Vassilis Vassilikos

He was born in Kavala to parents native to the island of Thasos. His father was an MP with the Liberal Party. He grew up in Thessaloniki, graduated from law school there, and moved to Athens to work as a journalist.

Because of his political activities, he was forced into exile for seven years, following the coup of 1967.

From 1981 to 1984, Vassilikos served as the director of the Greek state television channel (ET1). Since 1996, he has served as Greece's ambassador to UNESCO.

As an author, Vassilikos has been highly prolific and widely translated. He has published more than 100 books, including novels, plays and poetry. His best-known work is the political novel Z (1967), which has been translated into 32 languages and was the basis of the award-winning film Z directed by Costa-Gavras (with music by Mikis Theodorakis). It also inspired the Indian film 'Shanghai' which released to critical acclaim.

Vassilikos and his late wife Dimitra (Mimí) were friends with the American poet James Merrill; the death of Mimí serves as a critical late plot turn in Merrill's epic poem, The Changing Light at Sandover (1982).

In the United States, Vassilikos has long been associated with and published by Seven Stories Press.

He ran in the 2014 Greek local elections as a PASOK candidate for counsellor in the city of Athens.[1]

In the 2019 Greek legislative election, he was elected MP with Syriza.

• The Monarch
• And Dreams Are Dreams
• The Photographs
• The Plant, the Well, the Angel
• The Coroner's Assistant
• The Harpoon Gun
• The Few Things I Know About Glafkos Thrassakis
• Z (English language ISBN 0-394-72990-0 or ISBN 0-941423-50-6)

• The Photographs, tr. M. Edwards (1971; repr. 1972)
• The Plant, The Well, The Angel A Trilogy, tr. E. Keeley, M. Keeley (1964)

• Vassilikos' home page
• Vassilikos' poems from Translatum's anthology of Poets from Thessaloniki