Wildcat Under Glass

About Alki Zei

Alki Zei born in Athens in 1923 studied philosophy at the University of Athens drama at the Athens Conservatory and screenwriting at the Moscow Cinema Institute. She got her start in publishing by writing YA short stories for the Greek magazine Neaniki Foni. During the Second World War she was actively involved in the struggle for freedom and democracy and against the German occupation of Greece. Because of it she became a political refugee in the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1964. Three years later she was exiled once again but this time to Paris France. From 1974 until her death in 2020 she lived in Athens. Zei penned books for mostly children and YA audiences but her unassuming and straightforward method of writing along with her narrative skills has allowed her work to be enjoyed by all ages. Her books Achilles Fiancée Wildcat Under Glass and Petros War are among the best-sold titles in contemporary Greek literature. Besides being a prolific writer she was also a translator of children's books from French Italian and Russian and was the Greek translator of authors Gianni Rodari and Vera Panova. Karen Emmerich is a translator of Greek poetry prose and drama and an associate professor of comparative literature at Princeton University. She received the National Translation Award in 2019 for Ersi Sotiropouloss What's Left of the Night the Best Translated Book Award in 2017 for Eleni Vakalos Before Lyricism and the PEN America Poetry in Translation Award in 2014 for Yannis Ritsoss Diaries of Exile. She has translated books by Miltos Sachtouris Margarita Karapanou Christos Ikonomou Kallia Papadaki and others.