Manolis Pratikakis (Greek: Μανόλης Πρατικάκης; born 1943) is a Greek poet. He studied medicine at the University of Athens and is a practicing neurologist and psychiatrist. His first volume of poetry was published in 1974; he is one of the so-called “Genia tou 70,” a literary term for Greek authors who began publishing their works in the 1970s, particularly towards the end of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 and during the early years of the “Metapolitefsi.” He received the Greek National Book Prize in 2003 for his collection of poems “To νερό.”
Selected poetry
- Ποίηση 1971-1974 (Poetry 1971-1974), 1974
- Οι παραχαράκτες (The Counterfeiters), 1976
- Λιβιδώ (Libido), 1978
- Η παραλοϊσμένη (The Demented), 1980
- Γενεαλογία (Genealogy), 1984
- Το νερό (The Water), 2002
- Ποιήματα 1984-2000 (Poems 1984-2000), 2003
He is considered an important modern Greek poet. His writings first appeared in journals around 1970. He has written numerous collections of poems, critical texts, short stories, and articles. His poems have been translated into many languages. He has contributed to Greek and foreign anthologies and journals and participated in numerous conferences. In 1999, he was nominated for the European Prize for Literature for his work “The Assumption and Resurrection of the Bodies of Dominic.” Poems from his collection “Libido” were set to music by composer Yannis Markopoulos and released on a CD titled “Unseen Pulse.” Recently, the same composer wrote a symphonic work entitled “The Symphony of Healing,” based on the poetry collections “Genealogy,” “The Lekythos,” and “Left Quietly in the Grass,” which had its world premiere at the Concert Hall. In 2003, he received the State Poetry Award [3] for his collection of poems “The Water.” In 2012, he received an award from the Athens Academy for his body of work.
