Ioulita Heliopoulou

Ioulita Iliopoulou was born in Athens. She studied Byzantine and Modern Greek Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens and drama at the Drama School of the Athens Conservatory. She writes poetry, essays and fairy tales. Five of her poetry collections have been published: "Happy New Year, Marko" (1987), "Digamma" (1992), "A Wish for Odysseus" (1997), "From One to Two" (2000), "11 Places for 1 Summer" (2006), two children’s fairy tales: "What Does Zeno Want?" (2004, State Children’s Book Award) and "The Green Cap" (2008), as well as a translation of P. E. Shelley’s “A Defence of Poetry”, all published by “Ypsilon/Books”, and the essay “The Doll” (Ikaros, 2008). In 2000, he wrote the libretto for Giorgos Kouroupou’s opera “The Fir Tree’s Boat”, and in 2002 the poetic text for the lyrical tragedy “Iokaste” by the same composer, which was performed at the theatre of the European Centre of Delphi. Her fairy tales “What Does Zeno Want?” and “The Green Hood”, set to music by Alkis Baltas and Giorgos Kouroupos respectively, were performed in Athens and elsewhere. Alongside his poetry, he writes essays, studies the work of Odysseas Elytis and has given numerous talks on the subject. He also edits book publications.

For thirteen years, he collaborated with the Orchestra of Colours and the Melina Mercouri Foundation on the creation of programmes combining spoken word and music. Together with Spyros Sakkas and Giorgos Kouroupos, they present musical programmes based on poetry. One of these, dedicated to the poetry of Elytis, was released as a CD-book entitled "By the Light of the Star" (published by "Ypsilon/Books").