Vasileios Benopoulos P'16 Writer and Law Student Alumni Interview

Alumni Interview

Vasileios Benopoulos P’16 Writer and Law Student

Vasileios Benopoulos was born in Athens in 1998. He graduated from The American College of Greece in 2016 and is now completing his LLB in Politics, Philosophy and Law at King’s College London. He has published pieces in Kathimerini and in the literary magazine Nea Estia. His first book, a collection of short stories titled «σε μια στιγμή» (“at a moment”), was published in 2019 by ARMOS. ACGC: Tell us why you wrote the book and how you settled on this story. The first part of the book is a series of six vignettes, focusing on a single piece of dialogue, or an image, or a problem. My goal was to push the readers into a scene without explaining much in order to allow them to observe for themselves. I find that writing shares many similar traits with meditation. It forces the writer to be more aware and conscious of his surroundings and it hopefully makes the reader engage with the world in a fresh way. The second part of the book is really a fragmentary novel, a series of six interconnected short stories covering the struggles of a young man as he comes to terms with existence. I believe that the book is in many way the result of my intense preoccupation with eastern philosophy over the last year.

ACGC: How did your time at Pierce prepare you for the future?

I am glad that during my years at Pierce, I was given the room and the freedom to explore and to create. I was lucky to meet some extraordinary teachers who introduced me to the short story, who read my early work, who discussed philosophy and politics, who provoked me and pushed me as I explored the different areas that interested me. It is those individuals who made all the difference. As for the matrix, the institution of Pierce itself, I should only say that it was an open, liberal environment that made everything else possible. ACGC: What are your future plans?

My goal, at the moment is to begin my career as a lawyer in the UK, aiming to specialize in International Arbitration and Investment Treaty disputes. Through my work, I want to be involved in something larger than the individual and be a lever of growth and progress. I should like to allow time for writing because, at this point, it is something that I feel I simply must do.

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