Kyriakos Charalambides is one of the most renowned and celebrated living Cypriot poets. His poetry, essays, translations, and critical analysis celebrate the ideas of Western Civilization, expressed through the language and history of Greek culture. His poetry though holds steadfastly to the Greek Cypriot linguistic register. Born in 1940 in Cyprus, he completed his primary and secondary education in Ammochostos (Famagusta) and then studied History and Archaeology at the University of Athens. He taught literature in secondary schools and he worked for thirty years in the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation from where he retired as Director of Radio. He has published fourteen volumes of poetry, two volumes of essays and a translation of Romanos the Melodist, awarded the Hellenic Society of Literary Translators Prize. Three of his books, amongst them Ammohostos Vasilevousa (Famagusta Regina, 1982), were awarded the Cyprus State Prize for Poetry; another book, Tholos (Dome, 1989), the Athens Academy Prize. His book Methistoria (Meta-history, 1995) was awarded the Hellenic Republic State Prize for Poetry. He has also received the International Cavafy Award (1998) as well as the Costas and Eleni Ouranis Prize from the Athens Academy for his entire poetic oeuvre (2003) and the Cyprus State Prize for Excellence in Literature (2007). He is a Doctor Honoris Causa of the Faculty of Letters, University of Athens (2013) and a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens (2013). Some of his books have been translated in eight languages.