“We managed to bring new people, communities and regions that had no idea of who Nikos Kazantzakis is, in contact with a Greek poet and also gave them the opportunity to discover Greece, Chairman of the Steering Committee of Friends of Nikos Kazantzakis, George Stasinakis told the news agency ANA/MPA.
The International Society of Friends of Nikos Kazantzakis (ISFNK) commemorated the 25th anniversary of its establishment, organizing events in Greece and around the world. Today ISFNK has 5160 members, most of them “are not Greek but Philhellenes” according to Mr. Stasinakis, in 119 countries, from Egypt, Algeria and Vietnam to Mexico, Chile, Malawi and Canada.
In 1968, Stasinakis met Eleni Kazantzakis, who after the death of her husband settled in Geneva. ‘I expressed my admiration for Kazantzakis, the books of whome unfortunately I had read in French, because when I was in Greece it was prohibited. ‘I’ll kill you,'” she said and gave me the Greek version of the books. So we became friends. After 20 years we have created, along with George Anemoyiannis the company based in Geneva, ” he said.
Thiss year will also be awarded for the first time the “International Nikos Kazantzakis Award” introduced by ISFNK to honor internationally the acclaimed author. The competition will be for a doctoral thesis, study or research, as well as poetry and prose inspired by Kazantzakis. The award will be awarded in October, with nominations accepted until the end of April. Next year the competition will be expanded and the prize will be given to the best artistic creation.
Apart from the events. the society publishes a newsletter in eight languages which includes scripts of the author and the magazine The Cretan Glance with Kazantzakis’s scripts in four languages, Greek English, French, Spanish, as well as studies on his work.
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