Kostoula Mitropoulou
Kostoula Mitropoulou (1933-2004) was born in Piraeus, the daughter of lawyer, politician, and historical writer Giannis Mitropoulos and Sofia Loumou, who passed on her love for music (she studied piano) to her daughter. Through her father, Kostoula developed a love for literature and theater from a young age. She was the sister of ceramist and painter Katia Mitropoulou. After high school, she enrolled in the Law School of the University of Athens but discontinued her studies in her third year. Her first appearance in the literary world was in 1955, with the publication of prose pieces in the newspaper "I Vradyni." Three years later, she appeared in the Piraeus publication "Our Magazine" and published the novel "The Country with the Suns." In 1963, she wrote the lyrics for the songs on the album "O Dromos" by Manos Loizos. Following the declaration of Papadopoulos' dictatorship, she self-exiled to Paris, but personal reasons forced her to return to Athens, where she was arrested due to her political affiliation with the Left. During her lifetime, she published a total of 46 books: 21 novels, 12 short story collections, three novellas, one chronicle, eight plays, and a selection of her articles published in the newspaper "Ethnos," where she collaborated for twelve years with her own column. She was awarded the Dodecanese Prose Award in 1963 for "Faces and Figures," the Best Work and Performance Award in 1977 for "Four Deserts," the First State Short Story Award in 1984 for "Magnification," and the European Script Fund Award in 1989 for her script "The Antique Shop on Tsimiski." Her sensitivity brought her close to the new literary movements in Europe and Latin America, both as a prose writer and a playwright, particularly to the French "New Novel" or "Anti-novel." Her works have been translated into foreign languages: "The Chronicle of Three Days" (Germany, Italy, Netherlands), "Marginal Life" (Germany, Netherlands), "Music for a Departure" (Italy, France, Germany), "Truck" (France, Italy, Belgium), "Six Roles for Soloists" (France, Italy, Venezuela), "My Last Role," "The Rehearsal," "The End" (Latin America, New York), "The Last Performance" (Australia), "The Novel of the Night," "Oscar," "Fragmented Desire" (Cologne), "By the Law," "Fragmented Desire, a Role for a Clown" (Munich), "The Risk" (France, Switzerland), "The Station Photo is You" (Italy), "Spit Blood, Say I Ate Sour Cherry" (Italy). Renowned composers like Manos Loizos, Loukianos Kilaidonis, Nikos Danikas, Christos Nikolopoulos, among others, have set her lyrics to music. In 1969, she co-signed a protest declaration against censorship, along with seventeen other writers. A year later, after the lifting of preventive censorship, she broke her writing silence (maintained since 1967) and published the novel "Countdown." Her work is taught in Greek universities, in Europe, America, Australia, Mexico, and Sicily. Studies on her books and theater are available. She passed away at the age of 71 on January 31, 2004. She was a member of the Society of Authors and the Society of Greek Playwrights. For more biographical details on Kostoula Mitropoulou, see Manolis Gialourakis, "Mitropoulou Kostoula," in the "Great Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature," vol. Ritsa Fragkou-Kikilia, "Kostoula Mitropoulou," in "Post-War Prose: From the War of '40 to the Dictatorship of '67," Vol. E, Athens, Sokolis, 1988, no page number; "Mitropoulou Kostoula," in "World Biographical Dictionary," Vol. 6, Athens, Ekdotiki Athinon, 1987; and Alexis Ziras, "Mitropoulou Kostoula," in "Dictionary of Modern Greek Literature," Athens, Patakis, 2007.
(Source: Archive of Greek Authors, EKEBI)
