Born in 1947, Maria Laina is an award-winning Greek poet. She read Law at the University of Athens, but she did not practice it, and has worked instead as a translator, critic, screenwriter, copy editor, professor of Greek and radio producer. She belongs to the so-called “Genia tou 70”, which is a literary term referring to Greek authors who began publishing their work during the 1970s. She was awarded the Greek National Prize for Poetry for her collection Rose coloured fear (Rodinos Fovos) in 1993, and the Cavafy Prize, together with Giorgos Markopoulos, in 1996, as well as the Ourani Foundation Academy of Athens Award in 2014. Her work includes nine poetic collections, eleven drama books, five books of prose and a number of translations in Greek (Ezra Pound, T.S Eliot, Katherine Mansfield, Charlotte Bronte, Patricia Highsmith, Somerset Maugham et al.). Her poetry has been translated into English, French, Spanish, German, Swedish and other languages. She lives and works in Athens.