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G.F. Zaimis
Author's pen signature
Born	Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A.
Occupation	prose writer, poet, editor, translator & photographer
Nationality	American

Ginger F. Zaimis is an American prose writer, poet and photographer living in Athens, Greece who specializes in architectural forms. She is a polymath educated and versed in the arts, architecture and economics. Her vision explores language, letters and imagery through an architectural and philosophical matrix while integrating multi-disciplinary dialogues which connect the arts and sciences. Her work has been presented at international museums, biennales and literary societies. Her poetic perspectives have been endorsed by the National Book Critics Circle. She is the author of Excavated Athens to Alexandria (poetry 2013), the essay on the new poetic form entitled, The Portico Convention (poetry/architecture 2013) and Monumental Athens Urban (architecture 2012). Her literary fabric was shaped at Little, Brown and Company in New York City and incorporates classical and formal archetypes.

Critical literary response

A.E. Stallings, member of the American Academy of Arts and Science , who edited the author’s debut collection, Excavated Athens to Alexandria critically notes, "Ginger’s talents are many: poet, prose writer and photographer who specializes in architectural forms. Her poetic voice is fresh and unexpected: tough, tender, funny, fierce, risky and sometimes risqué. Her poetry expresses intersections of the ancient and modern world, mixing high-register diction with a vernacular of Southern sassiness." Ernest Hilbert advocates her poetry “...proves that the sonnet is more than merely a little song of love, that it can and must contain multitudes of voices and address infinite concerns” while Contemporary Modernisms’ critic and translator of Modern Greek, Irene Loulakaki-Moore wrote “G.F. Zaimis intertwines memory and emotion with an illustrious past, myth and history. Textual significance is built through unique intertext inviting the reader to discover the layers of the psyche in a process akin to the excavation of a city beneath a city”. Ismail Serageldin, The Librarian of Alexandria, depicts “her vision as exploring the linkages between artistic expressions that act as a catalyst to connect humanity”. Evangelos Moutsopoulos , Philosopher of Kairicity member of the Academy of Athens, Musicologist and Composer, advocates “her ability to coalesce language, architecture and the philosophy" and Lee Slonimsky critically summarizes her poetry as “lofty, learned poems with beautiful individual voices and nearly perfect aura of timelessness. Her ability to synthesize architecture, language, poetry, art and philosophy embodies a deeply holistic and comprehending vision constituting a centralizing metaphor similar to a building like the Parthenon”.

New poetic form

G.F. Zaimis is the architect of the new Portico Convention. It is a defined poetic shape, written in verse that employs specific design elements to achieve a result of sound – silence – sound. The new form uses architecture as a connective matrix to unite the literary arts which incorporate aesthetic, rhythmic and verse qualities. It was designed in 2012-13. It is founded upon classical architectural fundamentals that emulate the design of a classical temple specifically, the colonnaded portico from which it has appropriates its name. Its concept is premised upon M. Vitruvius Pollio’s architectural principles .

Published works

• "The Portico Convention" (Blue Scarab Press, 2013). ISBN: 978-1-938963-06-3, 978-1-938963-07-0
• "Excavated Athens to Alexandria" (Blue Scarab Press, 2013). ISBN: 978-1-938963-04-9, 978-1-938963-05-6
• "Monumental Athens Urban" (Squared Editions, 2012). ISBN: 978-1-938963-02-5

Select Exhibitions

• "Architect of Public Policy" 7th Berlin Biennale curated by Artur Żmijewski
• "Abstract Shapes and Forms" Agency of Unrealized Projects curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist
• "Of Light" MASS MoCA curated by Regine Basha
• "A Digital City of Art and Architecture" Manifesta Biennale co-curated by Ole Bouman
• "Digital Space" Deste Foundation curated by Katerina Gregos