Maria Papayanni @FOUGARO ARTCENTER
FOUGARO ARTCENTER in collaboration with Patakis Publishers, the Nea Kios Cultural Society and local school teams will celebrate the International Children's Book Day on Sunday 14 April 2024 at 6 pm with a tribute to Maria Papayanni at Fougaro. The writer will be there, while excerpts from her books will be read by Rita Zikidou and Tina Kotsiopoulou.
One would say this, another one that… and so it came that Maria Papayanni told us a story. Children (of all ages) shall put on their own Shoes with Wings, pick up their Golden Oars and head along the Road to Love to join us at Fougaro on Sunday 14 April, together with a child who went Around the World on a Bicycle. They have invited you, too, along with your special Friends... at least two of them. And if you have a Cauldron that tweets stories, bring that, too. This Sunday will have everything… and a lot of everything!
Maria Papayanni
Maria Papayanni is a major contemporary figure in Greek literature for children and young people, nominated for the 2022 H.C. Andersen International Award and Children’s Books Ambassador for 2021-2022. Born in 1964 in Larissa, she studied Greek literature at the University of Thessaloniki and worked as a journalist for radio, television, newspapers and magazines. In 1996 she married composer Thanos Mikroutsikos. After 2001, when her first book, Goodnight, mum, was published by Patakis Publications, she devoted herself to her stories. She writes books for young and older children, teenager novels, libretti and verse for music theatre shows, translates children’s books and has published a novel for grownups. She has won such major distinctions as the State Award, the Award of IBBY’s Hellenic Section, the Award of Diavazo magazine, and a listing in White Ravens. Her illustrated books for young children have also been published in France, Germany, Britain, Finland, Rumania and Korea, and her novels are soon to be launched in Russia, Rumania, Serbia and North Macedonia. Maria Papayanni visits schools to meet students from all grades of elementary and junior high schools. When meeting younger children, it is always with her close friend and assistant Pes Pes, the little ladybird that tells fairy tales and feeds exclusively on fairy tales. For children about to graduate to (or in the early grades of) junior high school she has developed ‘Guardians of Freedom’, an educational programme based on her novel Shoes with Wings—a book “about the poetry in life and about life that sometimes turns into poetry”.
