award for Book for Children of the Hellenic Society of Literary Translators 2013 (Tobie Lolness, Les yeux d’Elisa by Timothée de Fombelle, Synchronoi Orizontes Publishing), National Award for the Translation of a Literary Work into Greek 2020 (A rebours by J.-K. Huysmans, Stereoma Publications).

Krystalli Glyniadakis

Krystalli Glyniadakis (Athens, 1979) is an award-winning poet and translator. She’s studied philosophy (BSc), philosophy of religion (MA), and political theory (MSc) at the LSE and King’s College London, and holds and MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, in Norwich. She also holds a PhD in interactive historical documentary (new media/digital humanities) from the University of Bournemouth; her i-doc was shortlisted for the prestigious New Media Writing Prize in 2020. She is a poet. Her 2017 collection Η επιστροφή των νεκρών was awarded the National Book Award (Greece) in poetry. Her poetry has been translated and published into Turkish, Finnish, English, German, Italian, Slovenian, Romanian, and German, and she’s been invited to various international book fairs and festivals as a guest author. She’s a translator of Norwegian literature into Greek, having translated more than 40 books from one language into the other, and has been honoured by NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad) as “translator of the month”. She’s worked as an editor in various publishing houses, as a journalist and a columnist for both Greek and Norwegian media, and has run various book clubs. She’s an elected member of both the Greek Authors’ Society and the Greek Poets’ Circle.

Elisavet Kotzia

Elisavet Kotzia was born in Athens in 1954. She studied economics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and at the London School of Economics. She worked as a financial editor for the newspaper Kathimerini and was a correspondent for the newspaper Mesimvrini in Brussels, where she also attended the Department of French Literature at the Free University of Brussels. From 1987 to 2012, she wrote one of the weekly book review columns for Kathimerini, with which she continues to collaborate to this day. In 2006, she published the study Ideas and Aesthetics: Interwar and Postwar Prose Writers 1930–1974 (Polis Publications), and in 2020, the study Greek Prose 1974–2010: Standards and Measures. Her work has appeared in literary journals such as Grammata kai Technes, I Lexi, Entefktirio, Planodio, Nea Estia, Poetry, The Book’s Journal, among others.