Maria A. Kontali

Maria Kondali, née Choritou, was born with six fingers in July 1971 in Patras, to the beautiful Smyrna native Lola and the evergreen teenager Andreas. Her childhood and school years were spent between two cities: Patras and Amaliada. Constant companions were poetry and sports—the former warm and unspoken, the latter lively and evident. At the age of 11, she lost her mother. Her companions always stayed with her. In 1990, while professionally flirting with basketball, she moved to Athens, where she remained for years. On the morning of October 27, 2004, she found herself at KAT on Kifisias Avenue, with only one heartbeat capable of saving her after a car accident. Her companions were always there—one life-saving, the other liberating. She fondly remembers the times in her Smyrna grandmother's room, where she was instilled with a love for poetry. She also recalls her first step into the world of poets when, in 2000, the magazine "Fota-Photographizando" featured her poem: "... to show our tree."