2015 Decoration by the President of the Greek Republic with the Golden Cross of the Order of Honour.

2014 Readers Prize of PUBLIC Bookstores – With a Faber No 2 pencil.

2014 Honorary Doctorate of Salonika Aristotle University.

2012 Honorary Doctorate of Cyprus University.

2010 Athens Academy Award for her body of work.

2010 Prix Littéraire des Jeunes Européens – Prix des Étudiants Francophones (FRANCE) – Granddad the liar.

2009 Tina’s web shortlisted among five finalists for the Marsh Award (UK).

2008 shortlisted for the “Diavazo” Magazine (GREECE) Best children book Prize – Granddad the liar.

2007 Premio Andersen – Il mondo dell’infanzia (ITALY) – Wildcat under glass.

2005 Prix des Embouquineurs (FRANCE) – Tina’s web.

Nominated (2004/2009/2015) for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature by the Hellenic Authors Society and IBBY Greece.

Nominated for the 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Award by IBBY Greece.

2003 “Diavazo” magazine Best YA Literature Prize (GREECE) – Tina’s web.

2003 Greek IBBY Best YA Prize (GREECE) – Tina’s web.

2002 Premio letterario Giuseppe Acerbi (ITALY) – Achilles’ fiancée.

1993 Children’s Literature State Prize (GREECE) – Theatre for children.

1969 Horn Book Honor List selection (USA) – Wildcat under glass.

1968 ALA Notable Book selection (USA) – Wildcat under glass.

Batchelder Award was granted for the translation to English and publishing in the United States of Wildcat Under Glass (1970), Petros' War (1974), and The Sound of the Dragon's Feet (1980). Tina's Web) won the Greek IBBY prize for the best book for older children, and Alki Zei has been nominated as a candidate for the 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature. Her teenage novel Constantina and her spiders (a.k.a.

Her books have been translated into numerous languages. This was followed by a series of books for children, and in 1987 by her first novel for adults, Achilles Fiancee. Wildcat Under Glass), (1963) was inspired by her childhood spent in Samos and is semi-autobiographical.

Her first novel, The Tiger in the Shop Window (a.k.a. During her early years at junior high school she started writing plays for puppet theatre. That time she stayed in Paris, returning only after the dictatorship fell.Īlki Zei took up writing very young. In 1964 she and her family returned to Greece, but they all left again when the junta seized power in 1967. From 1954 to 1964 she lived in the Soviet Union as a political refugee. She studied in the philosophy school of Athens University, the Drama School of the Athens Odeion, and in the screenwriting department of the Moscow Cinema Institute.

Petros' War by Alki Zei