Nana Isaia

Isaia spent a year studying in London after secondary school, then trained in painting at the Free School of Fine Arts in Athens from 1958 to 1962. She participated in group exhibitions and held her first solo exhibition at the Ora gallery in 1974. Writing developed alongside that visual practice: her first poetry collection appeared in 1969, and Μορφή (Form), published in 1980, received the second State Poetry Prize in 1981.

Her literary work expanded into prose, essays, criticism and translation. She translated authors including Sylvia Plath and T. S. Eliot, bringing other literary voices into Greek while developing her own. Radio programmes on the First Programme in 1988–1989 and 1992–1994 extended this engagement with spoken language. She belonged to the Society of Authors and organisations concerned with literary translation and international writing. In later years, she published criticism in To Vima as well as contributing to literary periodicals. She died in Athens in 2003. Her paintings entered the National Gallery through a bequest that year, while the novella Διαχωριστική γραμμή (Dividing Line) appeared posthumously in 2004. These surviving books and artworks preserve the parallel paths of her working life.

Ποιήματα 1969 (Poems 1969) marks her first published collection. Μορφή (Form), 1980, belongs to a poetic practice attentive to experience, memory and the shaping of a speaking voice. Her prose also asks how a person’s inner life becomes a story. Οι διαφορετικές εκδοχές του παιχνιδιού (The Different Versions of the Game), 1990, places the idea of competing versions in its very title. Her statement that her protagonists are creators gives a useful point of entry into the relationship between making art and representing a life.

Painting formed a distinct part of that practice. The National Gallery records Κονστρουκτιβιστικά (Constructivist Compositions), 1972, in oil and wood on hardboard, and Γεωμετρικά κονστρουκτιβιστικά (Geometric Constructivist Compositions), 1973, in oil on canvas. Their materials and organised forms show another means of construction alongside literary composition. Translation required a further negotiation between voices, with the translator making a foreign text available in Greek. Διαχωριστική γραμμή (Dividing Line), 2004, follows a close circle meeting to play bridge. Published after her death, it adds a later reading experience to the body of work completed during her lifetime.

Isaia’s books and the National Gallery’s bequest records keep poetry, fiction and painting within the same cultural conversation. Her translations also belong to the history of reading foreign literature in Greek. The short statement quoted here focuses attention on a creator as a character, rather than identifying every narrator with the author.

Try the page’s original miniature story: «Η Άννα σχεδιάζει μια πόρτα». Change it to «Σχεδιάζω μια πόρτα» and continue with θέλει/θέλω from the passage. Identify the narrator in each version and add one sentence of your own. The invented artist gives you a concrete way to hear the change of narrative voice. B1 describes the supported Modern Greek activity, linking verb person, narrative voice and an imagined artist.

• Μορφή received the second State Poetry Prize in 1981.
• Her first solo painting exhibition was at Ora in 1974.
• Dividing Line appeared in 2004, after her death.