Vassilis Alexakis was an award-winning Greek author, self-translator, cartoonist, journalist, and film director who wrote in both Greek (his mother tongue) and French. He published fourteen novels, one autobiographical text, short story collections, and drawings. Alexakis’s humour, his self-translating writing practices, as well as his dual cultural belonging (Greek and French) are the trademarks of an œuvre which grappled with questions of identity, belonging, and loss between 1974 and 2015, the span of his literary career. In 2012, he was awarded the Prix de la langue française [French Language Prize] in recognition of the scope of his literary work. Since his writings so directly promoted cultural diversity, in 2003 he was awarded the Prix Édouard Glissant. Other major literary awards include the Grand prix du roman de l’Académie française [Grand Prize of the French Academy...
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Citation: Bessy, Marianne. "Vassilis Alexakis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 January 2013; last revised 26 August 2025. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13144, accessed 09 June 2026.]
