Matsis Hatzilazarou

Matsi (Maria – Loukia) Hatzilazarou, daughter of Kleon and Virginia, was born in Thessaloniki. During the First World War, she left with her family for the South of France and subsequently for Rome. She returned to Greece in 1919. Two years later, the family settled in Athens and Matsi began private tuition, which ceased shortly afterwards due to her father’s financial ruin. In 1931, she married Karl Surman, of Bavarian origin. Her marriage broke down five years later. During that period, she worked at Karapanos’s ‘Folk Arts’ shop. In 1934, her parents died. She married for a second time in 1937, to the agronomist and landscape architect Spyros Tsausis, from whom she separated a year later; and from 1939 to 1943 she was married to the poet Andreas Embeirikos. She was also linked to the poet Andreas Kampas, Pablo Picasso’s nephew Javier Villato (from 1946 to 1954, a period during which she lived in Paris on a scholarship from the French Institute) and Cornelius Castoriadis (1957–1958).

In 1958 he returned to Athens and worked for the Greek National Tourism Organisation until 1964. She then returned to Paris, where she worked at the Varagis store there. From 1973 until the end of her life, she lived in Athens and worked in the public relations department of the Emporiki Bank. She made her literary debut in 1944 with the poetry collection May, June and November under the pseudonym Matsi Andreou. Her complete written works comprise four poetry collections and publications in literary journals.