Alki Zei
Writing
Biography
Alki Zei (Greek: Άλκη Ζέη) (December 15 – February 27, 2020) was a Greek novelist and children's writer. Zei was born in Athens. She studied in the philosophy school of Athens University, the Drama School of the Athens Odeion, and in the screenwriting department of the Moscow Cinema Institute. From 1954 to 1964 she lived in the Soviet Union as a political refugee. In 1964 she and her family returned to Greece, but they all left again when the junta seized power in 1967. That time she stayed in Paris, returning only after the dictatorship fell. Alki Zei took up writing very young. During her early years at junior high school she started writing plays for puppet theatre. Her first novel, The Tiger in the Shop Window (a.k.a. Wildcat Under Glass), (1963) was inspired by her childhood spent in Samos and is semi-autobiographical. This was followed by a series of books for children, and in 1987 by her first novel for adults, Achilles Fiancee . Her books have been translated into numerous languages. Her teenage novel Constantina and her spiders (a.k.a. Tina's Web) won the Greek IBBY prize for the best book for older children, and Alki Zei was nominated as a candidate for the 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature. The Mildred L. Batchelder Award was granted for the translation to English and publishing in the United States of Wildcat Under Glass (1970), Petros' War (1974), and The Sound of the Dragon's Feet (1980).
Known For
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The Liar Grandpa
The unforgettable children's series of ERT by Alki Zei. The adaptation of the classic novel by Alki Zei, about two sisters, Melia and Myrto, and an embalmed wildcat, or kaplan as they called it, at the time of the Metaxas dictatorship. In Samos of 1936, the girls, along with a grandfather who is constantly telling stories and a cousin, a student from Athens, will play the “game of the kaplan”, the stuffed wildcat locked inside a showcase in the house’s parlour.
Wildcat Under Glass
A cinematic journey through the tumultuous life and prolific works of Greek novelist Alki Zei. A life that encapsulates Greece’s entire 20th century history and writings that have received international acclaim and continue to be honored, touching generation upon generation of readers. The film is based predominantly on the verbal testimonies of Alki Zei, but also on those of her sister, Eleni Kokkou, and her dear friends and fellow travellers, film director Manos Zacharias and poet Titos Patrikios.