Maria Lampadaridou Pothou (born October 15, 1933) is a Greek novelist, poet and playwright. She has received awards and recognition from the Academy of Athens and other literary societies. Biography Early years She was born in Myrina, Lemnos. From an early age, she developed an interest in literature. When she finished her elementary studies in Lemnos, she was appointed as a clerk to the Provincial court of the island by written exams. 1959 she published her first poetry collection, Encounters. Odysseus Elytis sent her a letter with his own positive review of the book, calling her a “fellow poet”. While she worked, she took exams at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in order to complete a degree by distance learning. In 1963 she received her degree and settled in Athens permanently. Two years later she was granted a fellowship from the French Government to study Theatre at the Sorbonne University, Paris. Paris In September 1966, she traveled to Paris and settled at a student residence in the Quartier Latin. While she was there, she was introduced to the modern movements of Western philosophy, such as nihilism and the Theatre of the Absurd, as well as writers of existential agony, such as Albert Camus, Kafka, Samuel Beckett. The work of Beckett, especially, had a profound effect on her. His 1967 play "Oh les beaux jours" staged at Odeon Theatre in Paris deeply influenced her to ask him permission to translate it into Greek. From then on they started a long lasting correspondence. She became a translator of his works but she also wrote an essay book titled “Samuel Beckett, The experience of the existential grief” which was published on 1983 with an important preface by Jacque Lacarrière with good reviews and republished updated on 2016 by Enastron Publishers. Having received a scholarship at Sorbonne she attends Theatre lessons, it was then that she wrote her first absurd theatre play. Her poetic surrealistic play “Glass Box” translated in French by Ann Creushez, along with two other of her plays “Small Cage” and “The Rafts”, were pre-approved by Odeon Theatre. Unfortunately, they were never staged because of the incidents of May 1969, in Paris. In June 1967 she received her diploma for Theatrical Studies and returned to Greece. Later, her theatrical play The Glass Box impressed Samuel Beckett who send to his director Jean Lui Barreau. Years of dictatorship, the