Lili Bita, longtime cultural affairs correspondent of the Hellenic News of America, will be inducted into the Hellenic Authors Society at a ceremony in Athens on November 26 in recognition of her lifetime achievement as a writer, performer, and ambassador of Greek culture. The Society has numbered among its members Nikos Kazantzakis and other major Greek writers. The honor is especially rare for a Diaspora writer who has lived and published largely abroad.
Lili is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, fiction, memoir, and translation. Her own work has been translated into several languages, and has been widely anthologized. In addition, she has offered master classes and held residencies in the art of Greek drama at more than fifty American colleges and universities. Her most recent book is The Storm Rider (Somerset Hall Press, 2012), about which the poet Jane Augustine has written: “Lili Bita has more power to tell the truth than even the Greek classes of poetry and drama . . . she is Electra herself.”
The Hellenic News offers its special congratulations to Lili, and also to her husband, Professor Robert Zaller, who will be inducted as an honorary member of the Hellenic Authors Society in recognition of his own work as a critic, historian, and translator of Greek literature.
