The HELLENIC SOCIETY OF AUTHORS and Aiolos Editions present a book resulting from the First Meeting on Imaginary Literature, in which the famous (but rather unknown) Greek writer Ioannis-Andreas Zemenos is discussed and examined.
Ioannis-Andreas Zemenos (1911–1970?) showed from an early age a tendency toward adventure, the sea, and literature, and as a teenager he composed his first poems.
After high school in Volos, he studied at the Merchant Marine Academy in Thessaloniki and set sail for the Far East. He fell into the hands of pirates, escaped, and, upon returning to Greece, worked at a shipping agency in Piraeus.
During the Naval Movement of 1944 he was arrested and imprisoned in a concentration camp in Sudan. After the end of the war, he remained in Khartoum until the outbreak of the liberation struggle against the British. In 1953 he returned to Volos, where he wrote the (still) unpublished novel The Rain of the Previous Night, worked at a customs brokerage office, married, and had a daughter.
At the age of 53 he went back to sea, and from that point on his traces are lost. Reliable reports up to the early 1970s place him living in various cities abroad.
He left behind significant unpublished work, about which the following writers contribute texts: Takis Grammenos, F.D. Drakontaeidis, Panos Theodoridis, Dimitris Kalokyris, Lila Konomara, Amanda Michalopoulou, Michalis Modinos, Giorgos-Ikaros Bampasasakis, Iro Nikopoulou, Pavlina Pampoudi, Makis Panorios, Giannis Patilis, Dinos Siotis, Giorgos Skabardonis, and Giorgos Chouliaras, while Klaity Sotiropoulou, Lena Komini, and Vaggelis Germanos also intervene.
The book is illustrated with rare photographic material and manuscripts.
