Mikela Chartoulari

Mikela Chartoulari was born in 1958 and has worked as a journalist and book critic for major Greek daily newspapers. During the years 2000-2012, she was the editor-in-chief of the highly influential book supplement “Vivliodromio”, issued by the popular daily TA NEA. Having studied Law in Athens (Athens University) and Media in Paris (Institut de Presse et des Sciences de l’ Information, PARIS II), she entered the field of cultural criticism in 1984 writing for the cultural and political magazine Anti. She also collaborated with the public TV channel (2006-2013) for a series of one-hour documentary portraits called The Antennas of our Times. Together with the late translator, columnist and publisher Anteos Chrysostomides, they interviewed some of the most prominent authors in the world, from John Le Carré and Hilary Mantel to Orhan Pamuk and Alaa Al Aswany, and from Umberto Eco and Javier Marias to Alan Hollinghurst and John Banville. Mikela views comparative literature as the key to approaching all the major issues of our time, but she is also deeply interested in modern history, social-political-ideological movements, cultural politics and the battle of ideas, which has reinforced her belief that it is finally time for Greece to take active part in the international intellectual debate by organizing its own major literary festival. Some of her essays on the Greek literary and cultural scene that have been published in English and Swiss books and magazines include: “The Representation of the Other in Recent Greek Fiction” (Critical Times, Critical Thoughts, Cambridge University Press, London 2016), “Almost Living. Five Tableaux Vivants” (Culturescapes, Christoph Merian Verlag, Basel 2017), “Brief aus Athen: Stimmungslagen vor Ort” about Documenta14 in Athens (Kunstbulletin, 3/2017, Zurich),