Menis Koumantareas

Menis Koumandareas (1931-2014), one of the most significant authors of the second post-war generation of Greek prose, was born in Athens. In 1949, he graduated from the Model High School of Athens without pursuing systematic university studies. He worked for twenty years in shipping and insurance companies. In 1961, he began collaborating with the magazine "Tachydromos," and in 1962, he made his literary debut with the short story collection "Ta Michanakia" ("The Little Machines"). During the dictatorship, he participated in the resistance publication "18 Texts" and was tried three times under the "obscene publications" law for his work "To Armenisma" ("The Sailing")—however, in 1972, he received the DAAD scholarship for Berlin. After 1982, he devoted himself exclusively to writing and translation; he translated works by Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allan Poe, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among others. He was awarded the State Prize for Short Story (1967, for "To Armenisma") and twice the State Prize for Novel (1976, for "Viotechnia Yalikon" ["Glass Factory"] and 2002, for "Dyo Fores Ellinas" ["Twice a Greek"]), as well as the Ouranis Foundation Prize from the Academy of Athens for his entire body of work in 2008. He was a founding member of the Hellenic Authors' Society. In the 1980s, he served on the board of the Greek National Opera. His books have been translated into thirteen languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Albanian, Turkish, Dutch, Russian, Estonian, Latvian, Hebrew, and his short stories into various others (Chinese, Czech, etc.). His most translated book abroad is "Kyria Koula" ("Mrs. Koula"), followed by "Viotechnia Yalikon" ("Glass Factory"), "I Myrodia Tous Me Kanei Na Klaio" ("Their Scent Makes Me Cry"), "I Fanela Me To Ennia" ("The Jersey with the Nine"), and "O Oreos Lochagos" ("The Handsome Captain"), according to the website www.ekebi.gr. He passed away unexpectedly: he was found murdered in his home in Kypseli under unclear circumstances in the early hours of December 6, 2014.