Transcript (English)

Transcript 5 Islands of the South

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Books by Niki Marangou

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Literature
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Niki Marangou

Niki Marangou was born in Limassol, Cyprus 1948. She studied sociology in West Berlin from 1965-70 and worked for ten years as a playwright at the State Theatre of Cyprus. Since 1980 she has directed Kochlias Bookshop (Avlonos Str. 9, Nicosia 1075; tel 003572-761766, fax 003572-766258) in Nicosia. She has published books of prose, poetry and children's fairy tales and won two state prizes for her literary work. In 1998 she wan in Alexandria the Cavafy prize for poetry. She had seven exhibitions of her work in painting. She lives in Nicosia and has a daughter who is also a painter. Read a personal biographical note below.

'My mother came from Macedonia, North Greece and my father from Famagusta. This gave me a wide view of the Greek World as I grew up at its eastern point. We have been lucky as a generation to witness extremes. High technology and my grandmother weaving, gypsies with dancing bears and computers.

Six years in Berlin confused me enough. I needed the torpid summer noons of Nicosia to remind me again who I was. I did various jobs, taught pottery to blind children, worked for the theatre, run a bookshop.

The central point in my life has always been the passion with language, with the greek language in all its forms, contemporary, ancient, byzantine. I like to play with the language. This is why I opened a bookshop, so I could have all the books I wanted. This is why I sink in books, I go back to University, searching for words, looking for new games. I use words like colours to illustrate images. Some of them come from afar.'

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