Maria Laina

Maria Laina was born in Patras in 1947. She graduated from the Law School of the University of Athens. She has worked in various jobs, always related to the arts (translation of essays and literature, editing of visual arts, philosophical and literary books, broadcasting and scriptwriting for state radio and television, teaching Greek language and poetry at English-speaking colleges, teaching translation, and journalism in literary newspaper supplements). Her work includes nine poetry collections, eleven plays, five prose works, four critiques and studies, and the compilation of an anthology of 20th-century foreign poetry (selected from Greek translations). Her works have been translated into many languages, both as standalone publications and in anthologies. She has officially represented Greece multiple times in the USA and Europe. In 1993, she was awarded the State Poetry Prize for her poetry collection "Rosy Fear." The German translation of the same collection received the City of Munich Award. In 1996, she was also honored with the Cavafy Award, and in 1998 with the Maria Callas Award from the Greek Radio's Third Program. In 2014, she received the Kostas & Eleni Ouranis Foundation Award for her entire body of work. She is a founding member of the Society of Authors. (photo: Kostas Mitropoulos)