Member Since:
July 14, 2014
Panos Tserolas
Biography
Panos was born in the middle of a typical Mediterranean summer in 1985 and grew up in Athens (from September to May) and the island of Evia (in the summers). This seasonal and geographic differentiation is quite significant in his childhood, since Evia still remains his center of inspiration and peace of mind; and is, of course, one of the most quietly beautiful corners of Greece. He had the inclination to read (more like, digest everything in printed form) and write from a small age, but his school years led him to Geology and to the University of Patras, in 2003. There, while studying and uncovering the mechanisms of the Earth’s processes, he was part of the student movements against privatization of Greek education, within a storm of department occupations and extensive protests, which finally led to the great youth uprising against state repression in 2008. The turmoil in Greece runs parallel to his first attempts to shape a huge and initially abstract volume of unfinished ideas and stories and put them to paper. After graduation he started post-graduate studies in Applied Geology, while the financial crisis and the severe austerity measures ignited the tinder of a social uprising that carried hope (and inspiration) alongside its endurance and resistance against the often violent repression, during the summer of 2012. At that point he completed his M.Sc. studies and started his Ph.D. in Petroleum Geology and Basin Analysis (which is a very cool subject, by the way). During a break from the big protests, he isolated himself in Oktonia, Evia and started writing. He hasn’t stopped until today, with the adventures of Izzy Collins being the first to be concluded. In between his ongoing studies at the University of Patras, he is still an active member in the struggle against the severe austerity, suppression and collective melancholy of Greece. He considers himself an amateur in writing, which in Greek (erasitexnis) means ‘lover of art’, with the intention to remain so and never allow himself to be forced to marry his imagination only to have routine sex with it. Besides reading novels (with a sweet tooth for American beat and post-beat literature) he enjoys reading and writing movie reviews, the deep waters of the Aegean Sea in Evia and arguing with his hyper-nervous dog, Roza, that just can’t stand firecrackers.