George Thaniel was born and raised in Greece and received his first university degree in literature from the University of Athens. He has been a resident of Canada since 1964 and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Classics at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. In 1971 he was assigned the task of organizing and teaching a program of Modern Greek Studies at the University of Toronto, Department of Classics, where he is now associate professor. In 1978-1979 Thaniel was awarded the Norwood travel prize and spent several months in Italy for purposes of research and study. He has written articles on Classical subjects but most of his published work is in the area of modern Greek literature: a book on the Greek-Canadian writer Nikos Kachtitsis, essays, and reviews in many journals. Thaniel is also a poet, published in both Greek and English.