Elli Alexiou (sometimes Ellē; – 1986) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

author, playwright and journalist. The daughter of a printer and publisher, Alexiou was born in

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Greece with a population of 211,370 (Urban Ar ...

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

. She taught French in a high school, and was politically active, joining the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

in 1928 and working with the National Liberation Front resistance during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. After the war, she received a scholarship from the French government and studied in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. She was stripped of Greek citizenship in 1950, living as an exile until it was restored in 1965. Alexiou wrote short stories and novels about her experience as a school teacher and her life as a political exile in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. Her sister Galatea was the first wife of novelist

Nikos Kazantzakis Nikos Kazantzakis ( el, ; 2 March (Old Style and New Style dates, OS 18 February) 188326 October 1957) was a Greeks, Greek writer. Widely considered a giant of modern Greek literature, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in ni ...

Works

*''Third Christian Girls School'' (1934) *''Lumpen'' (1940) *''Tributaries'' (1956) *''Bent on Greatness'' (1966) *''The Dominant'' (1972) *''Demolished Mansions'' (1977) *''Royal Oak'' (1983)

References

1890s births 1988 deaths Writers from Heraklion People from Ottoman Crete Greek women novelists Greek women short story writers Greek short story writers Greek women journalists Women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Greek women writers 20th-century Greek dramatists and playwrights National Liberation Front (Greece) members Greek exiles 20th-century Greek novelists Greek emigrants to France 20th-century short story writers {{Greece-writer-stub