Rita Mpoumi - Papa

Rita Boumi-Pappa (1906-1984) was born in Syros. In 1920, she moved to Syracuse, Sicily, where she studied pedagogy and specialized in the Montessori method. After returning to Greece, she worked as a journalist and translator for magazines such as "Nea Estia," "Neon Kratos," "Neoi Rythmi," and newspapers like "Allagi," "Machi," and "Avgi" (during the period 1957-1960). She was the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Ionios Anthologia" (from 1929), publisher of the magazines "Efimerida ton Poiiton" (1956-1958) and "Kyklades" (1930-1932), and director of the Child Welfare Foundation (1930-1933). In 1936, she married the poet Nikos Pappas, with whom she lived in Trikala until 1940, after which they settled in Athens, where they spent the rest of their lives. She made her literary debut in 1929 with the publication of her poem "Mikre mou aliti" in "Nea Estia," while in her childhood, she had published poems in "Diaplasi ton Paidon" (1919). She primarily focused on poetry but also engaged in prose, travel literature, and translation (works by L. Levchev, Sholokhov, Beckett, Betti, Hugo, and others). She was honored with the First Commendation of the Academy of Athens (1935), the First National Resistance Award (1945), the International Syracuse Award (1949), the Women's Literary Society Award (1965), as well as by the Romanian state and the Academy of Bucharest. She was a member of the Academy of Athens. Her poems have been translated into English, French, Italian, German, Russian, Spanish, Hungarian, Serbian, Polish, Albanian, Portuguese, and other languages. Rita Boumi-Pappa is chronologically placed among the Greek writers of the interwar generation. Her writing is fundamentally characterized by her love of nature and prominently features elements of sensuality, lyricism, as well as political and social concerns, especially in her post-war works. For more biographical details on Rita Boumi-Pappa, see Dimitris Giakos, "Boumi-Pappa, Rita," in "The Great Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature," vol. 10, Athens, Hari Patsi, n.d. [1968], Alexandros Argyriou, "Rita Boumi-Pappa," in "Greek Poetry: Modernist Poets of the Interwar Period," Athens, Sokolis, 1979, Alexis Ziras, "Boumi-Pappa Rita," in "World Biographical Dictionary," vol. 7, Athens, Ekdotiki Athinon, 1987, and Alexis Ziras, "Boumi-Pappa, Rita," in "Dictionary of Modern Greek Literature," Athens, Patakis Publications, 2007. (Source: Archive of Greek Authors, E.KE.BI.).