Elena Pallantza

Elena Pallantza was born in Athens in 1969. She is a philologist, translator of literature and writer. She studied Classical Philology in Athens and did her PhD in Freiburg. In 2004-2005 she studied Intercultural Pedagogy in Cologne. In 2006-2010 she worked as a research associate at the Institute of Classical Philology of the University of Bonn, where she still teaches Modern Greek Language and Literature. In 2005-2008 she was a correspondent for the Greek literary magazine DIAVAZO on contemporary German literature. She writes poems and short stories and translates from Greek to German and vice versa. In 2013 she founded the LEXIS translation team at the University of Bonn, which translates contemporary Greek literature into German.

TRANSLATIONS (selection)

- Anthology of Young German Poets / Anthologie Junger Deutscher Lyriker*innen (with texts by: Kathrin Bach, Sonja vom Brocke, Maren Kames, Anja Kampmann, Georg Leß, Christoph Georg Rohrbach, Tobias Roth, Lara Rüter, Jan Skudlarek, Charlotte Warsen, Levin Westermann), selection and translation: Elena Pallantza, Vakxikon Verlag, Athens 2019 (funded by the Goethe Institute Athens)
- Danae Sioziou Σιώζιου, Useful children’s toys: Danae Sioziou, Nützliche Kinderspiele, Parasitenpresse, Cologne 2019 (in collaboration with LEXIS translation team)
- Dimitris Eleftherakis, The difficult art: Dimitris Eleftherakis, Die schwierige Kunst, Reinecke & Voß, Leipzig 2017 (in collaboration with LEXIS translation team)
- Yiannis Ritsos, Helen: Jannis Ritsos, Helena, Reinecke & Voß, Leipzig 2017 (in collaboration with LEXIS translation team)

DISTINCTIONS

2018: State Prize for Literary Translation (category: Translation of a Greek Language Work into a Foreign Language)
2020: Scholar of the Berlin Literary Symposium, LCB (October)