Books’ Journal, the Book Magazine, is launching the second series of public discussions titled “And These, Too, Are Greece — Discussions at the Athens Conservatory,” featuring Titos Patrikios, one of the most important poets of postwar Greece, in a conversation with Elias Kanellis, journalist, author, and publisher of Books’ Journal. The event will take place on Thursday, October 1, 2026, at 7:30 p.m., in the Aris Garoufalidis Hall at the Athens Conservatory, and admission is free.

His origins, his ideas, the Left, the persecutions, the Art Review, the junta, his years in France and Italy, the split in the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), his friendships and influences, Rena Stavridi, his translations, his political activism after the restoration of democracy, the KKE’s domestic wing, the years of modernization, poetic circles, the Greek debt crisis, the time for taking stock—these and many other topics will be discussed by a figure who was not merely an observer of historical developments, but who experienced firsthand many of the most dramatic moments of modern Greek history.

The October issue of Books’ Journal will feature a special section on Titos Patrikios, which will also include three new, previously unpublished poems by him.

Titos Patrikios was born in Athens in 1928. His parents were Spyros and Lela Patrikios, both actors. He began writing poetry at a very young age. He studied law at the University of Athens and later sociology in Paris. In the post-civil war years, he was exiled to Makronissos and Agios Stratis. A founding member and member of the editorial board of the Epitheorisi Technis (Art Review), he worked as a lawyer, sociologist, researcher, and translator. He lived and worked in Paris for extended periods.

His first collection of poetry, Chomatodromos, was published in 1954. It was followed, among many other works, by Mathiteia, Proairetiki Stasi, Thalassa Epaggelias, Antidikies, Antikristoi Kathreftes, The Pleasure of Prolongations, The Resistance of Events, The New Course, Coexistence with the Present, and Poetry Finds You.

History, political activism and its questioning, love, the body, time, memory, and the persistent search for the truth of things run through a body of work that spans nearly the entire postwar history of Greece.

In 1994, he was honored with the Special State Prize for Literature for his entire body of work.