Kaiti Drosou

The journalist and poet Kaite Drosou was born in 1924. She worked for many years at the newspaper "Imerisia." As a poet, she became acquainted and interacted with significant figures in Greek literature, such as Yiannis Ritsos, Andreas Frangias, and Aris Alexandrou, who became her life partner in 1959 (he dedicated his most important work, "The Box," to her). She published poetry collections: "Poems" (Logotechniki Gonia, 1950), "Leaves of Fire" (Bolari Printing House, 1959), "The Four Walls" (Kείμενα, 1985), essays "Joseph Brodsky: The Poet and the KGB" (Ypsilon, 1988), "The Renegade Mayakovsky and the October Revolution" (Ypsilon, 1990), "Memories from the House of the Dead According to Claude Simon: A Reading of Claude Simon's Book 'The Invitation' by Kaite Drosou" (Govostis), among others. She translated Vladimir Mayakovsky's poems into Greek and edited a comprehensive volume of Aris Alexandrou's poetic translations, titled "I Chose" (Kείμενα, 1984). Biographical details of Kaite Drosou and Aris Alexandrou are included in the publications: Katerina Kampani, "My Grandfather, Aris Alexandrou" (album, Ypsilon, 2006), and "Yiannis Ritsos, Trajectories in Intersection: Postcards and Letters to Kaite Drosou and Aris Alexandrou" (edited by Lizy Tsirimokou, Agra 2008), which was derived from her archive material. She passed away in Paris on February 3, 2016, at the age of 92, where she had lived permanently since the time of the dictatorship.