Maria Eystathiadi

Born in Athens in 1949, she studied political science in Athens and pursued postgraduate studies in Paris (Paris II, D.E.S. in political sociology, with a thesis on "Le dessin contestataire: un cas d'opposition culturelle"). Concurrently, she attended courses in philosophy and literary theory. She collaborated for two years with the Greek edition of "Le Monde Diplomatique." In 1979, she took over the management of the "Themelio" bookstore and later the responsibility for the publishing house of the same name. She collaborated with the Patras International Festival, the Athens Concert Hall, and the Orchestra of Colors on a production about George Sand and Chopin. Her writings have been published in Greek and international magazines as well as in collective volumes. Her translations have been performed in theaters, and she has collaborated in scriptwriting. She served as Secretary of the Board of the National Book Centre of Greece (2000-2004) and the European Translation Centre, as well as a board member of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi. She is a member of the Society of Authors and the Panhellenic Association of Professional Translators (PEMET). "Textilen" (Saixpirikon, 2014) was her ninth book published in Greece, following "Demon" (2010), "The Red Hotel" (2008, French: "L’Hotel rouge, la representation impossible", translated by Anne-Laure Brisac, to be published by Quidam Editions, October 2018), "Utopias" (2004), "Almost... Melodrama" (2002, French: "Presque un melo", translated by Anne-Laure Brisac, Actes Sud Editions, TV adaptation: "Le Fil d’Ariane", directed by Marion Laine, Arte), "Transgressors," "The Invisible That Watches You," "Gloves with Hands" (French: "Gants avec mains", translated by Michel Volkovitch, L’Harmattan Editions), and "When the Roads." She has also written two plays, "Disobedience" (French: "Desobeissance", translated by Paule Rosseto, included in the anthology "De la dictature a la crise", 2015, L’Espace d’un Instant/Institut Francais Editions) and "On My Way an Angel." She has translated into Greek works by Marivaux, Klossowski, Satie, Klaus, Sarraute, Duras, Michaux, Jauffret, Rodriguez, Bataille, Robbe-Grillet—winning the Literary Translation Award from the European Centre for Literary Translation (EKEMEL) in 2007 for "Jealousy"—among others. She has participated as a guest in literary and theatrical festivals abroad. In France, "Demon" was read at the Mousson d’ete festival (2010) and at the Studio de la Comédie-Française (2011), "Textilen" at the Théâtre de l’Atalante (Spring 2013), at the Avignon Festival (2014), and was performed at the Athens-Epidaurus Festival (2015, directed by Victor Arditti). "Utopias/Privatopia" was performed in New York in November 2015 at the La Guardia Center of Performing Arts and participated in the Cairo International Festival in 2017. In 2014, she was awarded the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic. She divides her time between Paris and Athens.